About Area Rugs

Area rugs transform a hard surface floor into a soft and warm environment – making rooms into cozy and beautiful spaces. Rugs allow for self-expression while providing enclosure and proportion to a space.

There are three import factors in rugs:

• Construction
• Design and Origin
• Fiber Material

Construction

Woven Carpets have the pile face woven along with the backing in a process literally thousands of years old. The warp and the weft are interwoven to provide a strong, long-wearing, usually expensive rug. The Warp provides the lengthwise structure of the rug. Warp yarns run the length of the rug and are interlaced with weft yarns. Weft yarns are interlaced horizontally, across the rug.

Machine-made

These rugs are made in massive quantities using power tufting machines and looms with almost any type of yarn. These rugs can be made in different textures, styles and sizes quickly and easily and therefore are less expensive than a handmade rug. There are many differences between tufted and woven rugs. The woven carpets have the pile face woven along with the backing, making them strong and hard-wearing. In the construction of tufted carpets, the pile is inserted into the backing material with needles.

Handmade

These rugs vary in the amount a person is involved in the construction. Some might simply involve a person using a tool to tuft the rug by hand. Others might start with a person actually spinning the yarn and knotting each rug one yarn at a time. In cases such as these, a single 6'x9' rug can take 9 months or longer to construct. Handmade rugs are made with natural yarns like wool and silk. Some antique silk and wool rugs can be very valuable and have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Weaving Methods

Beyond hand-woven or machine-woven construction methods, there are three distinct methods used to weave rugs.

Axminister Method

The rug is made by inserting pile into the backing from above, cutting it so that the yarn does not run continuously along the back. Since the yarn does not run the entire length or warp, it shows only at the points where inserted. So any number of yarn colors may be inserted. The resulting Axminister cut pile pattern is usually very colorful and detailed.

Wilton Method

The Wilton construction method means that the pile yarn is continuously woven through the weft, leaving loops, which can be cut or uncut. The result can be smooth cuts, loops or a mix of cut piles and loops creating patterns from the texture. Because the yarns run continuously through the rug and colors show, it must be limited to avoid interfering with the pattern or look.

Flat-weave Method

Flat-weave construction, as the name implies, has no pile at all. The flat-weave rug has no knotted pile cut or uncut. The warp and weft are tight and straight resulting in very plain stripe or plaid patterns.

Design and Origin

Design in rugs can be best addressed by loosely defining some terms or names commonly heard in rug descriptions, which in turn determine where this styling or rug originated, though nowadays rugs of many designs can come from any manufacturer across the world.

Chinese Rugs

Traditionally made from wool or silk. The pile surface is sometimes sculpted for a relief effect. Colors can be light such as peach, white, yellow and shades of blue. The patterns are widely spaced with more background color showing.

Persian Rugs

The finest examples of this form were woven between the 16th and 18th century. True "Persian Carpets" are made in Central Asia. They feature wool or silk and the Persian Knot construction. Patterns are intricate and highly detailed. The basic background colors are deep reds or blues.

Kilm Rugs

This is a generic term for a flat-weave, tapestry-like rug originating from the Mid-East or North Africa. Bold colors and geometric patterns are the norm.

Dhurrie Rugs (Indian)

A version of the Kilm is darker and more subdued in color. This is reversible because of the weave and is usually made of cotton.

Aubusson Rugs

Originated in 18th century France. A tapestry-like flat-weave rug. It is feminine, floral and comes in light pretty colors.

Donkey Bags

“Donkey Bags” originate from the use of donkeys as transport by traders in the Middle East. Woven cloth bags were used to allow the loading of merchant wares on the donkey and sometimes these bags featured a motif or material worth saving. As the under-side of the bag wore out, the top would be cut free and occasionally were used as rugs. Today, some of these older artifacts with more detail and of finer quality are collector items of great value.

Fiber Material

Rugs are made from many different types of fiber. Some fibers are naturally occurring while others are man-made or synthetic fibers. Each type of material has its own properties and benefits. The material chosen to make a rug can help to determine its wear resistance along with value – making the fiber type very important. For detailed information about materials used to make area rugs visit our Carpet and Rug Fiber Guide.