Refinishing or refurbishing your basement is a big job that can be costly and challenging. But gaining the added living space is often valuable enough to warrant the effort. One of the most important parts of redoing your basement is the floor. Whether you are working with a concrete or wooden floor, you may want to consider another type of flooring that will prove more durable and easy to clean. When you are giving thought to which choice will work best for your home, consider the following information with respect to a file floor for your basement.

1. A tile floor is relatively inexpensive compared to other types of flooring. Depending on the grade and style you buy, you might be able to get the peel-and-stick brand that you can lay down yourself instead of hiring it done. This will suit not only your wallet but your schedule, since it can be done in stages, as you have the time, and perhaps with the help of a friend or family member. Of course, you can get the more costly styles, and pay more, for a richer or more polished look, depending on your plans for the basement’s use.

2. Tile is replaceable, so if one or more pieces should get stained, chipped, or torn, you can take them up and lay down new ones at your convenience. Instead of waiting for a service call from someone who only works weekends for double-time pay, you can do it yourself in time for the next party or family get-together.

3. Tile flooring is easy to clean. You don’t have to worry as much about spilled beverages, pet accidents, or muddy shoes tracking through. Just fill a bucket with hot water and mild detergent, or whatever the tile manufacturer’s directions suggest, and mop up dirt, dust, and debris in a few minutes’ time.

4. Tile is easily changed. If you get tired of the design and want to change it, or decide to put down carpet when you get an unexpected monetary windfall, you can make the switch fairly quickly and easily. Some people decide to lay carpet on top of the tile, which makes it easier than taking up the old and putting down the new floor covering.

5. Tile patterns are versatile. You can choose a basic monotone color to blend in with neutral surroundings. Or buy a contemporary design to turn your basement into a family recreation room. A more sedate, intricate pattern provides a nice floor covering for a room that will become your den or a spare bedroom. Throw down a few accent rugs (the non-skid variety) and enjoy the brand new look.

Floor tile can take a pretty rough beating from shoe scuffs, equipment scrapes, and running back and forth, if you have kids. With many attractive patterns to choose from, you can dress up your basement in whatever décor you like, and then let the games begin!

For more information on installing floor tile, choosing the right tile and the advantages of tile flooring versus other types of floring visit The Tile Cart at http://www.tilecart.com The Tile Cart

Not all home decorating ideas require a heavy investment of time and money. If you’re looking for a few affordable home interior decorating ideas to freshen up a room over a weekend, try these ten:

1. Rearrange The Furniture- Pull your furniture away from the walls. Try positioning it at intriguing angles. For example, a sofa arranged diagonally across a narrow living room will make the room look wider.

2. Paint A Wall- Paint one wall your favorite color and make it the focal point. Hang interesting art on that wall and move a nice piece of furniture there. (Note: Make sure that the color is one that is shared with several other objects and fabrics in the room.)

3. Bring In Plants- Greenery always adds a breath of fresh air to a room. If you don’t have a green thumb, try silk plants and trees. The quality has gotten so good that its hard to distinguish them from the real thing.

4. Lay An Area Rug- An area rug is a wonderful way of defining a conversation area. Try one that complements the room. Lay it at an angle beneath your coffee table.

5. Hang Pictures or Mirror- Hang pictures that reflect your personality. Try frames that are more ornate. When hanging a mirror, try and position it so that it reflects and nice view or an interesting architectural element.

6. Group Figurines- Pull out your favorite collectibles. Show off your personality. Find a display area and group related objects together, in sets of three or five. Try and vary the shapes.

7. Add Decorative Pillows- The good news about decorative pillows is that they are an easy way to add textures and patterns to a room. Still better, they can be changed to jazz up a sofa or chair before your room is ready for a major makeover.

8. Replace Lamps- Lamps are probably the one thing in your home that will give others a clue that your room is outdated. Seek out new and fresh lamps that make a statement.

9. Add A Throw Or Afghan- Similar to decorative pillows, throws and afghans add texture to your furniture. They come in all kinds of natural and man made fabrics. Find a pattern and style that you like.

10. Eliminate Clutter- Clutter has a way of eliminating the desired mood and effect of any room. Find storage spaces for papers, toys, and other items that take from the personality of a room.

About The Author

Michael Holland is the creator of the Web sites http://www.kids-rooms-and-crafts.com and http://www.home-decorating-made-easy.com. His sites offer lots of FREE home decorating tips and ideas.

support@kids-rooms-and-crafts.com

When it comes to decorating a child’s room, your approach should be much different from decorating an adult bedroom.

For kids, their bedroom is where they play games, read, listen to music, day-dream, or just go to be alone sometimes. So use these eight strategies to help create a space that will make you both happy:

1. Talk to your child. Find out what activities and fantasies he or she enjoys; what their favorite color is; and what’s unique about their personality that a theme could be built around.

2. Allow your child to help. Let them have a say about colors, fabrics, and how they want to display their collectibles.

3. Make the room multi-functional. Since children use their room for many activities besides sleeping, it should have several different zones, such as a play area, reading area, and entertainment area.

4. Make storage a priority. Try shelving, large decorative wicker baskets, plastic see-through containers, and closets that contain plenty of shelving and racks.

5. Keep window treatments simple. Avoid long draperies. Shades, blinds, and shorter curtains are safer choices. The fabric should be versatile, and patterns should be repeated in other items in the room, such as in pillows, quilts, lampshades, bed ruffles, etc.

6. Choose the right lighting. A child’s room should include both task lighting for homework and reading, and soothing light for quieter times. A nightlight is also important.

7. Use wallpaper or paint to add color and texture. You can apply whimsical borders along the top edges of the walls, and clouds or stars on the ceiling. Make sure walls are washable, so if you are using paint, choose a semi-gloss or gloss finish. Kids love bright colors, but you should limit any strong color to only one wall.

8. Allow your child to select the design theme. Here are just a few: firehouse fun room, starry night, angels, rainbows, unicorns, baseball, a bedroom for a princess, underwater scenery, outer space, race cars, airplanes, trains, jungle motifs, wizards and dragons, and dinosaurs.

Decorating with your child offers a great opportunity to display your playful side, while doing some memorable family bonding, so have fun with it!

About The Author

Michael Holland is the creator of http://www.kids-rooms-and-crafts.com and http://www.home-decorating-made-easy.com. His web sites offers lots of FREE decorating tips and ideas for decorating your home.

support@kids-rooms-and-crafts.com

Most of us like to keep photographs of family, friends, and fun sitting around to remember those we love and the great times we’ve had. Although photo albums make a convenient place for storing the most special pictures that we want to preserve, our homes offer many alternative ways of displaying drawings, poems, decorations, and photos in attractive frame settings.

Determining where to place your framed pictures is one of the challenges involved with home decorating. On one hand, you don’t want to put up so many family pictures that guests get bored or feel that the host is self-centered. But on the other hand, family photos in individual or group shots can add a warm feeling to any room. The key is to strike a balance. Some families make a “wall of fame” display of loved ones’ photos in the family room, staircase wall, or another living space. Framed photos remind viewers that loved ones are special, and if they won’t be with us always, their images will remain for many years to come.

Another type of framed art that adds to a home’s beauty comes in a range of artistic wall hangings that are framed by coordinating frames of wood, acrylic, or metal. Typically, the frames will match household fixtures or furniture, or provide interest accent points for the rooms in which they appear. Delicate dried flowers, a child’s handprint, someone’s personal poem, or a favorite Bible verse make wonderful framed feature pieces for your home’s walls.

However, you need not restrict all your framed art for the walls only. You can set table framed pieces on the bedroom dresser, atop corner shelves, and even on the bathroom vanity. Coffee tables or end tables invite these special objects of interest, as do bookshelves, plant stands, and window sills. Kitchen counter space and dining room tables, when not in use, also provide great spots for cute curios. If you have collected several items over the years, you can get a lighted collector’s cabinet to keep the most attractive or recent on display for guests and family members alike.

If you are an arts-and-crafts kind of person, you can take a class on framing and learn to do it yourself. Then you can buy the materials on sale and put up any special wall piece that you want to preserve, whether it is a diploma, a watercolor, or a collage. You may even be able to sell your work at craft fairs. But if this isn’t your cup of tea, you can always pay to have certain pieces framed by professionals who work with these materials all the time. You can get a simple picture frame, with backing, of course, for wall or table use. Or you can request a matte finish to add dimension and perspective to your art piece.

Don’t overlook this exciting way of putting your family’s heirlooms to work as home decorator pieces. Start shopping for attractive, functional frames.

Get some great new ideas for picture frames in the home or at the office when you visit The Frame Cart

Vertical and functional space planning are two of the most overlooked areas in most households interior design layout. In this article we’ll discuss how to double the functional space in the bedrooms of your house.

Think Vertical

Effective space planning and interior design requires that you plan in three dimensions - so start thinking about the space above your head and higher up on the walls. There are great functional bedding and storage solutions you can use to easily double your floor space in a bedroom and its functional storage space.

Futons for the guest rooms

Why waste the functionality and floor space of a designated guest room when it can normally operate as your den or library? When guests are expected, simply fold down the futon and make it into your guest bedroom.

Loft beds for older children

Loft beds are excellent functional solutions for older children that also want to use their bedroom as a social hangout or study room. A loft bed allows you to place a sofa or study desk underneath the bed. This also creates a great atmosphere under the bed that is private and quiet.

Bunk beds for the youngsters

When there is more than one child in a bedroom bunk beds are a logical solution for using more of the vertical space available in a room, and also creates more space on the floor for playtime.

Murphy beds for studios and 1 bedroom apartments

Murphy beds are a great bed design to incorporate when space is on limited supply. Installing a Murphy bed will instantly open up the room floor space. In small apartments, installing a Murphy bed can have the effect of feeling like you’ve just added another entire room! Murphy beds are also a great option for adding to dens or studies to create a guest room.

High platform beds for more storage

Platform beds are becoming very common now as bed designers switch from using bulky box springs to sleeker and more durable platform supports for bed designs. The old space of a box spring easily creates another vertical foot of potential storage space under your bed. For a regular king size bed, this will create an additional 42 square feet of storage space under the bed.

Air beds for emergency guest rooms

If your spare rooms in the house are dedicated to other functions that you really don’t want to give up, then consider getting an airbed to use when having house guests stay over. Air beds are portable, inflate quickly, and have good support and functionality. You can also get air beds that quick inflate themselves from a small duffel bag.

Trundle beds

Trundle beds are great to have in kids rooms to pull out for sleepovers and can operate as a second temporary bed if the need arises. When not in use it simply slides back under the bed. If you have a trundle bed then you can free up more space in your storage room by getting rid of any fold out cots or beds.

Day beds

Day beds are a functional bedding alternative that also creates a sitting area during the day. Great for apartments, girls rooms, or dens and guest rooms.

Captain’s beds

To maximize storage space in your child’s room consider a captain bed. With so many drawers under the higher bed frame you can do away with separate dresser drawers to free up more floor space.

If you start to think vertical in you interior space planning you can be on your way to doubling your useable interior floor space in your home. For more bed resources and design tips you can visit http://www.loft-beds-bunk-beds.com/loft-beds.htm

About The Author

S.A. Smith is a freelance writer, editor, and contributor to the Loft Beds Bunk Beds resource site, and can be reached at http://www.loft-beds-bunk-beds.com.

Typically a small space consisting of just a sink and toilet, you most likely know them by a more common term “half-bath” or “guest bath.

Ever wonder where the term “powder room” came from? It’s derived from Victorian times, when women needed to “powder their noses”.

Why consider them a jewel when it comes to decorating, also why bother decorating them, it is after all only a bathroom.

A bathroom is a room in your home, in fact depending on the number of baths you have it can become a public room, which means from time to time other people besides yourself will be passing through. So why not dress it up, even if guest only use it occasionally make it pretty for you.

Due to their size, a complete make over can be done in as little as a weekend and at little cost. This is also what makes them a jewel; being small you can really have fun decorating them, plus by not requiring a big budget you’re able to change the look more often.

The following are a few ideas to get started with. Start with the walls. Paint, wallpaper, stenciling what ever treatment you like. With the small size of the room, the cost will be a lot lower.

Here is the perfect opportunity to experiment with bolder colors, some type of theme or maybe you’ve been dying to try one of the many painting techniques.

Using a theme to decorate the bath can be really fun. If your not sure what to use take a look around your home for inspiration. It could be an extension of a collection you may have or a take off on a vacation.

Example of a theme, based on a vacation: Do you love the beach and vacation each year at the ocean? If so here is your inspiration. Use a wallpaper border around the room with shells or boats on it. Hunt around discount stores, flea markets or garage sales for beach related accessories; use a lightweight natural color window treatment. But before you purchase anything new, take a walk around the house, if you love the beach chances are you may already have items that you can use.

Add some sparkle with a new light fixture, mirror or towel racks in finishes of chrome, gold and bronze.

With limited floor space, look for storage solutions that perform double duty. Shelves with a towel rack provide not only a place to hang pretty towels; it’s the perfect place for extra toiletries and accessories.

New flooring can add drama however; if this is not currently in the budget an area rug in a bold color or a geometric pattern will do the trick.

Of course a complete make over is not always necessary, sometimes just simple changes could be all that’s needed. How about a vase of fresh flowers, some new towels, a whimsical piece of art or new window treatments.

Have some fun - get creative – and turn that often passed over half-bath into something special. Let it become the jewel in your home decorating projects box.

This article is shareware. Give this article away for free on your site, or include it as part of any paid package as long as the entire article is left intact including this notice. Copyright © 2004 bonnie carrier

Bonnie P. Carrier is the creator of Savvy Home Decorating. She is the mother to two grown daughters and a very spoiled 4yr old Blue Merle Sheltie named Toby. Having been a homemaker for over 23yrs has provided years of experience in budget decorating and organization. Stop by Savvy Home Decorating -http://www.savvy-home-decorating.com - for ideas and tips on budget decorating:

If you have book shelves in your home, and lots of books, you’ve probably discovered that bookends don’t always keep everything in order. Sometimes your collection of books on the shelf are just too much for the bookend to hold.

Here’s a great tip that also doubles as a wonderful decorating idea: Use curtain rod finials as your bookends! A finial is a carved or shaped decorative detail used as ornaments to spruce up all sorts of items in a room. Curtain rod finials are used to make curtain rods more decorative, and also to keep curtains from sliding off the ends of the rods. Regular architectural finials are often used as enhancements to a room’s decoration and style. Sometimes you’ll see them for instance, at the top of a staircase post or on the tops of bedposts.

Curtain rod finials usually come with a screw set inside. All you have to do is drill a starter hole in your bookshelf, then screw the finial into place. You can also use standard wood glue on the bottom of the finial, to be sure it stays in place at all times… by doing so of course though, you won’t be able to change the finials to a different style later.

If your curtain finial doesn’t match the shelf, or you bought it unfinished, simply paint, stain or varnish it to fit your room and shelf decor.

Take this decorating tip even further by buying finials of different sizes, shapes and colors. Then change them with the seasons, each time you want a fresher, different look to the room, or each time you re-decorate completely.

Alternatively of course, you can simply buy a plain architectural finial without the screw already in place - then just glue that into place on your book shelf.

Start shopping around for decorative and unusual finials today, and get your bookshelves all spruced up for spring!

© 2005, Kathy Burns-Millyard, The Do It Yourself Home Decorating Network - A large and growing portal of home decorating and decor articles, tips, advice and excellent home decor shopping sections. This article may be republished on any website, as long as it remains unchanged, carries this copyright and reprint notice, and has a live link to our site.

Permanent Article Link: http://www.diyhomedecorating.com/articles/2005-03/128/book-shelf-decorating-idea-tip/

Time is the major element that gets overlooked in most residential interior design projects shown on television. The actual implementation of the job is shown at fast forward speed. By the time 22 minutes are up, the jobs is tied up nicely. You rarely see the designer sourcing fabrics or furnishings. The trades are always available. Budget is never discussed. There should be a warning: Don’t try this at home!

Pandering to the whims of socialites possessed of too much money for their own good may have typified yesterday’s interior designer. Their clients’ most noticeable characteristic was idle time. Times change. Today’s residential interior designer’s typical clients have a complete shortage of time and too many demands on what little time they do have. These people chunk life down to a size they can handle. In design, this translates not into a mansion makeover, but a room at a time or a condo makeover to suit a certain lifestyle.

Designer’s client lists distinctively include physicians and dentists, attorneys and accountants, entrepreneurs and business executives. Their good fortune is the ability to control their destiny by working hard at their chosen profession. What they all have in common is a shortage of time. And busy-ness is their most noticeable characteristic.

Here is a selection of true-to-life design direction scenarios I have encountered in the last year.

1. We are moving offices to Vancouver in 6 weeks. I purchased a condo downtown. I don’t know my new city that well, but I have been all over looking for furnishings and can’t find anything that meets my criteria of comfortable, affordable, and of good quality. I need someone knowledgeable to source and arrange furnishings and linens and curtains for my two bedroom condo and to deal with my executive assistant by phone and email for payments and scheduling installations.

2. My husband and I just downsized to a condo. We hate the ugly carpeting throughout our living room and dining room. We’d prefer a mixture of hardwood and area rugs. Where can we find a reliable hardwood specialist at an affordable price? How do we go about choosing area rugs?

3. For such an expensive real estate price I expected much better than these cheap-looking countertops, hardware and blinds installed by the developer. I want to change the look with marble and black-out lined drapes and also find someone to create custom closets.

4 I desperately need a fabric I can wash and dry. I have two dogs that shed and drool. What kind of fabric will work? What colors are available?

5. I always bought my fine linens at specialty stores but now they seem to be everywhere and they all say they have a high thread count. Are they made of the same quality cotton? I can’t find the colors I like at the big box stores. I’ve been searching for a slate colored duvet cover and shams.

After the daily corporate battles these busy professionals want to retreat to rooms that look like the photo shoots of home decor magazines and re-charge their batteries for tomorrow. They can afford high-end furnishings and finishes but don’t know where to find them. Even it they did, they wouldn’t know where to find the time to pull it all together. They mostly want a designer for sourcing the furnishings, making sure all the colors work together, and coordinating trades.

Time is the driver of interior design these days. If a designer can show the importance of this ability to take the job off the shoulders of busy professionals, and save them time, they’ll be rewarded with referrals and repeat business.

Veronica Wakeham is a Vancouver Interior Designer and owner of Terra Nova Linen House, a luxury linen establishment in Yaletown in Vancouver, BC. For interior design consultation call 604-688-9280 or go to http://www.threadcounts.com

Does the thought of picking out a color scheme for your house simply overwhelm you? If you’re not sure how well a particular group of colors will mix then perhaps you should go with a more traditional color scheme? As long as you follow the simple rule of choosing a single color as your primary room color and to use other colors as accents you’ll avoid your room becoming too ‘color busy’.

Seaside color schemes are becoming increasingly popular in modern interior decorating. Fresh aqua blue, sandy tan, sea glass green and pale peach are all colors which figure strongly in this scheme. The use of pale gray shades to evoke the feel of weathered seaside boardwalks will also blend with the previously mentioned colors.

Tropical schemes include sky blue, olive green and warm brown toned colors. The use of red and purple as part of this scheme makes perfect sense as they bring tropical flowers to mind. Using a crisp white color at any stage also gives any room a more ‘airy’ feel to it.

If you want a European color scheme then using rich old world colors like dark gold, purple, blue, black and a deep red will give you the desired effect. Using these colors can add a ‘glow’ to each room.

French color schemes demand a different set of colors. The use of trendier colors like China blue, light maroon and pale gold are perfect for evoking feelings of the French countryside.

Last but not least we have the Asian color scheme. Simple black and white colors with Chinese red and blue accents are most common in this theme. The careful use of gold in this scheme is also an idea worth investigating.

Now get to work. Pick a color scheme and get started on creating the home of your dreams.

This article was provided courtesy of HomeDecorating101.info where you can get lots of information on interior home decorating ideas.

What exactly is an Oriental rug?

This is always a good place to start if one is considering a purchase as just this information alone will give one clarification and insight into what one is seeking. As the countries in the East have always been considered the Orient, a hand woven rug, made from wool, silk or cotton, from this part of the world is the genuine article. A little further delineation could be made if one also added in Western Europe, Northern Africa and Russia. I have seen beautiful handmade rugs from Romania, Uzbekistan and Egypt as well as the Caucasus region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea above Iran. The most famous rug weaving countries are Iran, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, India and Turkey. This is a tradition that dates back thousands of years.

The oldest complete rug found in recent times was discovered in 1949 in a burial site of a Prince in the Pazarik Valley of the Altai Mountains in Siberia. It was frozen in permafrost for over 2500 years! The Pazyrk Carpet is permanently on display at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. You will find it depicted in the front of almost any rug book in living color. The rug scholars are still arguing as to where it was woven but the exact same weaving techniques are still in use today.

Oriental rugs are not made in the Unites States although we do produce many machine made copies. These would be classified as "Oriental design" rugs.

An average 9 x 12 hand woven rug takes a minimum of 3000 hours of weaving, to say nothing of the time spent on the design, dye preparation, spinning of the wool and the setting up of the loom.

A Persian rug is an Oriental rug but specifically woven in the country of Iran or if an antique (100 years old or more) woven in the former Persian Empire.

All Persian rugs ARE Oriental rugs but not all Oriental rugs are Persian rugs. Hopefully, that makes sense. Probably the reason for this classification is the fact that the Persian weavers of the past were always leaders in design and quality. Proof of this can be found in any major museum in the world and is evidenced most thoroughly by the fact that the majority of designs even today, were originated by Persian weavers.

Lets talk about basics. All Oriental rugs are woven on a loom by hand. If made in a small village the loom is usually constructed of wood and not perfectly straight but if made in a professional workshop the loom would most likely be metal and more exactly designed.

The loom is strung with vertical threads, which would be the starting point of any rug. These threads are called warps and can be of cotton, wool or silk. Tying loops around a pair of the warps creates the design of the rug. Each knot is tied and individually cut by hand. One by one, variously colored strands of wool are used to create the design, one row at a time. After one row of knots have been completed, the weft is then inserted between the just completed row and the next one to be done. The wefts function to secure the knots in place and hold the rug together. Some weavers insert only one row of wefts between the rows of knots, others 2, 3, 4 and more.

Most weavers are taught to weave at an early age by a family member and the choice of how many wefts or what type of knot to tie is influenced mainly by heritage and location of the weavers. Although many of the former nomadic (pastoral) weavers now reside in villages their rugs are more often than not a reflection of patterns woven for many generations in their area, each design motif being committed to memory.

In the professional rug workshops the choice of design styles is normally dictated by the demands of the market, either overseas or locally. The warps and wefts are nearly always cotton or silk and the knot count is usually higher than that of village production. In rug workshops the weaving is carefully supervised by a master weaver who is responsible for every loom under his watchful eye. In these workshops the weavers are following an exact design drawn out on graph paper with all color choices predetermined. Tribal or village rugs are often woven in the home with many of the design elements committed to memory. The opportunity for creativity in this arena is much greater. Tribal rugs often are woven on a wool or cotton foundation. The "foundation" being another term for the warps and the wefts. There are of course exceptions to these general rules but basically these concepts hold true.

Prior to the mid 19th century, many of the weaver’s color choices were dictated by the availability of certain plants in their region or what could be obtained by trade. Before the seminal year of 1860, when chemicle based dyes first appeared on the scene, these plant based dyes were all that were available. These dyes are called vegetable dyes and have a distinct look about them. They age beautifully, work harmoniously together and the indigo dye, which creates all the ranges of blue, even preserves the wool. Usually with vegetable dyes one will see a slight or not so slight (depending on the skill of the dyer) variation in the color itself.

Also affecting this is the consideration of the wool being used. Handspun wool, being less perfectly spun will accept the colors of the dyes at different depths of the same shade and will show more variation in color than machine spun wool. Deeply saturated wool will also show less color variation which will only appear after the rug begins to age. This variation of color is termed "abrash" and adds a certain artistic quality and charm if not too pronounced.

More recently, new production using vegetable dyes and hand-spun wool has begun to appear in various areas. Started in Turkey in the 1980’s by a government sponsored program, Iran quickly followed and now there are a number or areas where these great dyes, excellent quality hand-spun wool and traditional designs are being used to create new rugs or more precisely, new works of art!

These rugs could easily be the "antiques" of tomorrow as the weavers creativity and skill is beautifully brought to fruition.

Additionally, there is another weaving technique, which is similar to a Navajo rug called a kelim. This rug is virtually all warps and wefts as there is no pile. This also is an Oriental rug but not as time consuming to weave. The patterns on kelims are normally geometric based designs using large areas of color. These rugs work quite well in contemporary interiors and are often used as wall hangings. Many are quite unique and beautiful although not as hard wearing as a knotted rug. In the past most of these kelims were woven for the weaver’s own use and have only recently become more common in the marketplace.

What is important in evaluating an Oriental Rug? After my many hundreds of hours spent purchasing rugs for my retail business I have come up with the following basics. One of the most important factors in a rug are the colors used and their combinations. Following this would be the actual design elements and how they are put together. Are they pleasing to the eye? Does the rug improve as one looks at it? Is there a sense of balance and depth?

Another important factor is the quality of the wool. What one wants to avoid is "dead wool" taken off an already butchered sheep with a caustic lye type substance. This wool is very dry to the touch, has a dull cast and very inexpensive for the weavers to purchase. Rugs woven with this type of wool do not wear well and are often sold for next to nothing which is exactly what they are worth. A rug woven with excellent wool can easily survive 50 years or more with very little wear if cared for properly.

Good quality wool will actually improve the more it is walked on and will developed an antique patina or sheen that is highly sought after by rug collectors. The moral of the story is to touch the wool, rub the palm of your hand across the face of the rugs. Compare it to another rug. It should not feel overly dry or stiff. Pick the rug up by the edge and see how much it weighs! A hard wearing rug will have some "body" to it. This of course, would not apply to silk as the weight of a silk rug is much lighter. Silk will feel cold to the touch and will have a distinctive shine! Examine the rug carefully by walking around it and viewing it from every possible angle.

Glossy wool often reflects light and sometimes on rugs woven with handspun wool you will have a dark and a light side. If the rug is old, one would look for any signs of moth damage where the pile has been eaten away. With moth eggs on the backside of the rug one will see little white lines. This is not good as the wool on the back may have been eaten so that when one vacuums the front of the rug, the wool comes out! If the rug is new, moth damage would be most unusual and is not a concern.

On older rugs one would also look for signs of repairs, such as a patch sewn in to replace a worn area or holes. Also, inspect the rug in the best possible light to ensure the pile is full as some lazy restorers just paint in the color on worn areas and the rug will have very little life left in it. If the rug is a great deal and these facts have been indicated beforehand, then fine, but if discovered by your own inspection and not indicated, simply pass on the purchase.

These beautiful works of art never completely reveal themselves on first glance but just like the most fascinating and unique person you’ve had the pleasure to meet, a good rug will spark your interest and demand your attention. The longer you gaze upon it, the more it’s beauty and many nuances will be revealed. Always take your time when making a purchase and if possible it is usually best to try the rug in your home for a day or two. This is called taking the rug on approval and any dealer of merit will easily agree to this in home trial period.

Find a retailer that you like, feel confident with and one that offers the types of rugs that you find most pleasing and you’re on your way!

http://www.paradiseorientalrugs.com

© Penny Krieger 2006

Penny Krieger is the owner of Paradise Oriental Rugs, Inc., formerly located in Santa Rosa, CA. She now sells Oriental Rugs on an appointment basis in Sonoma and Marin Counties in Northern CA, specializing in unique vegetable dyed rugs from Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey.

To see many of her beautiful rugs go to:

http://www.paradiseorientalrugs.com

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