Cuttin' a Rug (Rugs)

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	Rugs
Date:	29/06/09 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Variety, easy to change, can give a room a whole new look quickly and easily

Disadvantages: Can slip - make sure you use an underlay on hard surfaces in particular

In the western world for the past 50 years, the fashion has been, by and large, for wall to wall carpeting.

This fashion began with the wealthy and as we collectively got richer, we followed suit. All my life I have lived in homes with wall to wall carpeting however I have always loved having rugs in my home.

Rugs have grown in popularity as the fashion for wall to wall carpeting has come under attack with the growing trend of stripped wood floors or laminate flooring - a rug adds warmth to both the room and the feet.

When I was a child my parents didn't have rugs but this changed when I hit my teens and a shaggy pile fake sheepskin rug appeared in our living room. These were de rigueur in the 1970s and I was suitably impressed.

When I got my first home I had cheap rugs in the living room which I used to ring the changes - cheap rugs are an inexpensive and easy way to give your living room a fresh look for instance.

My husband was a huge fan of rugs, and when we first moved in together he was taken by some Chinese rugs in Allders, dragging me from Fulham, where we lived at the time, to Croydon to check them out.

Up until I encountered these Chinese rugs my experience of rugs had been of the cheaper variety - but these were something else altogether. Firstly, they were huge - not the kind of rug you would have in front of the fireplace for instance. They were also very thick, and very, very expensive. Purchased nearly 20 years ago, we paid nearly £400 each for these, and that was in the sale.

However - they really gave rooms a truly luxurious feel - when you stepped on them you sank into the pile - and they were purchases we never regretted.

Sadly, one of these rugs bit the dust several years ago when our daughter got hold of some match pots for emulsion paint and had a field day in the living room when our backs were turned. Despite frantic scrubbing with water and carpet shampoo, one of the rugs was damaged beyond repair.

Ironically, the second one remains in my daughter's bedroom and she has clearly learned from her earlier antics as it still looks almost as good today as it was when first purchased.

We did, however, have to replace the ruined rug and my husband decided we would get some more oriental rugs, and he went so far as to buy a book depicting classic oriental rug designs to get some ideas of what to go for.

Once again our port of call was Allders, but this time they had a branch on Oxford Street for us to visit. Sadly this branch was short-lived and is now Primark.

There was a sale on and we decided we wanted to buy a large wool rug which was predominantly red in colour. The selection in store was excellent and one caught our eye from the off, despite it being considerably thinner than the lamented Chinese rug. This rug was a Bokhara rug, which is a traditional type manufactured in Pakistan.

We decided to purchase this, but my husband was drawn towards a much smaller genuine Persian rug which was reduced in the sale to a rarely affordable price and he decided to get this one too. I have to stress it still wasn't cheap and was still more expensive than the far larger Bokhara rug we had spotted first.

The Bokhara rug, despite being far thinner than the old Chinese rug, is still very soft to walk on and the traditional design is, I think, lovely. These rugs are available in a variety of different colours with varying designs and are worth considering if you want to buy an oriental rug for your home.

The Persian rug is a little thicker and is trimmed on the rear with leather and uses thicker ply wool. You can tell this rug has been woven using more traditional methods and is, quite frankly, the nicest rug we ever owned, and to this day it is something I am very proud of, in spite of the very high price tag.

Cleaning them is easy too - I use the stair cleaning attachment on my upright Dyson to gently lift the dust. On hardier rugs I just vacuum straight over but being aware of the fact my Dyson has brushes and very strong suction, it's sometimes better to be safe than sorry - it's not unheard of for rugs to unravel under the strength of a Dyson's suction.

One thing you do have to be careful about with some rugs is slippage. A rug slipping can cause a very nasty accident so ensure you use underlay if the rug moves - my Persian, for instance, doesn't move on the carpeted floor, but the large red Bokhara rug does. As a result we had to purchase special underlay to place on the rug if it is going to sit on carpeted floor - different underlay is available for laminate or wood floor to prevent slips and I would suggest using underlay on all rugs placed on this kind of flooring.

Oriental rugs have another advantage and that is the fact they do not date. However you can buy rugs which are designed to be funky and fashionable and this can be a cheap and easy way to make a statement or update a room.

I particularly recommend IKEA if you want to put rugs in a young child's bedroom - you can pick up rag rugs for under a fiver here and these are hardwearing and very easy to clean - just bung them in the washing machine when they are looking a little grubby and they come out looking as good as new.

I could not imagine living in a home that didn't have rugs. To me they are more important than a fireplace for making a living room feel homely, and are a great way to add colour to a room.

So if you want to change your colour scheme without redecorating, why not consider buying a humble, or perhaps not so humble, rug - and perhaps add a throw and some cushions to add to the effect? Its one cheap, easy and clean way to give a room a whole new look!

Summary: Ring the changes with a rug