Q1: What qualifies an oriental rug to be an antique?
Answer: Antique: 100 years and older.
Vintage: 50 to 100 years old.
Q2: How can you tell if a rug is hand-made?
Answer: When viewed from the front, hand-made and machine-made rugs can look similar. To get a more in-depth look at how the rug was constructed, look at the back side and fringes.
Hand-Made Rugs:
The overall design of the rug will be clearly seen on the back and you’ll be able to see individual knots on the rug. When the warp strings are finished on the rug, they are turned into fringes and, on a hand-knotted oriental rug, you can see where they have been tied off.
Machine-Made Rugs:
The overall design on the backside is blurred by an over-stitch pattern, which blurs the overall design and colors. The fringe is sewn on instead of it being an extension of the warp strings.
Q3: Are Oriental rugs kid and pet-friendly?
Answer: Rugs are certainly children friendly; pets need to be trained. Many people worry about pets and there are several store-bought chemicals you can put on rugs to deter them from using the bathroom on rugs or carpets.
Q4: How long do hand-woven rugs last?
Answer: With reasonable looking after, they should last “forever”.
Q5: What is the best way to decorate with an oriental rug?
Answer: Ideally, as conventional wisdom says, decorating a room should start with the Oriental rug because of the multitude of paint and fabric choices as opposed to the finite color and style of a chosen antique oriental rug. Now, that’s great if you’re starting from square one, but like most people, you are likely choosing a rug for an existing space that has a defined color and style. Since most people get an oriental rug for an already decorated room, it’s good advice to buy what you like.
To best prepare for choosing a rug for an existing space, bring samples with you and a photo of the room. Draw a rough sketch of your space and note any sort of furniture that is to be placed on top of it; after all, you don’t want chairs around a table falling off the edges of the rug. To get a good feel of how a particular rug size will look in a room, tape together newspaper pages in the size of the rug and lay it on the floor.
Q6: What is abrash?
Answer: Abrash which is a natural change in color that occurs when different dyes are used and gives uniqueness an extra beauty to the rug.
Q7: How long does it take to make a rug?
Answer: For a room size (9×12), between 6 – 9 months for a hand-woven quality rug.
Q8: How do Oriental Rugs get their name?
Answer: The Oriental rug names refer to the city, village or nomadic tribe that focused on a particular rug weave, design or pattern. For example, Tabriz rugs were originally woven in the Persian city of Tabriz and so they are still called Tabriz rugs.
