10 Important Tips When Buying Oriental Area Rugs

10 Important Tips When Buying Oriental Area Rugs

Palace Size Oriental rugs are so trendy nowadays that every interior design blogger is talking about them and the multiple ways they can enhance the look of a room while holding their value as an investment. This especially holds true for handmade Persian area rugs. Palace Size Persian rugs are extremely rich in history dating back over 2,500 years using techniques handed down from one generation to the next over many centuries. Today, carpet weaving is by far the most widespread handicraft in Iran, and the rugs that are produced are renowned for their richness of color, variety of spectacular artistic patterns, and quality of design. Handmade Persian area rugs are amongst the most treasured of possessions from palaces, famous buildings, and mansions to museums over the world. Someone once said, “Persian rugs are the only practical pieces of fine art in the world. No other investment grows in beauty as it ages”. But the thing is, we cannot just jump into buying cheap Persian rugs that pop up into our eyes. We need to know how to find and purchase antique Oriental rugs for sale and also how to be sure of what we are doing in the process.

outdoor oriental area rug

Without further ado, let's talk about the 10 things you need to know before buying an Oriental rug:

Color Palette: The first thing you need to do is to gather info on what you want and need. We would recommend you to take a look at the colors you want to stand out on the rug to match your decor. Make a color palette or take a picture and have it at hand so you can check it out every time you search online or visit an Oriental rug store .

Measure the room: Once you have an idea of what colors you want, make sure you know what sizes could fit in on the room you are going to place the rug, or even better just measure the room and write it down so you can take it with you to the Persian rug store. For example, if you are looking for a dining room rug, you should know the size of the table in order for the chairs not to fall off the edges of your new rug. By doing this you already save yourself a lot of time and it would make it easier for you to find the perfect area rug. You are probably thinking that you already know this but it is always good to have a tiny reminder once again to save you a lot of work later.
Know the product: First, you need to understand how these rugs are made in order to understand what you are buying. You must know that handmade Persian area rugs are hand-woven or hand-knotted from natural fibers and come from various regions throughout Asia. These art pieces can take from months to even years to be finished. Affordable Oriental rugs are woven in a simple vertical loom. A weaver makes horizontal lines across the foundation that goes stretched from beam to beam which creates what it’s called a “direction” on the rug. When looking a rug over the top end it will look lighter than when looking at it from the bottom. This makes it so important to know because the colors slightly change depending on how the rug is placed towards the light of the room. Also, you should check the back of the rug to see if the colors match or the colors are faded by being exposed in the sun too much
Choose a design: It is accustomed using a unique design for each rug which makes it even more valuable. Some of them are signed by the artist and these ones are very rare to find. The artist uses different fiber colors to make different patterns over the center of the rug called a medallion and some of them have a diamond pattern and others have a flower. There are some other types of designs too, like allover, historical, tribal or floral. If you are looking for a symmetrical room decoration then you should go for an allover rug. If you are looking to impress your friends with a different type of decor you should go for the pictorial one, they have so much history and traditions in it to talk about.
Antique or modern: One thing you must know is that normally modern industrial rugs and carpets are sold by the square foot and they lose their value immediately after you buy them. Antique Oriental rugs, on the other hand, increase their value each day. They are considered to be a great investment and will remain in your family for generations without losing its quality. The more antique a rug is, the more valuable it becomes. The only con with antique area rugs is that they are sold by the piece and can be a little bit more expensive. The pro is, it can be inherited into your family for generations.
The knots: The knot density will indicate the quality of the rug. To put this to the test is actually very easy, just push your finger down into the base of the pile and feel how tightly packed the knots are. Bidjar rugs are usually pretty dense and this makes them extremely durable.
Fine rugs: If you want to figure out how fine a rug is, just check out how many knots it has. Take a look at the back of the rug and each “bump” is counted as a knot. Usually, Oriental rug knot counts are measured in knots per square inch. This means a 400 knot square per inch is a fine rug as opposed to a 50 knot per square inch which is a coarse rug.
Best Reviewed: Buying a Persian area rug can be so time-consuming to find the perfect one and also the best quality/price range. We have the perfect solution for that! Go on Google search and type affordable Oriental rugs and find the area rug store near you that has the most reviews by customers. Not many people tend to review on Google (not all of us have time to do that, right?) which means those who had, in that specific store, is because it must be the best place to go. I always recommend not to go for the ones that are advertising because they are paying to be there, but that doesn’t mean they have the best quality products or are even authentic. When buying Oriental area rugs, you must be absolutely sure they are original and have the authentic value that you are being charged for, ask as many questions as you want, and do all the research necessary until you are completely sure of your purchase. Another tip we would add is: Get an Oriental carpet from a vintage or antique rug store that has been in the market for at least 10 or 15 years.
Find THE ONE: Oriental rugs are so beautiful that you can fall in love with all of them, but when you finally find the perfect one, then you will know it was worth the hard work (and money!) you put into it. So our advice is, don’t go for the first one you like. When looking into handmade Persian area rugs it is best for you to know a few tricks. Remember that these rugs are handmade and antiques, some have signs of wear, aging, abrash, fading colors, and uneven areas, and some of them even have a few repairs. This only means they are not perfect, but for these reasons, many dealers try to make some rugs as antique and authentic as they can when they’re actually not. Always try to find at least 3 of these conditions in the one you are planning on buying and also make sure that at least 80% of the products this rug store has in stock have the same related product conditions.
Try it out first: Best review dealers will allow you to take the rug home for a day or two and try it out first under any light circumstance. Remember that the position of the rug in your room and because of the natural fiber, colors can slightly change under daylight. This way you can be absolutely happy with the decision you made or just come back and pick a different one. Magic Rugs offers a FREE 30-day return policy, so you can order the one that you like and see how it matches your home decor without any concerns. Plus they have excellent customer service and FREE shipping.