Hints From Heloise

Dear Heloise: We have an oval-shaped dining table, which has a central pedestal support with four feet coming from the pedestal. Under our dining table we have a “crumb catcher” woven-backed rug to protect the good-quality carpet we have throughout the house.

Our rug is continually in waves and wrinkles. We do change the rug around often, but within a day or two we’re right back to where we started.

Any help you can give us would indeed be appreciated. - Jan Hammett, Indianola, Miss.

A friend of mine had the same problem with a very heavy marble pedestal coffee table. The padding and rug flattened out under the weight of the marble.

She solved the problem by using a large, heavy piece of plywood under the throw rug. The “support” was larger than the dimensions of the pedestal by about 12 inches.

After the area rug was placed over the plywood, she centered the pedestal. The plywood helped keep the pedestal from sinking into the carpeting and the area rug stayed wrinkle-free.

Hopefully, this can also solve your problem. If anyone has any other ideas that work, we’d love to hear from you. - Heloise