Written by Terry Smith

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UK’s best garden rugs: waterproof for outdoor use on the patio reviewed on price and quality

This article was last updated on April 23rd, 2022 at 5:32 am

When my better half first suggested buying a garden rug, I have to admit that I wasn’t completely on board with the idea. You see, to me, rugs were strictly for indoors and I couldn’t get my head around the thought of having one on my decking or patio. Then again, it took me until my mid-20s to try carrot cake for the first time, so let’s just say that experimenting with new things has never been my strongest attribute.

Anyway, long story short, my wife inevitably gets her way and we go about buying a garden rug. Never being one to just buy something without researching, I looked into outdoor rugs in search for the best garden rug for my patio and was surprised at all the options available.

After a bit of deliberation, and deciding that once again my missus was correct, we settled on a synthetic garden rug, and I have to say, after three years of use, I’m still happy with the decision, and can’t believe it took me all this time to invest in one. A good garden rug can really help to transform your patio, gazebo, or decking area, adding an extra touch of class, depth, and comfort, and will make your garden furniture feel like it is part of an outdoor room or dedicated space, rather than being isolated tables and chairs.

The trick is, buying the right one, and to help you with this important decision we have put together this page that includes information you need to know when choosing your outdoor rug, as well as our choices for the best garden rugs based on price and quality, and some other important factors you need to know when buying the best garden rugs which are as follows-

Best garden rugs for the patio in the UK – editor picks:

Best overall garden rug: Nourison Aloha garden rug – with the right combination of durability, comfort, and price.
Best large rug: Home Dynamix large garden rug– when you consider quality and price.
Most waterproof garden rug: Modern Style outdoor rug – so easy to mop up spills.
Best small garden rug: Nuloom marine hand hooked rug – The comfort this small rug provides makes it worth the extra you pay for it.
Best value: Paco outdoor rug – A good sized, good quality, outdoor rug for less than 25 pounds. What’s more to say?

What you need to know when buying the best garden rugs for your patio

In the following sections you’ll find lots of helpful information that’ll guide you in the right direction, and make buying the best outdoor rugs a much easier task. Some of this is just common sense, but we still think that you’ll find information here that will be new and of interest to you. Let’s start by taking a look at the different materials you can choose from…

Material

While traditional natural fibres like cotton and wool are the ‘go-to’ choice for many things, they are definitely not the best choice for garden rugs and should be avoided.

However, that doesn’t mean that you have no choice but to go for synthetic fibres, and there are some natural choices that make excellent outdoor rugs. Good natural options are seagrass, jute, hemp, bamboo, and sisal, but although they are fairly hard wearing, these materials can’t match synthetic fibres for longevity and easy maintenance.

My honest opinion though, is that you can’t beat synthetic materials for garden rugs. They are much easier to clean than natural fibres, will not be damaged by the weather as quickly, won’t soak up as much moisture and therefore be less likely to have problems with mould or rot, and are generally cheaper to buy.

It can be tempting to go for natural fibres as they are generally softer and look great at first. But, as the following photo shows, they can start to look a little worn after a while, especially if you have pets.

Synthetic materials to look out for are polypropylene, acrylic, polyester, and nylon. Out of these, polypropylene is the one you’re most likely to come across as it is very commonly used in garden rug making, thanks to its all-round durability and resistance to mould, UV, and pretty much everything else you can think of. Products like the Home Dynamix large garden rug are great examples of this.

Acrylic is the right choice if you want a really soft feeling under your feet, but not ideal if there’s a lot of foot traffic as these rugs can get crushed, and the same goes for polyester. Nylon, on the other hand, is good for heavy foot traffic and resistant to stains like polypropylene, but will heat up under direct sunlight.

Shape and size

Most outdoor rugs are either square or rectangular shaped, and both of these go with any kind of space, garden furniture style, and setup. As a rule of thumb, you can’t go wrong matching the shape of your garden furniture table with the shape of your garden rug, so square with square and rectangle with rectangle, simple enough huh?.

If you’re looking for something a little different, a circular garden rug can look amazing, but they are usually only found in smaller sizes like with the Nourison Aloha garden rug , and so won’t be appropriate for larger areas as they’d just look dwarfed by their surroundings. Both circular and square rugs can work well with round tables, but rectangular ones not so much. Check out the photo below to see how a small round rug can make a square table look better.

Even with square and rectangular rugs, there are things to think about. For example, the length vs the width of the area that’ll be housing the rug, and whether you’ll be sitting your garden furniture on top of it or not. I find that narrow spaces look great when the rug covers the majority of the area.

If you are planning on having your dining set or some other patio furniture on top of your outdoor rug, you need to think about how it will affect people sitting on the chairs. At the very least, the rug should be large enough for the front legs of each of the chairs to sit comfortably on, but if all four legs will be involved, you should have 24 inches or more from the edge of the table to the edge of the rug to give people enough room to move to and from the table without any problems.

Machine-made or flatweave rug?

If you see in a product’s description or in reviews that a rug is machine made, it doesn’t mean that it is necessarily inferior. It simply means that the use of machines has made it possible to mass produce these rugs and therefore keep the price lower.

Flatweave rugs are also manufactured on power looms just like ones labelled machine-made, so don’t let the name fool you. There is a difference between them though, as there is no thick pile on a flatweave garden rug, and the simple weaving technique tends to make them look and feel a little flatter than traditional rugs, as you can see in this photo-

If you want a bit more luxury, and are willing to pay the extra for it, then a hand hooked rug is probably the thing for you. Hand hooked rugs are easily identified by their wonderful, knobbly appearance, but it can be hard to find one of these rugs made with a material that is suited to being left outdoors. The Nuloom marine hand hooked rug is an exception to that rule, and part of the reason we included it in our reviews.

Colour and pattern

It’s important to choose patterns and colours that go well with your garden furniture and also the overall style of your garden. If you’re not great at figuring that sort of thing out, and believe me when I say that it took me a fair old while to get even slightly good at it, here’s a few tips. Now, obviously there are exceptions to what I’m going to say, and I’m no design expert, but here’s what I’ve found works well. Let’s start with colours.

When choosing colours you should be aware that brighter colours can be used to give the illusion that a smaller space is roomier than it actually is, and darker shades can bring the focus to a smaller area, even giving the feeling of a room without walls in some cases.

Colours that mimic the ground and sky such as greens and light blues can help to create a relaxed and tranquil feeling to your decking or patio, and earthy reds and oranges work well with wooden decking and furniture. Here’s a lovely look:

As for patterns, I’ve earned that plain or very simple patterns are better for more traditional aesthetics, while stripes and more complicated arrangements tend to compliment modern furniture and surroundings. The patterns available for the Balajees USA rugs featured in our reviews are ideal for modern gardens and furniture for just this reason.

Colourfastness (resistance to fading)

When shopping for a garden rug, you’re bound to come across the term colourfast. Basically, all this is referring to is that particular fabric’s ability to resist fading and other distortion such as colours running into each other.

For outdoor rugs, it’s the weather that is the main culprit when it comes to affecting colours. Both UV from the sun’s rays and rain can affect how well the colour of your rug keeps up, so choosing a garden rug that has been created to resist these things is a top priority, and the main reason most people opt for synthetic rugs. Even a low-cost synthetic rug like the Paco outdoor rug will be highly weather resistant.

Solution dyed rugs tend to hold up better than yarn dyed ones as the colouring is actually added in an earlier part of the manufacturing process rather than it being done after the rug has been made. Then there are various chemicals and treatments that rug makers use to help fight off the effects of the weather, and it’s much easier to get a long-lasting rug for a good price these days than it used to be.

How to maintain a garden rug

Even though garden rugs are made to be extremely resilient and hard-wearing, they can still look worse for wear without a bit of care and attention. With that in mind, here’s how to maintain a garden rug and keep it looking its best for years to come-

Keep up regular maintenance on your rug

One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to maintaining an outdoor rug is to leave it too long between cleaning sessions, and this allows the dirt and grime to build up and settle into the fibres, making it much harder to clean.

Vacuum then clean

After a good shaking, give your rug a quick once over with some kind of vacuum, even a leaf vacuum or blower will do, followed by a scrub down with a bit of good old soap and water, and that’s all you really need to do as regular maintenance. Every 3-4 weeks is more than enough.

Have a decent stain remover at hand for more stubborn marks, but make sure that it won’t affect the colours of your rug. Most synthetic fibres are created to be able to handle stain removers, and even bleach in many cases, but I would still test any product on a small corner section before attacking any larger stains.

If you own a pressure washer – my petrol pressure washer is probably too much for this but my cordless pressure washer would be ideal, you can use it on a low power mode to clean your outdoor rug, and you might not even have to scrub it.

Make sure you dry it thoroughly

After cleaning, or any other time your garden rug gets exposed to a lot of water, take the time to dry it out properly under the sun. Doing this will prevent moisture from soaking right down under the synthetic fibres and potentially being affected by mould growth. This will happen out of sight too, so it’s a good idea to always dry your rug out this way.

 

 

What is the difference between garden rug and a standard indoor one?

The thing that separates a garden rug from a standard indoor one, is the rug’s ability to be left outdoors without being ruined in a short period of time. That means they have to be resistant to UV rays, have excellent water resistance, as well as being not susceptible to mould and mildew, and being easy to clean of course.

Garden rugs are usually used with garden furniture to create an inviting space that mimics the comfort and luxury usually reserved for indoors, and can give your balcony, patio, decking, and other areas of your garden, a new lease of life.

Another common reason that people give when asked why they want a garden rug, is that it’s to stop their surfaces being scratched or otherwise damaged by garden furniture, or even just by foot traffic. Metal furniture is particularly bad for scratching decking and soft paving stones, and a good garden rug can prevent a lot of that.

Best garden rugs reviewed based on vibrant colours, design, quality and price:

So, here’s where we go in-depth on the products, deemed to be the best garden rugs for price and quality available in the UK. We’ve tried to be as objective as possible, and have included any flaws or things we didn’t like about these garden rugs, as well as all the good things. So, hope you enjoy them and find what you’re looking for.

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