By David Neishabori, owner of AZADI Fine Rugs | Guest Commentary
It is well known that the colors and designs surrounding you affect your overall health and your spirit. They enhance your mood and ultimately help you live better.
Fine rugs add color, design and elevate your spirit. Additionally, studies have shown that walking on hard surfaces can be hard on your feet and your back.
Walking on fine rugs creates comfort and takes the pressure off your back. Fine rugs also act as a filter, absorbing dust and allergens that affect the air you breathe, helping you live better.
Start with the rug first as rugs are personal and your foundation in fine living. By choosing your rugs first, it makes it easier to select furnishings and fabrics to enhance the feeling you want to create.
At AZADI Fine Rugs, you will experience luxury concierge service with an extraordinary collection of fine contemporary and antique rugs.
What to look for in a fine rug
It is important to choose a rug that fits your personality and portrays the feeling you want to create. Fine area rugs offer several attributes that can enhance and add to your décor.
Whether you choose contemporary area rugs, Persian area rugs, Tuscan-style area rugs or custom design an area rug, it is clear to see the benefits for your home.
1. Comfort: Area rugs add insulation, warmth, and comfort. They are soft and feel better underfoot than hard flooring choices.
2. Maintenance: Caring for area rugs is less costly than having an entire room (or house) of broadloom cleaned.
Prompt spot removal, regular vacuuming, and handwashing once a year will maintain and prolong the life of your area rug.
3. All Natural: Good, overdyed rugs are not only created with a natural all-wool base but they are also colored with all-natural vegetable dyes, resourced from "Mother Nature."
These quality dyes are colorfast and don’t run once set. Their colors are more vibrant and richer than synthetic dyes.
4. Price: You may wonder what sets the price of the rug. There are several factors that go into the price of the rug:
The cost to commission a hand-woven rug. A higher commissioning structure ensures you are receiving a piece that is hand-packed, woven with integrity and without child labor.
Is the rug woven without child labor? Child labor is one subject that is often avoided. Often a lower price indicates the use of child labor. Ask your dealer for verification that they are recognized and certified as a child-labor-free rug dealer.
The quality of the materials. You can be sure that if the weaver cuts corners on labor, they will also cut corners on the materials. Breathing chemically polluted wool and artificial dyes is hazardous to your health. There are various grades of wools and dyes and within each grade, there are higher qualities of the product.
Beware of rug companies that offer huge discounts and sales. Often these are gimmicks.
5. Appeal: There is no question that the appeal of the area rug is going to be a huge factor leading to your final decision. Size, material, and color all go into the equation, however, the appeal of the rug is how you feel about it.
Does it make you happy when you look at it? Does the pattern visually delight you?
Is the feel of the rug soft and luxurious, making you want to walk on it?
Does it set the tone or tie together the décor of the room?
Quality is based on the quality of the wool and the workmanship. New Zealand wool is among the best wool produced globally.
The quality of the workmanship depends on the experience of the weaver. High-quality rugs will act as a health filter, absorbing dust, pollutants, bacteria and allergens, therefore affecting the quality of air you breathe.
Consider whether the rug is child-labor-free. Often a lower price indicates the use of child labor.
Rugs that are low price made with cheaper materials, including chemically-polluted wool, are hazardous to your health.
How do I care for my fine rug?
With proper maintenance, hand-woven rugs can stand the test of time and become treasured family heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation.
Bi-annual hand washing of your rug is imperative.
Use an experienced professional rug cleaning service that specializes in hand washing hand-woven rugs with water and pure vegetable soaps.
You will also want to use a company with a stellar reputation and one that has been in business for over 10 years.
The difference between handmade and machine-made area rugs
Because hand-made labor is more costly, hand-woven rugs come with an expectation of care and quality. Because each rug tells a story, all the choices and decisions that go into the design of the rug give it its personality and character.
Hand-made rugs can take many months to produce. A room-size carpet may take the same time, but only because it is produced by multiple weavers working together.
Machine-woven rugs have been manufactured since the beginning of western industrialization.
These rugs are usually made from the same materials as hand-made rugs, wool, silk, and cotton, often of high quality, however, machine-made rugs lack the story and design that is represented in hand-woven rugs.
Machine-made rugs lack the inconsistencies and surprises that are part of the personality of a great hand-woven rug. Because of this, machine-made rugs are almost always less costly than their hand-made counterparts.
While cost is a key factor, the most important discrepancy between machine-made rugs and hand-made rugs is the inescapable fact that hand-made rugs are more expressive, more exciting, and more moving than machine-made rugs.
Machine-made rugs may be pleasing to the eye, but they are not considered a form of art.
