Choose a Wool Rug for Your Home

Renovating your rooms with new decor? Then you simply can't do without an area rug, and there is no better material than natural fiber, especially wool. It is durable, strong and adds an aesthetic value to your room.

The very nature of wool fiber enables it to recover well from crushing. These stretch sometimes up to 35% without rupturing and then come back to their original size. Wool is also resistant to soil and is easier to clean than synthetic fiber. The high moisture content of wool works as a natural flame resistant. Though synthetic fibers have evolved over the years, they still cannot match the quality of wool.

Important things to consider when buying a wool rug are the size, design and grade of wool, handmade or machine-made. The size of your dining room, bedroom or study, hallway or stairs will determine the size of your rug. Next you have to decide the color and type of design you are looking for. Whether you want the color of your rug to match with your walls or are you looking for contrast. Whether you want a simple design or a more elaborate one. Wool comes in various grades. Wool may be from a dead animal or a live one, a young healthy one or an old one. Wool sheared from a live animal is called live wool. Dead wool is sheared chemically from dead animals and it contains no oils and is rough to touch.

Another important decision to make is whether you want to buy handmade wool rugs or machine-made. Handmade rugs are not only more beautiful, but also durable, they hold their value, age beautifully and last for generations. With handmade wool rugs each strand is tied individually for greater strength and consistency.

The buying of wool rugs may be a complex issue and their uniqueness and originality is hard to judge unless you are an expert. It is advisable to take the help of an expert or deal with reputable dealers and direct importers of handmade wool rugs. eRugGallery.com offers authentic, handmade, wool and silk rugs. Each rug comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.

MAINTENANCE:
It is important to take proper care of your precious possession. Dry cleaning and steam cleaning are a strict 'NO' for your wool rug. Dry cleaning leaves a chemical in the fiber that is harmful for the longevity of your rug. Steam cleaning takes out the oil from the wool, converting live wool into dead wool. Regular vacuuming is recommended to remove dirt. Proper padding and moth-proofing are also recommended for a prolonged life.

The Area Rug You Want

Every home benefits from the touch of a certain something which provides the household with a unique ambiance, contributing even to beneficial adjustments of your own mood. An empty room is uninviting, but a well decorated one becomes a personal sanctuary. We simply choose things to complete our space, to fill the emptiness and give it our own flavour. So we bring in beds, wardrobes, tables, lamps, flower pots... What about the floor? A 'naked' floor gives a room an unfinished aspect. To put the finishing touches we have to think about bringing in an area rug. How do we pick the appropriate one for our interior?

Well, for one thing, area rugs come in a great number and in a wide range of categories. All you need to do is look around your room or your entire household and decide on the color, size and shape of the rug or rugs you want to buy. It is sufficient to find a rug which fits the general aspect and tone of the furniture or walls to make the interior design perfect. Of course, everyone wants to purchase high-quality rugs because rugs are not just decorative, they serve a functional purpose as well. They cover and protect parquet flooring and provide a warm, soft and comfortable feeling for your feet.

A hand-made area rug is even nowadays considered a top rug choice. However, if you intend to place your area rug in a spot where the daily to-ing and fro-ing is constantly repeated, then opting for an area rug made from a more durable fabric like wool for instance is a great choice. Also, taking a while to consider the colors of such an area rug is very important. Light or pale hues are less dust or stain-resistant than brighter, more intense colors.

A provoking idea would be to choose a rug made from silk. However, such rugs - Persian rugs - are less sturdy than their wool-made counterparts (this does not mean that Persian Rugs are made exclusively from silk, they are also made from wool). Persian rugs made from silk are more expensive since this material is more luxurious. So, as long as you can afford it, such Persian rugs make a very refined choice. These rugs however cannot be placed just anywhere in the house, but they are appropriate for elegant living rooms because they are ornamental rugs and their purpose is to delight the eye.

Additionally, a hand-made area rug, as a rule, will provide your room with a specific, distinctive identity. Depending on the type of interlacing or interweaving used, the appearance of the rug you put on the floor will be more robust or more delicate and fragile. A well-informed, experienced area rug provider will answer all your questions regarding the weaving procedures for different rugs. He or she can tell you whether the knots are more compact or sparser in the structure of this or that rug which can be useful for detecting the quality of an area rug. An area rug in which the ties or knots are closer is definitely sturdier and, as a consequence, more durable, so you can position it in a room which is unrestricted to regular, everyday movement. For more information on area rugs, you can call an area rug consultant at (tollfree) 1888-611-RUGS(7847) at eRugGallery.com. They are well informed, and happy to help.