Real wool or synthetic

[Guess]

I don’t understand the craze for authentic hundred year old wool rugs. Why do you want something that hundreds of people have stepped on before. Not to mention hard to care for. wool get eaten by moth, beetles.

I see so many cute synthetic rugs at Tuesday morning. For $300 you get  8x10 rugs. Feels just as soft under my feet. After a few years toss it out.

[㋡]

I disagree with you.  I own a variety of rugs and carpets in all shapes and sizes from different cultures and materials, many of them over 100 years old.  Unlike synthetics, they do become prettier with age.  Many people suggest expert cleaners but I wash all my rugs myself, the natural way, water and wool and silk specific detergents with my blend of oil to control for pH and temperature.  My current decor precludes the need for carpets (basically wall to wall rugs) so many of them are stacked up in storage but the smaller rugs and runners are very useful as decor highlights over wooden floors and edged against larger pieces of furniture. 

There is a wide range of quality but the fine woolen ones from Iran can still be had at auction for quite cheap, since most people like you don´t see their value anymore.  Nearly all rugs made after the 1970s use synthetic dyes with sloppy weaving and imported wools of dubious quality.  Right under my foot at the moment of this typing is a Persian rug with light orange and cobalt blue geometric patterns circa 1910s from Qom.  I like "city" rugs and tend to avoid the peasant/tribal rugs since city folks always make a better product.

I also own quite a few Kilims from Turkey and Sweden.  Many Swedish Kilims started out as wall hangers and dinner table runners and women took pride making them in the 19th century.  They are light and made from sturdy wools and can be used for numerous camping activities as they can be rolled to compact form.  Some are so beautiful (and signed) that I only used them for special occasions.  The bigger ones can even be used as blankets since they are quite pliable.  Textile was once the ultimate display of wealth.  The Ikea aesthetics completely destroyed this tradition but I am thankful since many past treasures are now dirt cheap.

rug weaving (originated from Turks/Mongols) was taken to the apex of human handicraft achievement in the Middle East.

I don’t understand the craze for authentic hundred year old wool rugs. Why do you want something that hundreds of people have stepped on before. Not to mention hard to care for. wool get eaten by moth, beetles.

I see so many cute synthetic rugs at Tuesday morning. For $300 you get  8x10 rugs. Feels just as soft under my feet. After a few years toss it out.

[gaden]

If you lay the wool rug on your bed it will give you the firm up your mattress.  You'll feel like Aladdin flying on a carpet.

[Guess]

Even rich people don’t keep rich people rugs.
Like Victorian houses, cool to look at and admire them for their workmanship but doesn’t work for everyone in modern life.


It has to fit in your decor.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/style/why-are-rugs-so-expensive.html



Even in an increasingly expensive Manhattan, $3.5 million still pays for a lot, like a 2,000-square-foot apartment (without south-facing light) and 12 years of private school for one of the children. But if you’d like to outfit the living room of that apartment with the very finest Persian carpet Jason Nazmiyal is selling out of his Midtown showroom, you’ll need an additional $3.5 million.

For decades, antique Persians, hand-knotted from silk and often taking years or even decades to produce, were the gold standard of floor coverings for the swank, the sine qua non of Oriental rugs. Then the market got flooded with fakes, tastes shifted, and people became aware that most of what they were being sold was as likely to return a profit as a decade-old flat screen TV.

“That’s why we don’t really steer clients towards super-expensive rugs anymore,” said Brian Sawyer, an architect and interior designer whose clients include Madonna and Vera Wang. “Most of the time, they wind up being more trouble than they’re worth.”

In the Hamptons estate of the billionaire Ron Perelman: a flat weave modernist Swedish design carpet with black and blue triangles that looks terrific near a Nakashima bench and a hanging Calder sculpture. In the clothing designer Cynthia Rowley’s West Village townhouse: a starburst-y, geometric millennial-pink carpet from the Rug Company. And in the colonial of the longtime Vogue eminence André Leon Talley, in White Plains: a floral-print, 17th-century French carpet known as an Aubusson, which he bought from Sotheby’s in 2014 during an auction of Bunny Mellon’s precious collectibles.

.....

[㋡]

It is not about copying the rich but knowing what you like.  In 1910s, if you were rich, you would want an automobile and not a horse for commuting.  And if you were still out with horses, you would likely be sitting inside a coach, with a coachman doing the horse whipping. Now, only rich people with a ranch own horses and you see them on park tracks all over the country. They also tend to their own horses and ride the horse themselves.  Material culture changes along with outlooks and morality of the time.  Just look at Viet comrades now, they clearly see those small dogs as pets rather than edible aphrodisiacs, a big contrast to the widespread view just a few years before.

I estimate about 90% of Middle Eastern rug production is geared toward the Russian/Chinese noveau riche and European traditionalists which explains the garish colors used in the newer weavings.  Personally, I like the muted brown and gold woolen/silk rugs which work on a variety of floors and are especially neutral enough to fit "modern" decor, whatever that means.  I mix everything so there is no coherent vocabulary in my home but rugs can easily be considered a comfort-added aspect to the meditative zen in my interior decoration.  Now that we are in freezing winter, I appreciate them even more. 

The neutral tone antique rugs are much harder to find and it takes a lot of effort but eventually you will come across a few nice ones.  The thing about baby boomers is that they are the biggest generation of hoarders.  I see entire "collections" go up for auction all the time.  This means the presence of many rare rugs that have been well cared for and never used much. They go for about the same price as the nicer newly produced wool rugs but the quality of weaving and materials were clearly top notch.  It´s all about knowing what you like and what works for your decor.  I bought many rugs that I now consider mistake purchases (too big, too long, weird colors, Persian copy of other patterns, low quality cotton base, etc...).  You live and learn and this makes you appreciate more the items you´ve come to treasure.  To dimiss 2000 years plus of traditional handicraft is just silly. 

[gaden]

I bought one of these Persian rugs at an auction for $1000.  It was listed for $10,000.  I had it for 10 years and there are wool patches falling off.  I don't know if it's the cat scratching it or moths.

[㋡]

sorry Gaden but that rug is quite ugly.