Rug Master: Rugs, Carpets and Our Clients

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Rugs, Carpets and Our Clients

When it comes to our clients' taste of rugs, I can never tell what they like. We do rug cleaning, repair and appraisal and this gives us a unique opportunity to see many different rugs and carpets brought in or picked up from our customers. Some like hand knotted Oriental rugs, while others do not care for the quality and go by other variables such as price or color and not authenticity. Some look at rugs as investment and art and some look at them as mere floor covering. And I believe it should be like this to have a balance between different tastes.

I personally do not like machine made,shag, tufted and Flokati rugs since they are difficult to keep clean and are not easy to maintain. But probably 1/3 of what we receive for cleaning, and repair these days fall in these three categories. In some cases, the cost of cleaning is around 25% to 50% of the value of the rug, but customers like the rug and pay for its cleaning and repair.

By the way, some of our customers ask me about my favorite type of rug. I like village, rural, and tribal rugs for their aesthetics, histories, and cultures. I also like antique carpets. They have stories to tell.

Here, I am posting pictures of some rugs of different types we have recently received for cleaning and repair.