Floral designs

Karabagh

Karabagh is a mountainous area in the southern Caucasus. Antique examples dating from the late eighteenth century have a very strong French influence, with all-over floral patterns of roses and flowers, paralleling the Russian court’s obsession with all things French.

Kuba

Kuba, once a major rug weaving centre where some of the finest Caucasian rugs were made, is known for several different styles including typical Caucasian all-over patterns and the use of very attractive floral motifs stylized to the point of being almost geometric in appearance. The leaf-and-twig border is found in many Kuba rugs.

Baku

Baku is the south-eastern Caucasus on the Caspian Sea, near the Persian border. Consequently designs are complex, like those of Persian rugs, and are finely executed with a short pile.

      The use of blue in a wide range of intensities is the dominant characteristic of Baku rugs, ranging from pale blue to the darkest turquoise, on a dark blue or black ground. The patterns are tightly disciplined with a pleasing rhythm about them; one of the most attractive is a field woven with polychrome botehs and serrated-edged octagons, though some designs have botehs only. Sometimes birds and animals are incorporated into borders. The barber’s pole is often used as a border. The long narrow format is typical of Baku rugs, as is the endless field of the central panel.

Seichur

Seichur is located within the Kuba region, near Derbend on the Caspian coast. Rugs from this area have a broad ‘X’ repeated down their field. They often show a clear European influence in their depiction of floral forms. The European influence was probably intended to appeal to the tastes of wealthy nineteenth-century Russians.

Sophisticated rugs were produced for the Ottoman court in the sixteenth century in the urban court workshop environments. Although there was a tradition of large rugs in Turkey from the thirteenth century onwards, equally important is the production from thousands of villages all over this huge country. Turkey has been traversed by numerous different nomadic tribes over the centuries, many of whom have settled relatively recently in village communities. They weave their own distinctive, boldly colored, usually geometric patterns peculiar to their region or tribe. Confusingly in the rug trade, Turkish rugs are often referred to as Anatolian. Anatolia is more or less the area covered by modern Turkey and is a geographical term for the land mass of Asia Minor. The age-old tradition of donating rugs to mosques to celebrate family events meant that it used to be possible to follow the history of Turkish rug weaving. Sadly, the increased demand for rare early rugs has led to many mysterious disappearances or rugs from mosques, with the result that only a handful of rugs remain in the mosques to which they were given. Today nearly all the old rugs in mosques are being replaced by modern machine-made and chemically dyed rugs.

As anyone who has examined the rugs for sale in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul will have discovered, there is still a great number of chemically dyed crudely woven rugs being touted. Every merchant will boast that his rugs are dyed with natural vegetable dyes, but this will frequently prove not to be the case. Take care. The poor quality of the lighting in the Grand Bazaar makes a torch an essential prerequisite if one is to examine the rugs carefully. One or two enlightened shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar do stock rugs which are produced with natural vegetable dyed wool, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

The recent revival of rug weaving in Turkey specifically for the western market was led by the DOBAG project, which begun in 1981, which commissions dyers and weavers skilled in traditional methods to produce top-quality traditional Turkish rugs.

Geometric Turkish Rug Designs

Is your home looking a bit plain? Spice it up with a bold turkish rug design

Bergama

Known as Pergamon in ancient and modern times, Bergama on the Aegean coast is believed to have been the location where Holbein rugs were made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Today the few surviving examples can be seen in museum collections. More accessible are the village-woven pile rugs which are rarely larger than 1.5 x 2.1 (5’ x 7’). Deep madder red dyes dominate the typical palette, but several other colors are used in smaller quantities, and some nineteenth-century examples are found with deep kilim flatweave skirts in plain red with yellow and black finishing stripes at either end. They are quite coarsely woven with fairly thick pile and are rather floppy.

Melas

Just north of Bodrun on the south-west Turkish coast, Melas is best known for its unusual prayer rugs, with their distinctive waisted prayer arch in a head-and-shoulders shape. Madder red is the main color, along with a brightly hued yellow, as well as oranges, tans and small amounts of dark tones, usually with a shade of deep purple. The characteristic size of a Melas rug is around 2.1 x 1.5m (7’ x 5’).

Konya

Konya has the oldest tradition of weaving in Anatolia. Konya rugs typically display powerful simple designs, often in a trellis design, where each compartment is filled with step-hooked polygons. The use of warm yellow is a very strong feature. They are quite coarsely woven, but the weave suits the style of design. The rugs have a strong visual impact, rather in the way Caucasian rugs do.

Mudjur

The settled nomads of Mudjur in central Turkey are best known for their prayer rugs which were woven in prodigious numbers. They are easily recognized by their wide main border which is made of repeating squares containing a floral diamond medallion. The deep madder red mihrab is very common, as are strong yellows and warm lime greens.

Megri

Located in the southernmost tip of western Anatolia, Megri (Makri) rugs are easily recognized by their double-column designs, curiously sometimes known as ‘Rhodes’. The most frequently found are split into two halves, making double columns with different designs on each panel, one of them always containing a toothed lozenge repeating down a central spine. Yellow predominates, as do strong blues and greens.

Yuruk

The Yuruk are unique in that they are the only settled nomads in eastern Anatolia. The rugs are woven with a very good quality wool using a long shaggy pile. The vividly hued colors include violet, yellow ochre, umber, sienna and the more traditional red, blue and green. The designs are based on different renditions of hexagons, medallions, diamonds, and hooked or stepped lozenges, as well as zigzag patterning in both the border and the field.

DOBAG

The DOBAG project (an acronym deriving from the Turkish words for research and development into natural dyes) is largely vision of the textile department of Marmara University in Istanbul. They have been responsible for reintroducing the traditional dyeing and weaving techniques to villages on the Aegean coast in western Turkey since 1981.

All the rugs made under this project are based on antique designs. The colors are produced from natural dyes, and can seem surprisingly bright to eyes used to faded antique naturally dyed rugs or chemically bleached, synthetically dyed rugs, but they are testimony to the great skill of the dyers, as it is difficult to produce colors that are both natural and vibrant. The rugs quickly acquire a lovely patina and so improve with use and age.

The superb DOBAG rugs will still be cherished and enjoyed in a hundred years’ time, and with correct care will remain in excellent condition, because the lanolin produced naturally from the hand-spun wool has not been removed, as occurs when wool is machine spun, as it is with many inferior modern rugs. The lanolin prevents the wool from becoming brittle and thus damaged.

 

Floral Turkish Rug Designs

Ushak

Ushak, which is in west central Turkey, is an ancient commercial carpet-weaving centre, most famous for its ‘star’ and ‘medallion’ patterned rugs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Ushak today produces little of merit, but rugs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries tend to be of very good quality and are highly sough after. The red-ground Ushak displays excellent detailing, both in its endless field design and in the green border, and is highly sophisticated. Designs of heavily stylized linked geometric leaves are frequently found in Ushak rugs.

Of all the centers of rug production in the Orient, none equals Persia (modern-day Iran) for its rich diversity of designs, color and weave. A Persian rug has long been considered as the apogee of everything an exotic oriental rug should be.

As early as the fourteenth century, fine rugs were an integral part of sophisticated Persian court life. Beautifully detailed miniatures show brightly colored geometric patterned rugs as often the sole item of furnishing. The rugs were used to decorate the floors of palaces, mosques and sometimes even garden pavilions.

Ever since Persian rugs first made their appearance in seventeenth-century Europe via the ancient silk route and through ports on Persia’s southern coasts, they have been venerated as objects of great beauty and fine workmanship.

Persian rugs are reflective of Persian wonderful design and architecture.

The ‘golden age’ of the Persian rug spanned the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Persia was conquered by the Safavids in 1499 and it was Shah Tahmasp, crowned in 1514, who was instrumental in setting up royal workshops specializing in the production of textiles and carpets, notably at Kashan, Kerman, Isfahan and Tabriz. Hitherto the weavers in the existing rug workshops had probably been responsible for all aspects of rug design, but in the new court ateliers they often worked with court miniaturists and book illuminators. The miniaturists brought their inherently highly disciplined approach to bear on the composition of the designs, imbuing them with a strong sense of rhythmically controlled patterns whilst retaining a painterly eye. The ensuing designs are astonishingly sophisticated and beautiful to behold. The skilled weaving required to render the finally graduated curves of an arabesque using the asymmetrical Persian knot, a finer knot than the symmetrical or Turkish knot, are a good indication of the consummate art of rug weavers working under the Safavid dynasty.

Symmetrical or Turkish knot

Asymmetrical or Persian knot

But Persian rugs are not just confined to the rarefied world of court ateliers. There is an equally long tradition of rugs being woven by urban workshops, remote villages and nomadic camps. As is to be expected, these rugs are much more direct and simple in coloration and pattern and often smaller than the elegant formality of the court carpets, appealing to a totally different eye.

The early aniline dyes were increasingly used from around 1875 and the early years of the twentieth century, and rugs dating from this period often have a mixture of natural and chemical colors. Whereas the natural colors have kept their vibrancy, the chemical ones have often faded to a dirty grey. The ensuing results have none of the vitality of rugs produced by weavers working to methods and designs passed down through generations.

In many areas of Persia the degenerative qualities of these dyes were noted by the authorities and measures were taken to omit them from rug production, including punitive taxes on their import. Aniline dyes were gradually superseded by the more light-fast chrome dyes which are still widely used today.

Since the mid-1980s there has been a renaissance of interest in traditional methods in Iran. This is because the subtle colors of vegetable dyes, as opposed to the garish colors of poor chemical dyes, are beginning to be appreciated, and there is a general swing towards individual handcraftsmanship after decades of rejection. Vegetable dyes are once again beginning to be used and many weavers are returning to historic patterns.

Floral designs

Floral Rugs are fit for palaces, and also your very own home!

Tabriz

There is a long tradition of rug weaving in Tabriz, a town in north-west Persia. It is best known as a major center of finely woven rugs during the nineteenth-century revival period.

      The knotted-pile carpets produced by a network of town workshops are generally wool, finely woven and are fairly stiff to handle. Not so common are silk rugs including some with metallic thread. A central medallion surrounded by arabesques and floral motifs and corner patterns are frequently found in Tabriz carpets. Hunting scenes are not uncommon. Often the original colors have faded to a browny/coral pink with an ivory ground color. Tabriz are populated with interior decorators, particularly those in pale colors. Modern Tabriz rugs use modern production methods such as chemical dyes and machine-spun wool.

Kerman

Situated in south-east Persia, Kerman was one of the towns where the Safavids set up a court atelier. It has remained an important center of rug production ever since, particularly over the last century.

      It is often hard to pinpoint exactly what constitutes a Kerman design, as the motifs and patters used are typical of many centers of Persian rug production. Floral medallions and corner motifs are popular, as are flowering tree patterns and pictorial hunting designs. Pale washed-out colors such as beige and white are typical.

Kashan

In the Middle Ages, the town of Kashan in west central Persia was the center of the Persian silk textile industry. By the eighteenth century, there was little of any weaving in Kashan. It was not until the revival period that fine rugs once again began to be produced in Kashan, some woolen, some silk, and a number woven with a mixture of wool and silk.

      Typical designs have a central diamond-shaped medallion set in a densely patterned ground featuring arabesques often with spandrels to the corners. A few silk rugs are still produced today including a style known as ‘raised silk Kashan’, in which the design is woven in pile on a flatweave ground, sometimes embossed with metal. These are show pieces and not very practical. There are two typical color palettes of Kashan, one using a strong combination of dark reds and blues (madder and indigo); the other in more subdued pastel hues which are often referred to as ‘blonde’ or ‘white’ Kashans.

Meshed

The principal town in the region of Khorasan in north-west Persia is another place which underwent a renaissance of carpet weaving in the late nineteenth-century revival period. To this day it is still a major center of rug production.

      The rugs tend to be densely patterned with graceful arabesques and either circular of oval medallions with corresponding spandrels in a rich palette of madder reds and blues.

Veramin

Situated just south-east of Teheran, Veramin’s rug-weaving tradition did not really get going until the late nineteenth century.

      The rugs are tightly woven in superb rich colors with quite formal designs, often with large flower-heads and with a beautiful light turquoise color dominating the field patterns. Early Veramin rugs are much sought after as their designs are freer than recent productions. Veramin weavings come in the form of rugs, runners and also kilims.

Saruk

Finely woven small rugs are to be found in Saruk, a town in north-west Persia. The weaving is much admired for its fineness and subtlety of design, which is similar in execution to the equally admired Feraghans. Few Saruk rugs of any size can be found today. The colors of Saruk rugs tend to be gentle. The red dyes can be fugitive, and blue wefts are common.

Bakshaish

The rugs produced at the beginning of the twentieth century in the small village of Bakshaish in north-west Persia were produced in quiet colors which suit modern decorating tastes. They are usually finely woven, with bold open designs.

Bidjar

Rugs made in the area around Bidjar in north-west Persia are the most robust of any oriental rugs, because of the weavers’ characteristic technique of beating the weft into place with a long iron bar, which is inserted between the warps during weaving then pounded against the wefts. The designs are usually typical nineteenth-century Persian in style and produced in a rectilinear format. Red or cream grounds combined with a strong light or dark blue are typical. Because of their great strength (when wet a Bidjar is impossible to fold), they are suitable for areas of heavy wear in the home, such as hallways or landings. Bidjar rugs were made in a range of sizes, and can be very large.

Afshar

The Afshar are a Turkish-speaking people originally from Azerbaijan, of whom some are now settled and a few are semi-nomadic. To this day their designs still clearly show a strong Azerbaijan, as well as a discernible Caucasian, influence.

The multiple border designs are repeated in many Afshar rugs. The weavers do not weave from a pattern in front of them, but instead rely on their visual memory, incorporating stylized flowers and animals motifs and symbols in a great variety of colors. Afshar rugs are slightly more subdued than those of the Qashqai, who are their neighbors in western Persia. Afshar rugs are square in shape with a deeply ribbed back.

Mahal

The large open designs using traditional motifs that feature in many Mahal rugs are reminiscent of Ziegler rugs, but they are more affordable. Natural dyes continued to be used on Mahal rugs for a longer period than on other Persian rugs. Workshops run by European firms made many of the older Mahals.

Kirmanshah

The town of Kirmanshah is in north-west Persia, and should not be confused with the similar-sounding weaving town of Kerman, which is in the south-west. Kirmanshah rugs were at their best during the nineteenth-century revival period, and were not produced in great number, which is reflected in their high price. Fairly typical are cypress tree motifs and pinky-red backgrounds. Another typical Kirmanshah style is the ‘garden’ or ‘compartment’ design.

Modern Persian rugs

The Miri Iranian Rugs company was the first major producer of new rugs in Iran to use vegetable dyes, in rugs woven to high standards and incorporating traditional designs, some adapted from traditional motifs but still pleasing to the eye. This family firm based in Teheran has been producing rugs based on nineteenth-century examples since 1987. Miri represent the beginning of an important revival, producing rugs that have not appeared for more than a hundred years.

 

Geometric designs

Whoever thought that geometry could be so beautiful

Heriz

Heriz is a generic term which is used to describe rugs made in the town of Heriz in north-west Persia and the surrounding villages.

      One of the best and most recognizable of all Persian rug types, Heriz rugs have a very direct appeal, being extremely decorative in design. Many are coarsely woven and are consequently very robust. Bold exuberant geometric designs with a dominant central medallion or overall designs with a field of geometrically stylized floral forms are typical. Bright colors: brick reds, burnt orange and tangerine – all shades that come from madder dyes – and blues predominate, set off by contrasting shades of beige, ivory and yellow ochre. The bold wide borders are a defining characteristic, consisting of flowerheads that are found in many variations: angular, geometric and naturalistic.

      Heriz rugs are extremely popular with the western taste and are relatively easy to acquire. Interestingly they are more in demand in the West than in Persia, as Persians tend to go for a slightly finer woven rug.

Ziegler

Highly sought after, Ziegler or Sultanabad rugs are hard to find and as a result very expensive. They typically feature great open designs uncharacteristic of other Persian nineteenth-century rugs. The best known is a pattern composed of large detached floral motifs scattered throughout the field. The innovation of expanding small detailed designs into a much larger format produced the famous Ziegler look which is always bold with the use of strong motifs, particularly palmettes, beautifully spaced on a plain field. Yellow, blue, green and madder and coral red are the most typical colors. Less typical is the highly detailed field.

Feraghan

Feraghans are regarded as among the finest Persian rugs to be woven in the nineteenth century. They are finely woven with good quality wool and sophisticated designs, they are also very durable, which helps to explain their popularity.

      Feraghans have distinctive ‘showing-off’ characteristics. They typically wide borders are often magnificent, with small guard stripes and a pistachio green ground color. The copper vitriol used to make the green color has a corrosive effect which can be felt if one runs one’s hand over the rug, where the pile has been corroded down. This explains the etched appearance of many Feraghans. Reds and a golden yellow are also typical. The centre is usually composed of an all-over tightly controlled Herati pattern composed of what seems to be a floral design, but on closer inspection usually reveals itself to be a geometrical motif.

Hamadan

Hamadan rugs are instantly recognizable due to the high proportion of plain camel hair used in the outer border. The designs are similar to those of Caucasian rugs made to the north of Iran, with medallion and anchor designs in many different permutations being typical. Many Hamadan rugs come in the form of runners, and a few large rugs were made. Hamadans have long been popular in the American market.

Qashqai

The Qashqai from the Fars district in south-west Persia weave very fine semi-geometric designs, often filling the field of their rugs with animals and flowers. The sophistication of their weavings is particularly impressive if one remembers that all their work is produced by tent dwellers living in harsh desert conditions. There are a rich variety of types produced by the tribe including the world of the animals – lions, tigers, dogs, birds, as well as thousands of flowers. Colors of deep madder red, rich golden yellow and ultramarine are all loved by the Qashqai weavers.

Baluch

Confusingly, the Baluchi tribes do not originate from the area called Baluchistan, which lies south-west of what is now Pakistan. The finest Baluchi rugs come from the large Afghan-Persian border district, north of Baluchistan.

      The majority of Baluch production was small rugs easily transportable by this nomadic people. Prayer rugs with a mihrab field and a tree-of-life pattern are one of the best-known of Baluch designs. The typical combination of dark colors, predominantly deep tones of red and blue, but also black (produced by using natural wool darkened with indigo dye) and brown, with small amounts of white looked particularly effective in the dark Baluchi tent interiors.

      Large Baluchi rugs are quite rare, because as nomadic tent dwellers, the looms had to be small and easily transportable.

Gabbehs

Persian gabbehs are made by the nomadic people in southern Persia. Although crude, they appeal to collectors of tribal weaving because of their simplicity and naïve charm. The designs of contemporary gabbehs date back to the nineteenth century, demonstrating the respect shown by oriental weavers for past traditions. Gabbehs typically may display a strong graphic quality of design, zigzag borders and simple color use.

The first consideration having purchased a rug is where is it going to be displayed. Is it going to be subject to strong sunlight, is it going to be walked over incessantly, is it to be used a wall hanging, or draped across a table, are chairs going to be dragged across it and so on. All of these are important factors which must be taken into account. Too much sunlight over any length of time will inevitably fade chemical and natural dyes with irretrievable results. Fading as a result of sunlight is a gradual process and it is usually too late to do anything about it by the time one becomes aware of what has happened.

Area rugs should be a lifetime investment, there should be no reason to make them end up like this!

If the wear and tear of human feet can have a detrimental effect on a rug it does not take much imagination to realise what effect heavy furniture or dining room chairs frequently being pushed in and out can have. The solution to this widespread problem is to place the legs of furniture, particularly those with metal castors, on small glass discs thus protecting the pile. A good underlay is a prerequisite: not only does it reduce wear by taking up the unevenness of the floor, it also stops any movement on bare floors. Very few underlays on the market are effective. The most effective are made in Germany by Fulde Stop. One is thin and slightly adhesive on both sides and is best suited to lightweight rugs, holding them on all types of flooring, it is also suitable for fitted rugs. The other is thicker and relies on the weight of the rug to stay in place. Fulde Stop is available from the better rug shops.

Another commonly encountered problem is the curling of selvedges and corners. This is caused by extra tension being placed on the outer warps during the weaving and can be rectified by sewing cotton or jute webbing under the selvedges. A more long-term solution is to use a competent restorer to sew the edges flat by inserting extra weft threads which straighten out the curling edges.

If the rug is question is too fragile or rare to be used as a floor covering, a good way of displaying it is to treat it as a picture and hang it on the wall. For hanging stronger rugs velcro-mesh is advisable. Two-inch (five centimeter) wide velcro can take the weight of a large and heavy rug. It is wise to ensure that the rug is hanging with the warp vertical and the pile laying downwards, the warp taking the weight. The velcro is tacked onto a flat length of wood which is fixed to the wall.

The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century fashion for rugs being draped over tables deserves to be more widely employed. Visually it is extremely effective and is an excellent way of using rug in slightly ropey condition that might not stand up to heavy foot traffic. Silk rugs not robust enough to hang by their own weight should be mounted on a frame like a painting.

Cleaning

Needless to say there are all sorts of myths about how rugs should be cleaned. If in any doubt it is always worth asking a reputable dealer for advice, no matter how trivial your question may seem. All dealers can offer a specialist cleaning service, and will also advice on the cost of the work before proceeding. Dry-cleaning is detrimental to wool rugs as the chemicals remove too much of the natural oil from the fibres. It is best to wash them in relatively cool softened or deionised water with a mild liquid soap and leave them to dry of their own accord. On the other hand it is always advisable to have silk rugs dry-cleaned. But this should only be undertaken with the advice of an expert rug cleaner.

It is safe to vacuum rugs, as long as one is not to rough. Fragile rugs should be vacuumed with a small dustette Hoover with a nylon net fixed over the opening. Beware of vacuums with beaters as they are potentially damaging. If a rug is sent to a specialist cleaner, he will beat it to dislodge dirt and dust before embarking on the cleaning. This is done by slowly turning the rug over and over in a huge drum.

Inevitably in a family house there is bound to be the off accident involving beverages or animal pets. Put a thick white towel under the wet are and dose it with water, having first ensured that the dyes are fast. This is done by dabbing each area of color one by one with a piece of cotton wool. If any color transfers on to the cotton wool the colors will run: seek expert advice. If the colors are fast the rug should then be left to dry in its own good time, lifted off the floor so that air can pass beneath it.

Area Rug care should not be a hard task, repairing it early will save you from a big job later on.

Repairs

Repairs are a highly emotive area. To many people a worn rug couple with a bit of fading has the appeal of faded grandeur. But if the life of a damaged rug is to be extended, repairs are necessary, taking into account the value of the rug in question. Obviously there are occasions when a rug is too far gone to warrant an extensive outlay on repairs. Then there is the eternal debate between ‘restoration’ and ‘conservation’. ‘Restoration’ will involve re-weaving and re-knotting; conservation is more a question of mounting the rug onto a backing if it is particularly fragile, thus preventing the damage from getting worse. There are a handful of specialist firms that can be trusted.

Storage

Never store a rug that is damp or dirty. It may seem sensible to roll a knotted rug with the pile inside, but it is potentially damaging to the foundation weave and furthermore is liable to damage the pile. Plastic of polythene should never be used to wrap a rug in because they can trap moisture. To prepare a rug for storage it should be wrapped in acid-free tissue paper on both sides before being rolled in a white cotton or lined cloth (cotton and linen are distasteful to moths and most insects). A rug should be stored in a dry place with plenty of moth repellant such as strong herbs like cedarwood and should be inspected every three months or so. Do not trust removal companies to store rugs.

Before I start listing the three major points on using an area rug as decoration, it needs to be noted that all people placing rugs down in their home should use a rug pad. Basically what a rug pad does is provides a stable, non-slip base for your rug which keeps it in place. A rug is slippery at the bottom, and unless it provides a non-slip base under it alone, every rug in your home should have one. A rug pad also allows your rug to maintain a longer life as the bottom won’t wear out due to excessive use. Once your rugs are all protected, you can be at ease when people walk in your home as your rug(s) won’t cause any accidents, etc.

Rug Placement

It’s important to measure every centimeter of where you are going to be placing your rugs because if you don’t, there may be a bit of awkwardness when you step back to take a look at the room where you’ve just placed a new rug in. The standard sizes for area rugs are: 2’x3’, 3’x5 and 4’x6’, so the measuring shouldn’t be too tedious, just a necessity.

A lot of people use a rug so that it can be used as a base for something larger such as a bed, couch, etc. Normally a small to mid-sized rug is used in this situation. These types of area rugs may also be used in a kitchen, bathroom, dining room, and even a hallway. Homes without rugs are boring so adding style to your home by using area rugs will spice it up a lot.

Many times one will wonder about larger sized area rugs- well there aren’t many larger ones to choose from as rugs that increase in size usually decrease in availability, but there are always ways to customize a rug to your liking- it will just cost a bit more. Common sizes for larger area rugs are: 6’x9’, 8’x10’, 9’x12’ and 12’x’15’. These types of rugs are normally used in larger rooms such as a living room

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Area Rugs can act like a room's ribbon that ties all the features together

Before deciding on which rug style you are going to choose, always measure and make sure you have adequate space for them. Many people get all excited when they purchase a beautiful rug and then find out that they cannot use it because they haven’t measured. Always make sure that you aren’t covering a floor vent, so put that into consideration when measuring, as well as doors too. If a door gets caught on a rug that is too fluffy, etc, it would not be a good idea to keep the rug there, so it’s better to not even place the rug there in the first place.

Open Spaces

Since we have already discussed the placement of area rugs, let’s talk leniency shall we? There are many places in one’s home where the area is bare, so placing “something” there, in our case a rug, will change the way a room looks 100 %. It’s amazing on how well a rug can add elegance to a room that really doesn’t have much in it. For instance, a room that doesn’t have much furniture in it would be the prime candidate for an area rug. Even rooms with furniture in them would benefit better with an area rug in them, but bare rooms need some sort of style in them.

If your bare room has a fireplace in it, place a rug in front of the fireplace as it will really compliment the fireplace. A rug also looks good in front of a bookcase or a wall for that matter. Rugs that are used in open areas give the room more personality and certainly add more beauty to it.

Always remember that if there is a certain room in your home that has a lot of traffic (a lot of walking), it is best to purchase durable area rugs for those parts of your home. Some rugs may look pretty but they aren’t too durable, so keep that in the back of your mind when going rug shopping.

Adding Elegance to your Wall

Not only does a rug add style to the floors in your home, they also can complement the walls in your home. People may think that placing a rug up on a wall is weird- but it’s not. When using an area rug as wall-are, make sure there is enough room on both sides, because you most certainly don’t want to cover a whole wall up, that just looks tacky. Attach the rug to the wall with large brads, so that the rug will hold up for long periods of time.

Insulation, warmth, and beauty all come from a lovely wall rug

This is popular in the southwest, but it’s gradually increasing in the north. Many people who live in the mountains place rugs up on their walls. If you have a window that shows the inside of your home, placing a rug on the wall that is in back of that window will really look nice from the outside. Like I said before, it will add more personality to your home.

Once you have done these three things, your home will definitely look nicer. There are a lot more things you can do to spice up your home, but start with these three things. A stylish home is definitely a happier one. Enjoy!

From an antique oriental woven rug purse to a Turkish rug mouse pad, there are plenty of goodies that can be created out of a rug. While rugs are normally made to be walked on or just looked at for their elegant beauty, they have many different purposes. We’ll first start with a purse, and while woman will benefit from these more so than men will, it’s interesting to see how beautiful these purses actually are.

Purses can be made out of a lot of different materials. If you go into a Macy’s or a Sears, you will end up finding hundreds of different purses, but it’s the ones made out of rugs that will probably catch your eye, and they aren’t even that expensive. Basic rug purses go for about $20.00, and they can be bought in stores, as well as online—these rugs are normally Amish made, but they are still elegant.

Elegant, small, and very inexpensive. Rug Purses are a great little gift.

There are places on the internet where purses made out of rug material run at about $6.00 a pop, which isn’t bad at all, is a prime example of a website that sells cheaper rug purses that look really glorious in their design. If you stare at them for a while, you will notice that if they were any larger, they could be actual rugs. Very elegant rug pictures range from a romantic Victorian scene of a man playing the mandolin to his lady to a beautiful geometric pattern that looks like a snowflake. The ideas are endless, but if you walk around with a purse with a gorgeous geometric shape on it, you won’t be disappointed.

Oriental rug mouse pads will warm up your lonely mouse on a cold night

This next item is used every day by just about anybody. Whether you are an office user, home user, kid playing games on their computer, or just a basic computer user, you probably have used a mouse pad before. Well, you can throw away your boring single colored mouse pad, because there are pads out there that not only are a lot more comfortable, but also have a beautiful look to them. Places out on the net are calling them “mouse rugs,” and they might as well be called that because that’s exactly what they are, mouse pads made out of rugs. Designs of these rugs range from a classic collection of casual shapes and styles to Native American symbols. They show off pure beauty and should be used as they symbolize something more than just a protector for your mouse.

Give your book a bit of a treat with a persian rug bookmark

Lastly we take a look at something that is used by bookworms or people who just enjoy reading to pass the time. When you read a book or even a magazine, it helps to have something to put in between the pages you want to save, right? Well in America and around the globe, they are called bookmarks, and now you can purchase elegant ones that are made out of rug material. There are so many different styles to choose from that you may end up burning a huge hole in your pocket when shopping for them. Designs range from Indian all the way to Chinese, but there are many others that you can choose from. Rug bookmarks generally range from $3.00 to $5.00, but with so many to choose from, it can get quite expensive.

Many people look on the internet for these types of knickknacks, but you can probably find them just about anywhere these types of things are sold. Many dollar stores will even sell these types of items, but they won’t be as good material as they would if you purchased them from a reputable source. Anyhow, at least you all know that they are officially out there, so open up your search engine and start shopping for these elegant items.

New Zealand's heavnly sheepskin rugs make any room have a soft touch of elegance

Sheepskin rugs can be dyed in different colors such as red, blue, pink, and even purple, but a white sheepskin rug looks more eye-catching than any color. Clouds are usually white, and sheepskin rugs mimic the look of a cloudy setting- so a fluff-white setting would be the perfect rug for anyone’s home. Since sheepskin rugs are manufactured in sheep-producing countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the overall quality of sheepskin rugs can be guaranteed to be more reputable than those produced locally. It’s often the way a sheepskin rug is made rather than the actual sheep- so any new manufacturer making a sheepskin rug; they might not have the proper equipment to do so. Even older equipment can create better material than newer equipment.

According to many rug sources- the overall texture of a sheepskin rug should be soft and docile. The piling should be neatly combed, with little to no shedding. This process produces a soft feel in all sheepskin rugs. When a sheepskin rug gets dirty, it should be quite easy to wash one, without the rug losing its overall quality.

Nothing like getting home and have a luxuriously soft sheepskin rug to sit and relax on

Many websites now days- since the internet is used for just about everything, allow customers to customize their sheepskin rugs when they purchase them. A manufacturer will customize it however the customer likes, and they can match home décor and dimensions really well. The default size of a sheepskin rug will typically fit in front of a couch- but if a manufacturer sews two or three together, it can fit in a den or living room, which definitely adds luxury to the largest room in one’s home.

A homeowner or general buyer should look for two things when purchasing a sheepskin ‘area’ rug. The first is price- even though many of them are under $1,000.00, some of them can reach as high as $2,000.00, depending on the size and style, as well as whether or not it is customized or not. The second is comfort. If the rug isn’t comfortable, which is impossible because any sheepskin rug is built for comfort over everything else, than you surely didn’t purchase the right one. With a fluffy, comfy, cozy, and luxurious sheepskin ‘area’ rug in anyone’s home- it will certainly add the last piece of the puzzle to make a home warm and smooth.