Shopping for a rug means running into three words over and over: washable, power-loomed, hand-woven. They describe how the rug was built, and the difference decides how it lives in your house. Here is what each one actually means, and which one we make.
01 · Hand-woven
A person at a loom, knot by knot. Wool most often, sometimes silk, usually with a hand-tied fringe. Every piece is slightly different because a hand made it, and no two are the same even when the pattern is.
What you get: weight, depth, and an object that ages into something. What you accept: the price of months of labour, professional cleaning only, and a rug that does not enjoy a wet dog. A spill on a hand-woven wool rug is an appointment, not an afternoon.
02 · Power-loomed
A machine lays every tuft at the same height, which is why power-loomed rugs look crisp and lie flat. Most of the rugs sold anywhere are made this way. They are heavier than a washable rug, often thicker, and usually built on a stiff backing.
What you get: substance underfoot and a low price for the size. What you accept: it does not go in a washing machine. Thickness plus a rigid backing means the drum will crack the base long before the face is clean, and most of them need a separate pad to stop them sliding.
03 · Washable, which is what we build
A cotton-faced weave bonded to a woven non-slip base, about 5 mm from top to bottom, made as one piece so the whole rug goes into a household machine. No pad to buy, nothing to separate before washing, nothing to align afterwards.
What you get: a rug you stop protecting. Kitchens, entryways, kids' rooms, under a dining table, anywhere a spill is a matter of when. What you accept: it is thin. If you want the plush sink of a deep pile underfoot, this is not that rug, and we would rather say so than sell you a disappointment.
04 · Which one for which room
- Spills are a schedule, not a surprise
- Washable, no contest
- Formal room, low traffic, want weight
- Power-loomed or hand-woven
- Pets, children, or both
- Washable
- Heirloom, and you will pay for it
- Hand-woven
We only make the third kind. That is a decision rather than a limitation: the family has four generations in rug making, and the useful thing to do with old patterns was to put them somewhere they could be lived on. What we did not want was to explain to someone that their rug had to go out to be cleaned.
05 · The patterns are still the old ones
The construction is new. The drawings are not. Heriz and Serapi medallions, Anatolian fields, Berber diamonds, gabbeh blocks: the range is built from the same archive that a hand-woven rug would come from. Browse Vintage Heritage for the archive patterns, or vintage style if you want the faded, walked-on finish specifically.
If you are choosing by room rather than by construction, the sizing pieces are more useful than this one: living room sizing, dining room sizing, and hallway runners.
06 · The washing part, briefly
Cold, gentle, mild detergent, spin off or low, dry flat. No tumble dryer. Full method in the care guide and a longer walk-through in how to wash a rug in a washing machine. If the room's measurements do not match a standard size, everything in the range can be cut to measure.