Oriental Rugs Buying Guide: What Size Rug for What Room? Oriental Rugs Terminology
By Bijan Aziz Submitted On May 16, 2006
What size rug for what room?
Besides the obvious questions of
color and style to be decided by an individual's taste, to determine what type
of rug or what size rug is needed for a given room, you should consider several
factors.
Of course, the price will play an
important role in that decision. Within your budgetary parameters, however, the
type of construction (weaving) and quality you choose will be a key factor in
ensuring that you will be happy with your new purchase. Putting a light-colored
needlepoint runner in a foyer or hallway is not usually recommended. Why? Even
top-quality needlepoint are not made to stand up to high traffic, especially in
entry areas where dirt and salt can damage the rug. Conversely, a beautiful
soumak flat-weave which has a much denser construction to resist dirt and
traffic could be perfect for such an application. The needlepoint can be a
wonderful addition to a bedroom (a barefoot area, where the soumak with its
rougher texture might be less desirable from a comfort standpoint. These are
just two examples of how the placement of different construction should be
taken into consideration.
Another factor you will certainly want to consider is size. From small scatter rugs to palatial carpets, both the actual room size and the specific decorating scheme are critical in determining the size of the rug best suited to your needs.
Dining Room
Dining room rugs need to be sized for placement of the chairs and table as well as for the absolute measurements of the room. Take into account how much of the pattern will be hidden or obscured under the table. A center medallion design would not be the ideal choice for this purpose. A rug that is less than 7 or 7.5 feet wide will prove uncomfortably small. An 8' x 10' rug is the most common appropriate (minimum) size unless the room and the table are exceptionally large and then 9' x 12' or a 10' x 14' oriental rug might be better. The only time that a rug is less than 7 feet wide might have to suffice is when the room itself is too confined for a 7 feet wide rug. The reason for all of this is that even a relatively narrow table will be 42 inches wide. To avoid having the front legs of a chair on the rug and the back legs off, even when someone is seated at the table, even when someone is seated at the table. Two additional feet are always needed on both sides of the table. This means that the rug must be wider by 2 feet for each chair on each side of the table, thus totaling 7' - 9" (absolute minimum width). A typical 6' x 9' area rug will only be measuring 5' - 6" wide and 8' - 6" long and that is virtually too narrow for the table and chairs.
Living Room
Living rooms can be a wide array
of layouts and elements. Sofas, chairs, occasional tables, and lighting
fixtures can be arranged in a single unified configuration or separate seating
or conversation areas. In either case, your rugs should play a key role in
focusing and enhancing the placement of your other furnishings. In effect, they
should function as the "foundation" of your design plan for any area
in which they are used. There is no right way and there is no wrong way. The
bigger the rug, the more it will pull all of the elements of the room together.
The smaller the rug, the less it will pull all of the elements of the room
together. A larger rug will make the room look more appealing. A smaller rug
will define social groupings within a room. The possibilities of decorating
with rugs are endless, and with the Persian design oriental rug selections, you
can be assured of the very best in color, design, and quality for every room in
your home.
Area Rugs: Terminology
Abrash: The word used to describe
the variations in color found within a single color in an oriental carpet.
Abrash is commonly seen in tribal nomadic rugs and reproductions of them. Mild
Abrash is caused by variations in yarn diameter native to nomadic dyeing and
yarn spinning. Heavy Abrash is caused by the change over to a new dye batch.
Generally, Abrash is desirable in tribal carpets and undesirable in urban new
rugs.
Afshan: Named for the Afshar, it
describes the presence of silk pile in an urban rug.
Afshar:
A Turkic-speaking nomadic group
living mostly in southern Iran is known for the fine quality of their rugs.
Agra:
The city of Agra was one of the
great rug weaving centers of India. The carpets known by this name are strongly
influenced by Persian prototypes and can include both center medallion and
overall patterns. Most commonly, however, Agras feature highly stylized floral
motifs arranged, often, asymmetrically, in the field.
Antique Wash:
A chemical bath that tones down
colors to simulate aging.
Airbrush:
A brush designed with a series of
delicate strips of a different tone closely paralleling each other running horizontally
across the face of the rug. In wool rugs, this is done deliberately to cheer up
a plain, open field background which the weaver felt was monotonous.
Ardabil:
Home of 14th-century tombs of
Sheik Safi Ad-Din And Shah Ismaeil. The city that shares the name of The
Ardebil Carpet one of the finest and most famous objects of Islamic art. There
is controversy, though, as to whether the carpet was made there. Modern era
rugs from the region are generally of dubious quality.
Art Silk:
Also called artificial silk, it
describes a yarn for weaving made from mercerized cotton that attempts to take
on the appearance of silk. The fiber is very soft to the touch and used to
create a price category for smaller budgets whose taste runs toward expensive
silk rugs. Rugs sold as silk as given a burn test to check for the presence of
cotton.
Aubusson:
Fine flat carpets are woven in
France from the 15th to 19th centuries. They were derived from Moorish weaving
with the assistance of Architects and Artists of the royal court.
Aubusson:
A flat-weave rug, generally with
a floral medallion in pastel colors, once woven in France. The designs of these
rugs have been adapted to pile carpets and are now woven in India and China.
Axminster Rug:
A complex machine-made rug is woven
into a flexible cotton frame that can contain up to 70 colors of wool. Its
invention in 1882 amid the industrial revolution practically destroyed the hand-knotted
rug industry. It was thought that mechanized items were going to be of superior
quality, a theory later shelved.
Axminster Loom:
A popular loom for making machine-made
rugs, it offers flexibility in color and design.
Bakhtiyari:
A nomadic group of southern
Persia. This tribes weaving is popular among collectors and the rugs themselves
tend to be of unusually durable construction lasting as long as 200 years in
heavy wear environments. The most popular design features a square grid with a
floral vase in each.
Baluch:
A nomadic tribe living in
Afghanistan and bordering countries who produce a large volume of commercial
weaving. Their rugs are generally brown, black, and gold.
Bessarabian:
This type of Kilim originates in
a part of Romania that is now part of Ukraine. Designs usually feature
curvilinear floral patterns and are more formal, sophisticated, and elaborate
than those found in other areas of southeast Europe.
Bidjar (or Bijar):
The rug design was named for the
Bidjar region of Iranian Azerbaijan. Originally the design was Kurdish
featuring hundreds of trees and was responsible for earning the region its fine
reputation. Commercial Bidjar is factory woven and features a distinctive
diamond shape medallion. Commercial Bidjar is thought to be the most durable
rugs in history as most will last 300 years. This has earned the Bidjar the
colorful moniker The Iron Rug of Persia. Both types of Bidjar are still made in
limited quantities.
Border Rug:
A rug that features a design on
the outer rim of the rug, surrounding the field.
Boteh:
A small oriental rug motif that
resembles a pine cone or pear.
Braided Rug:
A rug is made by braiding yarn
around a core and shaping it into a rug. Braids can be tubular (shaped around
only one core, which forms around braid) or flat (shaped around two core yarns,
which makes a flat braid).
Bukhara (also Bokhara, Bokara, or
Bocarra):
Turkoman rugs are referred to as
Bokharas. The pattern most associated with these rugs is that of rows of
repeated geometric motifs, or guls, woven on a red background.
Bukhara (or Bokhara):
The capital of Uzbekistan and the
traditional trading center for Turkmen tirbal carpets. Today, rugs called
Bokhara are generally commercial copies woven in Pakistan and India. Actual
Turkmen carpets are called by their tribal names to ease confusion with their
popular reproductions. Commercial Bokhara rugs were the best selling hand-knotted
rugs in the world.
Burn Test:
A small tuft of fibers from a rug
may be burned to test for its content. For example, cotton has a vegetable
smell when burned. Wool smells faintly like hair. Silk smells distinctly like
human hair when burned and leaves no residue or ashes.
Carding:
The combing of fibers with wire-bristle
brushes before the spinning of yarn.
Chanted Rugs:
A technique used for duplicate
manufacture of the finest urban rugs. The colors of the pre-dyed yarn are
chanted rhythmically to assure that rugs are more perfect than rugs made with
other techniques. Most fine carpets from Tabriz and Isfahan (or Isphahan) are
made this way.
Chi-Chi:
The often derided name fro
Caucasian type rugs made in Chechnia and Dagistan.
Chin Wool:
The fine whiskers from the chin
of sheep are sometimes set aside for a special ceremonial rug. Chin wool rugs
are considered finer than silk ones but are very rare. Turkmen tribes most
notably use this fiber for their finest carpets.
Chrome Dyes:
Synthetic dyes use potassium
bichromate to form a permanent bond between yarn and the dye. More widely used
than vegetable dyes because they are colorfast.
Cross-woven:
A rug is woven horizontally on
Wilton loom. (More commonly, rugs are handwoven vertically.) The cross-woven
technique allows fringes to be incorporated into the rug rather than sewn on
later.
Dhurrie (Dhurie):
A reversible, flat-woven rug with
a loose weave and a casual feel, often brightly colored. Dhurries are usually
woven in India with either cotton or wool. The design is created by
interweaving colored weft threads through the warp threads.
Ersari:
A large mostly settled tribe of
northwest Afghanistan who makes both urban and tribal rugs. They are renowned
for the quality of their nomadic saddles and tent gear.
Field:
The center of an area rug. It may
have a specific pattern or be of a plain color.
Flat-weave:
A catchall term that describes
any rug without pile including Soumaks, Kilim, Verneh, Sozzani, and Dhurrie,
Aubusson carpets are also flat but are excluded due to their extreme
complexity.
Foundation:
The combination of warps and
wefts in the body of a rug.
Fringe:
Warps extending from the ends of
a rug, which are treated in several ways to prevent the weft and the knots from
unraveling.
Gabeh (Ghabeh):
A fluffy long piled rug used by
nomads as a mattress. They have only been sold commercially in the West since the
1990s. Gabeh usually has a simple colorful design with a pastoral scene. The
Gabehs charm has only been appreciated recently and they now are being produced
commercially for export.
Gileem:
See Kilim.
Ground:
The interlaced combination of
warp and weft comprises the fabric. In pile rugs, the ground is referred to as
the foundation.
Guard stripe:
Stripes or lesser borders on either
side of the main border.
Gul:
The Persian word for flower describes
the common ornaments found in Turkmen carpets. Guys are the design element often
mistaken for elephants feet.
Handmade Rug (or Hand Made Rug):
A rug that is either entirely
hand-knotted (finished with knots) or hands tufted (yarn is pushed through the
canvas using a tufting instrument). These rugs generally are made of wool or
other fine materials such as silk. They are generally more expensive than
machine-made carpets.
Herati Border:
A rug pattern consisting of a
rosette surrounded by four leaves. The rosette is often found inside a diamond
shape.
Hereke:
The Turkish city is famous for
its factories where the most elaborate silk rugs in the world are woven. Though
Hereke is in Turkey, they use the Persian Senneh knot in rugs made there.
Heriz:
A large city located near the
border between Iran and Azerbaijan. The geometric medallion rugs woven there in
the early 20th century were extremely popular in Europe and The United States.
Commercial carpets bearing the Heriz designs are woven in every rug producing
country in the world. The Heriz design is the most popular Persian design in
the West.
Hooked rug:
A rug is made by using a hooking
device (either a hand-operated machine) to push and loop yarn through a canvas.
This is either left looped (creating a "loop hooked" or "latched
hook" rug) or sheared to create an open pile.
Jufti Knot:
A knot tied over four warps
instead of the usual two.
Copyright 2005 Bijan Aziz
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