My love for oriental rugs began as a teenager in high school. I used to help my father in his upholstery by moving furniture for his clients. Many of these clients had beautiful oriental rugs in their homes and I soon began collecting them myself. By the age of 20, I had opened my own rug store and have been buying, selling, cleaning, and pricing rugs ever since. My clients mean a lot to me and I hate to see people make a bad deal by investing in an oriental rug. This guide is meant to help you on your journey to find the perfect oriental rug for your home without overpaying or getting ripped off.
A client’s story
Years ago, I sold one of my rugs to another rug dealer in the area. Several months later, one of my clients came in with the same rug to clean it. I told him that he had recently sold that rug to another dealer. His home decorator had taken her to that rug salesman to find a new rug for his home. This rug dealer sold you the rug for $3,000. I only asked for $1500 when I was in my store. Although this experience was unfortunate for my client who said he would never go back to that dealer, I use it as a lesson to tell people how important it is to do your research before investing in an oriental rug.
Don’t be fooled by “Going Out of Business” signs
On my way to work and back, I pass another oriental rug store. For the past three years, they’ve had the same “Closing for Business,” “Clearance Out,” and “Everything MUST Go” signs hanging in their store windows. They obviously aren’t going to close or those signs would have been gone two years ago! When you see signs like these for more than a few months, they should serve as red flags. These sellers will try to tempt you with “discount prices” and claim that you are getting the best deal because they have to get rid of their items. this is false. Oriental rugs are an investment and unless you are experienced and have done your research, you should be careful when buying from stores like these.
So how do you know if an oriental rug is really “handmade”?
It can be difficult for a beginner to tell if they are looking at a handmade or machine made rug. Here are some tips you can follow that will help you make the distinction.
Follow this step-by-step guide to determine if you have a handmade piece or a machine-made rug.
Steps
1. Look on the back of the mat for the weave. Look for white, red, or blue horizontal (towards the edge) lines of foundation threads. These threads are called western threads. You may see partial wefts that go only an inch or so and are then covered by the wool knots, but it is important that these threads are horizontal to the fringe. Sometimes the horizontal threads run from one side (bound edge) of the rug to the other side. The horizontal row of knitting may not be perfectly straight.
2. Look for irregularities in the colored knots on the back of the rug. You may see some areas slightly thicker than others.
3. Now look at the front of the mat. Look at the design carefully. On very rare occasions, the design will be exactly the same size and shape from one end of the rug to the opposite end. This is especially true of older oriental rugs.
4. You may notice slight color changes by making thick or thin stripes on the mat. This is due to the change in dye of the wool when weaving the rug and how the color of the wool ages with light and atmosphere. These color changes are commonly found in the background color of the rug. These color changes called “abrasion” are common and do not detract from the rug.
5. Sometimes there’s a fabric tag sewn into a corner of the rug that says “Made in Iran” or “Made in India.” You can be relatively sure that this rug is handmade.
6. Handmade rugs are almost always woven with wool pile. Machine-made rugs are often made with a type of nylon or polyester pile.
7. Machine-made rugs are often made with a type of nylon or polyester pile and are generally very evenly woven. On the back of the rug, you may see white woven threads running from one end of the fringe to the other, or you may not see white threads at all. There are generally no irregularities in the weave or pattern, nor will you find any abrasions in the color of the rug.
What size area rug are you looking for?
Another idea to take into account is the size of the rug you are looking for to complete your room. Follow these simple tips to choose a rug size for the look you’re trying to achieve.
When choosing a rug for a living room, the client sometimes places the front legs of the sofa on the rug and places the occasional chair completely on the rug.
A standard area rug size to fit a room is to leave 1 foot. (~0.3048 m) of floor showing all around the carpet. Of course, if you have a larger open-plan room, then the rug should fit the furniture into the space only.
The size of the rug is most important when buying for a dining room. To protect the edges of the rug, you need to measure how far the chairs will be pushed out when the diner is sitting down. You don’t want the legs of the chairs to catch on the edges of the rug. Constantly scraping the edges of your carpet with heavy meat will soon cause damage.
If you’re buying a rug as a feature in your room, perhaps to put under a coffee table, then you’ll want at least 8 inches. (~20 cm) of carpet so that it is visible around the table.
What to do with your new oriental rug
Once you purchase your rug, you may decide to use it as a wall hanging, which is not uncommon. There are several different methods to hang an oriental rug on a wall. My favorite method is to use one or more tack strips which can be found at most major hardware stores for just a few dollars for multiple feet. Many other methods require making a semi-permanent change to the rug, such as sewing loops of fabric to the back of the rug and weaving a pole through it that hangs from wall-mounted hooks, or sewing velcro to the back of the rug. carpet that is glued just more velcro stuck on the wall. These methods work, but they involve a little more work than necessary. Adhesive strips are most commonly used during carpet installation, but this is another very clever way to use them. Follow this step-by-step guide to hanging a rug on a wall.
Steps
1. Decide if you want your rug to hang free (this uses a studded strip across the top and creates a slight billowy effect) or if you want it fully secured to the wall from each side (this uses a studded strip across the bottom). along each edge of the mat and there is no rippling effect). If you want your rug to hang freely, measure the width of the top of the rug you want to hang. If you want to secure it on all sides, measure the top, bottom, and both sides as well. Get this length measured in tack strips.
2. Coat the adhesive strip(s) with a clear finish or paint and allow to dry. This ensures that no acid from the wood tack strips can damage the back of the rug once it is hung.
3. Using a level to make sure the tack strip is straight, hold the strip where the top of the rug will hang and hammer the nails along the length of the tack strip (if hanging heavy rug these nails should line up with the studs behind the carpet). wall that can be found using a “stud finder”). If you’re securing it from each side, repeat this process for the remaining tack strips, making sure to measure where each one needs to go.
4. Lift the rug up to the top strip and press it firmly against the strip (with the help of another person if it is heavy). Use two or three upholstery nails to secure each corner of the rug (and possibly the middle if desired) by driving them through the rug and into the mounted tack strip. Upholstery nails are both functional and decorative, as they secure the carpet to the tack strip and tend to look very fancy depending on which nails you choose to use. If you secure each edge, repeat for the other three edges doing the sides first and doing the bottom last.
Notes on hanging a rug on a wall:
Be careful when handling the tack strips. The thumbtacks only stick out a half inch or so, but they are very sharp!