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Celebrating 15 Years
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June 2016
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Greetings!
 | Margaret Blunt, Owner,
Sew Beautiful |
It's the perfect time of year; finally the rain has ended, and the temperatures are still mild and comfortable. Another great perk is our lawns are lush and green! Mother Nature sure had the right idea when she gave us grass. The feeling of walking barefoot through 'nature's carpet' is like a massage for our feet!
However, since growing grass inside your home is not an option, we have rugs that can give us that same luxurious feel. In this month's Feature Article, we have outlined some tips to help you choose just the right area rug for your home.
Check out the photos in our Feature Project to see how we helped a couple of our clients select custom rugs to coordinate perfectly with their rooms.
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Feature Project - Custom Rugs
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Selecting the Perfect Area Rug
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Working with Interior Designer Ty Christian of Parkemoor Studio, we decided a custom-made rug was the perfect solution for this newly renovated master bath. Davis & Davis offers a truly customizable rug option - you choose your design, colors, and loop or cut pile - allowing us to coordinate the rugs with the countertop, flooring and overall color palette of the master suite. A round medallion design in shades of purple, gray and cream anchors the center of the room, while a rectangular runner in a simple pattern and similar colors completes the ensemble and offers warmth and comfort under foot in front of the vanity.
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For this client's living room, a new hand-tufted wool rug was the answer to anchoring this space. Here we needed something to coordinate with the newly purchased furnishings in the room. Working with solid and muted fabric patterns on the furniture allowed us to look for something that could make a statement in the room. We landed on this beautiful rug in a modern floral motif. The shades of gray, creams and soft pinks beautifully coordinate all of the furniture in the space, making it feel cozy and cohesive. |  |
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...The most expensive rug ever sold was this Clark Sickle-Leaf carpet at Sotheby's. Purchase price before fees: $33.7 million, or $600,000 per square foot! This exquisite carpet is more than 360 years old, and was previously owned by industrialist William Clark in Paris in the early 1900s. The handwoven Persian carpet measures 8'9" x 6'5", and has been regularly displayed at the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC. Made during the Safavid Dynasty by several weavers in the 1650s, the intricately woven red, blue and green rug - with an asymmetrical pattern of sickle-shaped leaves - has a wool pile, and the foundation is made of cotton and silk. The rug, which is in excellent condition for its age, has been called "one of the most iconic and important carpets ever to appear at auction."
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How to Choose an Area Rug
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Are you in the market for an area rug but unsure of how to get started? Keep these tips in mind, and you'll have the perfect rug for your space in no time!
1)Determine the size you need by measuring the space you'd like to fill with an area rug and then build a floor plan. The following are several suggested layouts that work for most spaces: Classic: if your sofa and chairs are up against the wall, your rug should be large enough to fit under the front legs of all pieces. Floating: if your sofa and chairs float in the middle of the room, your rug should be large enough to fit under all four legs of each piece of furniture. Dining Room: measure the length and width of your dining table and add two feet to each side. Most dining room tables require a rug that's at least eight feet wide. Bedroom: Extend a rug from the bottom two-thirds of the bed. Alternatively, you could also place runners on each side, or a single runner at the foot of the bed.
2) Durability is an important consideration in your choice of material. Foot traffic and the location of the rug will be other factors in determining the best material for your rug. For hallways, family rooms and dining rooms, wool rugs are great because of their sturdy pile, their ability to repel water/stains and their comfort under foot. A more cost-effective option for the dining room or other high-traffic areas is a polypropylene rug because it's durable and easy to clean, but less expensive than wool. If traffic isn't a huge concern, cotton rugs are a nice option for kitchens, kid's rooms or casual spaces because they too are easy to clean and less expensive than wool rugs; however, they have a shorter lifespan.
3) Material and construction go hand- in-hand with durability, and also affect the overall price of the rug. Once you've determined the best material to meet your durability needs, consider construction next. Hand-knotted rugs, made by weavers, are at the high end of the budget and can sometimes take many months to complete, depending on the design's complexity. The most common hand-knotting traditions are Persian, Turkish and Tibetan. Hand-tufted rugs are made by stretching a canvas over a frame having the design drawn by hand onto the canvas. A tufting gun is then used to push yarn through the canvas to cover the entire surface area before a latex backing with canvas is applied. Hand-tufted rugs can have either a loop or cut pile, and are slightly less expensive then hand-knotted. Flatweave is hand-woven and typically is reversible with no pile. Flatweave is often used to describe kilims and dhurries, and are generally the least expensive of the handmade rugs. Finally, there are Machine-Made rugs which are constructed on large automated looms. These are the most cost-effective rugs.
4)Pattern is important! Let the rug take center stage and be the inspiration for the rest of the room. Select paint colors, fabrics, furniture, and accessories that coordinate with the design and feel of the rug - the result will be a stunning, well-decorated space. If you already have furniture, keep in mind the fabrics and colors already in the room. If the main upholstered piece, like a sofa, is a neutral or solid color, then feel free to make a statement by adding a bold and colorful design that complements it. If the sofa is already patterned, then consider choosing a solid or neutral rug to anchor the space, and match the secondary color in the rug to your sofa or key piece of furniture.
5)Go Custom. Can't find the perfect rug? Vendors like Davis & Davis have a custom rug program that allows you to choose your own design, style and colors. For more information, give us a call at the studio and we can set up a time to show you this amazing program.
6)Don't forget the foundation. Last but not least, remember to add a rug pad to the mix; it will keep your rug in place, protect your floor, add comfort and preserve the life of your rug.
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If you, or someone you know, are looking for help with a decorating project please contact us for an in-home consultation. We help homeowners dress their windows and complete their rooms with well designed and beautifully made custom window treatments, pillows, cushions, bedding, upholstery, area rugs and more. To schedule an in-home consultation, call (410) 544-3300 or email
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Hunter Douglas Rebate through June 27
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