Helpful New Pages

We have posted some new pages that discuss different aspects of rugs and design on our site. Here is a list of those new pages; shag rugs, wool rugs, hand tufted rug, area rugs, sisal rug, oriental rugs, Persian rugs, carpet rugs, bath rugs, braided rugs, discount rugs, kids rugs and contemporary rugs. Check them out. We hope they are helpful and we appreciate any feedback. 

Are Rugs Being Replaced?

In an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette there is an article about a thing called a “floor cloth”. Should we in the area rug industry be worried? Will the world be heaving out their rugs in favor of these new floor coverings? Here is a clip from the article.

“An alternative to area rugs, they are made of heavyweight cotton canvas painted with latex or acrylics and sealed with many coats of a clear protectant for substantial durability.” Colorado
Springs Gazette

Nothing like coming home, sitting in your favorite chain, kicking off you shows and running your toes though many hardened coats of durable clear protectant. They come up with a better solution for this product later in the article. “…some people don’t even put them on the floor, but hang them on the wall instead.” Now there you go. Leave the rug where it is and hang the art on the walls. And everything is right with the world again…

Taming Killer Rugs

Here are 5 tips from Forbes.com for “Keeping Seniors on Their Feet”...literally…

When an elderly person falls, it could cause life-threatening injury.

#1Keep the house well lit. Use bright lamps and overhead lighting, and keep night lights throughout the house.
#2 Fasten area rugs and carpeting well to the floor, and use nonskid rug pads.
#3 Keep electrical cords neat and out of areas where people walk.
#4 Install hand rails in bathrooms and stairways.
#5 In the kitchen, keep items within easy reach. Don't store things too high, where a stepladder is needed to reach them.

Link Added for your convenience (In case you don’t already own rugs you can slip on).

How a Rug Can Save Family Unity

In the “Ask Ellie” Column in the Toronto Star a women calling herself “Ungrateful Daughter-in-Law” describes a situation in which her father in law had problems putting in flooring. This has left an ugly section of floor and a possible rift in the family. Ellie’s advice “Put an area rug over it”. That’s the spirit Ellie…Area Rugs…is there anything you can’t do…

An Area Rug with a Color Selector Switch?

Thanks to a gentleman named Gregory A. Sotzing one day we may be able to change the color of our area rugs and other décor with the flip of a switch. In fact it seems it would be possible to have patterns or even pictures appear on cloth furnishings.

Sotzing, an associate professor of chemistry and polymer science at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, has developed a flexible electrochromic polymer that can change colors--and that will probably soon be able to produce images--in any fabric. The Free Lance-Star

Besides the obvious decorating applications of this product I can think of a few practical joke applications for images appearing on your area rug...

The Most Expensive Rug Ever

The Reading Eagle of Reading, PA is reporting that a Chelaberd Kazak rug sold at Freeman's Auction in Philadelphia for a world record price of $341,625. This came as a bit of a surprise in that the rug was estimated to sell for between $15,000 and $25,000. OK Maybe “a bit” of a surprise is an understatement since it sold for almost 14 times its estimated worth. This also garnered the auction house over $40,000 in “buyer's fee(s)”. Once again “a bit” of a surprise in that they should have been expecting less than $5,000. So it looks like everyone is happy. Or we hope everyone is…If the buyer doesn’t really love area rugs they could be suffering from “a bit” of buyers remorse.

Update: 1/24/07 I found a picture of the rug in the Maine Antique Digest.

Witches Need Rugs Too…

In a story from the Concord Monitor Online the description of “a rug with a pentacle” caught my eye. It is a story of the mixed success of a store opened and run by a “Wiccan”…that’s a witch to you and me. The store “cater(s) to a pagan or Wiccan clientele”. I haven’t lived in the NH area for a long time but I don’t remember many of my neighbors practicing pagan ceremonies. Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. We here at RugSale will have to follow the progress of this store, but for now, you won’t find any rugs with pentacles in our store.

The Political Expense of Cutting a Rug

Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick is not only fighting for his political life, he is fighting for the right to use a 2,000-square-foot apartment in that states Capitol. It is an apartment that he and his wife spent more than $1 million renovating. It is the only living quarters in a state capitol in the nation and will probably stay that way.

From our perspective just what he did to the New Zealand carpet would be enough to run him out of office on a rail. The Austin American-Statesman reported that “the $36,000 New Zealand wool carpets (were) cut up for area rugs after it was decided hardwood floors would look better”.

Any other politician who is planning to spend tax payer money furnishing his personal apartment may want to visit us for his area rugs. As a matter of fact he may want to see what we have in clearance.

Why You Pick The Area Rug First

There is an article about area rugs in the OC Registers life section of their online paper. It is an excellent article about some of the new trends in area rug fashion. It rightly emphasizes the importance of the rug as the basis of your room design. Professional designers pick the rug first to define the palette of colors for the rest of the room.

…designers like to start with the rug when outfitting an interior, pulling out one or more of its colors for upholstery, walls and window treatments, as well as accessories such as pillows, lamp shades and even flowers in a vase. OC Register

The rug, as the basis of the room décor, needs to visually tie the other colors in the room together. Buying furniture and other furnishings and then trying to find a rug that has those colors is much tougher than doing it the other way around.

But most people buy furniture first, considering rugs an accessory. With the more visually provocative rugs, that can be a challenge. OC Register

The best procedure to decorating a room from scratch is to pick an area rug in the color array you like best and build the room around that.

Former Kas Vice President Moves To Surya Rugs

Former East Coast regional vice president of sales for Kas Oriental Rugs, Jeff Gonzalez, has accepted a position with Surya Rugs.

“Gonzalez has a proven track record in sales and sales management and he will be an integral component of our executive team as we continue our fast growth trajectory,” said Satya Tiwari, president of Surya. FurnInfo.com

Joan Catello, previously national vice president of sales and marketing for Kas Oriental Rugs has taken the position of vice president of national accounts at Surya. Apparenty Surya was impressed with Kas Oriental rugs staff. This leaves a bit of backfilling to be done at Kas.

Sharp Guy Hacks Roomba Vacuum for Wii remote - Video

Chris Hughes, a cleaver guy and clearly a rug lover, hacked his Roomba vacuum cleaner so he could control it with his Wii remote. For all of you who love your area rugs but hate vacuuming check out the video below.

Here is the Source Code Chris spoke of. It is hosted by ExpertInsight.com. Happy Vacuuming…

Sphinx to Introduce New Collections and Patterns

Home Textiles Today reports that Sphinx by Oriental Weavers will introduce 6 new machine-made collections and 14 new patterns for 2 existing collections.

The new machine-made collections will be: Luxor, Samarkand, Channing, Pembroke, Zen, and Haven. They will be adding 8 new patterns to the Tones Collection and 6 patterns to the Evolution Collection. The Tones Collection are machine-woven, hand-carved polypropylene area rugs. The Evolution Collection are shag-like, polypropylene machine-woven rugs.

Home Textiles Today says Sphinx by Oriental Weavers will introduce these additions to there current offerings at the Atlanta International Area Rug market in January.

Brick and Mortar Stores Tighten Return Policies

Many retail store are tightening their return policies because of theft and fraud. Here is a story from CBS News.

LaRocca sees thousands of return fraud cases every year, and many are caught on tape. In one example, a woman tried to return an area rug at a department store. The clerk didn't realize that minutes earlier, security cameras caught her stealing the same rug right off the shelf. The woman disappeared as soon as she got her refund. CBS News

This is costing shoppers at brick and mortar retail stores more money.

"You and I as consumers are paying a little extra at the register, almost a hidden crime tax, to cover those losses committed by people stealing merchandise and taking advantage of retail return policies," LaRocca said. CBS News

Because of the nature of our business this can’t happen to us and you will never pay a “hidden crime tax” for area rugs with us.

Feizy Rugs signs contracts to Create Two New Collections

As reported in Fibre2Fashion.com Feizy Area Rugs recently signed two contracts, one with Sandra Lee and the other with Tracy Porter, to create two new rug collections.

"Feizy Rugs recently signed two multiyear contracts, of which first one gives it a license for Sandra Lee accent and area rugs to deal in Sandra’s home collection of furniture and accessories. Second one gives it license for Tracy Porter area rugs to deal in Tracy’s collection of home accessories, tabletop collections and fabrics." Fibre2Fashion.com

Feizy Area Rugs will launch Sandra’s rug collection in January at gift, home furnishing and rug markets in Atlanta and also Las Vegas World Market. Porter’s collection will be unveiled in January at Las Vegas World Market also. It will be interesting to see how these two collections, developed at the same time with the same manufacturer, will differ based on there namesakes’ strengths, Sandra Lee being an author and lifestyle expert, while Tracy Porter is a designer and artisan.

Nourison Announces Promotions

One of rugsale.com's most important vendors, Nourison, has announced the promotion of several executives as this year draws to a close. These promotions are intended to position them for next years plan to expand into new categories.

“We're poised to raise the bar for the entire industry in 2007 with more new product introductions and entrance into new manufacturing categories…" said Executive Vice President, Rita Karmiol.

Carol Alfonso has been promoted to the position of Executive Director of the Catalogue Division and Ron Giampiccolo to Executive Director Of National Accounts. Joyce Lowe has moved up to the Executive Director of National Buying Groups position.

"These talented employees are responsible for the continued successful growth of the company,” Karmiol said, when she made the announcement during Nourison's national sales meeting last week.

Visit here to stay in touch with information about Nourison area rugs at rugsale.com.

Hand Tufted Area Rugs

Here is a fairly in depth article article on hand tufted area rugs and the tufting process.

“Hand-tufted area rugs are an excellent choice for anyone who would like to have a hand made rug but finds the prices to be a little out of their range.”

It discusses why they are at such a reasonable price point and explains how they are made. If you have ever wondered what the heck “hand tufted means check it out.

Ottoman Rugs of the 15th to 18th centuries

The Museum of Islamic Art in the Berlin had an opening, Friday October 27th, on the Ottoman Rugs of the 15th to 18th centuries in Saxon Parishes of Transylvania.

“The afternoon saw Volkmar Enderlein, the former director of the museum, speaking on Persian-Safavidian Elements of Patterns in Transylvanian Rugs, followed by the grand old lady of German rug science, Christine Klose, presenting Connections of two Early Transylvanian Rugs with Timurid and Turkoman Rugs” TurkoTek.com

I couldn’t make the opening. I had a previous engagement…at home making Mac and Cheese for my two sons. But this web site has some beautiful pictures of these area rugs.

Once Again Crooks Use The Rug Dealer Defense

Two businessmen use semantics to try to avoid being convicted of drug-money laundering, as reported in The Repository. The two men planned to sell a 43-CARAT diamond and the former estate of ex-boxing champ Mike Tyson for $19.5 million in Rug money…No wait I mean Drug Money.

“Drug dealers are businessmen, but drug dealers also have other businesses that are legitimate businesses…”Monea said. “…the point is, I don’t have a problem doing any business with rug dealers, do you?” To that, Scott replied, “Rug dealers? No, I love rug dealers.” The Repository

Once again common criminals try to use the good name of rug dealers to avoid the consequences of their actions. But those of us in the Area Rug industry won’t let it get us down. We will just keep working to make the world a better place…One Rug At A Time…

Shop Online From Home…It’s Safer

Men posing as rug salesmen were robbing the elderly in the MD area.

“Men posing as rug salesmen would visit homes and while one man showed off a large rug, another burglarized the home.” WTKR, Newschannel Three

Ignore that knock on the door and get your area rugs online at RugSALE.

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