We've had one for the last 5 or 6 years now and 3 kids later (youngest is now 4) it's held up great. It's a wool rug from Pottery Barn in a medium moss green with dark beige and coral/reddish pattern. It hides stains really well, plus since it is wool, it doesn't really absorb liquids. You just need to clean spills right away so nothing stains. Maybe my kids are great at not spilling/dribbling, but I don't see any problems with having a rug in there.

Anonymous wrote:

It really helps- I use a nail brush with a peroxide- water solution on chunky mess and plain paper towels to blot. If i rub, it definitely grinds in. My rug doesn't stain, and it's a very tight synthetic weave. Eventually it'll go on the patio and I'll bring my Oriental back into the dining room.

How often do you find you need to do that though? Realistically, I know I'm not going to be scrubbing my rug every other night. Right now, our dog does a pretty good job cleaning the hardwoods between visits from the cleaning service

The indoor/outdoor rug is a great idea though.

I've only done it a few times, and never the whole rug. Most everything else has vacuumed r blotted up. The dog takes care of most food drops before they're an issue.

I hated having a run under our dining room table. It was a pain to keep clean. I finally convinced my husband to get rid of it, and we are so much happier without it. Easier to vacuum the floor.

I saw once an indoor/outdoor rug and found that it looked like cheap plastic. is there any indoor/outdoor does not clearly look it came from an oil can?

It really helps- I use a nail brush with a peroxide- water solution on chunky mess and plain paper towels to blot. If i rub, it definitely grinds in. My rug doesn't stain, and it's a very tight synthetic weave. Eventually it'll go on the patio and I'll bring my Oriental back into the dining room.

How often do you find you need to do that though? Realistically, I know I'm not going to be scrubbing my rug every other night. Right now, our dog does a pretty good job cleaning the hardwoods between visits from the cleaning service

The indoor/outdoor rug is a great idea though.

It really helps- I use a nail brush with a peroxide- water solution on chunky mess and plain paper towels to blot. If i rub, it definitely grinds in. My rug doesn't stain, and it's a very tight synthetic weave. Eventually it'll go on the patio and I'll bring my Oriental back into the dining room.

See I think sisal is sort of gross with food. We had a sisal rug under our kitchen table and I found it really hard to get food out. Whenever I rubbed, I just ground the food in more. Maybe if you have a brush it would help.

I have an outdoor sisal- looking Pottery Barn rug and its great. Not as rough as real sisal, and everything washes out. I've needed a small scrub brush to get chunky debris out, but most messes blot up easily. Can hose it off too.

overstock has great indoor/outdoor rugs. They're cheaper too.

One caveat about them is that they aren't the absolute comfiest to walk on, but should be perfect for under a dining room table.

i'm in the market for a new dining room rug right now, precisely because i'm afraid of how messed up the wood floors would get with kids. whereas rugs are cleanable.

the tip about indoor/outdoor rugs is a good one. i liked some of the designs of ballard's indoor/outdoor rugs. are there other good places to look?

I have floor cloths.

Depends on the family. I would not consider it with my kids. I'm thinking of something that we can hose out.

Yes try indoor outdoor rugs. They clean up amazingly. I posted this the other day, but I spilled an entire bottle of red wine on the rug and it hosed right out. No stains whatsoever. So yeah that rug could live through anything that kids throw at it.

yes it's fine. I think it would strange without one. Just get one that's dark and multicolored and not too expensive. We have one (bought on clearance at PB that we don't care if it gets dirty).

Am I crazy to even be contemplating this?

I feel like our dining room needs something to pull everything together, and an area rug over the hardwoods would do the trick. We eat in there every single day though, and our kids are 2 and 4. Bad idea, right?