Best Practices for Making Floors Look Great

Posted by Dirk Williams on October 16th, 2009

Beautiful carpet is something that can be enjoyed for many years and there is a lot to be said for the plush fibers that allow many days and nights of resting on the floor or rolling around with your kids having a great time.

Over time though, those carpet fibers wear down and your once beautiful carpet can lose its plush feel and also the clean appearance it once had. In high traffic areas such as entry ways and exits or rooms that are used frequently such as the living area or family room can see the most of this wear and can start to look rather drab. There are also home owners who have nothing but hardwood flooring and even those hardwood floors are prone to high traffic breakdown.

One of the best ways to solve a high traffic floor problem and to be able to maintain the beautiful appearance of your floors is to purchase a few area rugs for these high traffic areas. Sometimes, we also view the floor as a decorative piece and an area rug can add an excellent accent piece to the ambiance of any room.

Selecting a rug is not just as simple as going into a store and seeing a rug that is not hideous and buy it. There are several things you should consider when you are looking to purchase an area rug and the following are some of the more popular examples of the type of rugs that you should consider when looking to purchase an area rug or two.

Depending on the room you are planning on placing the rug in and your budget, this can be a fairly easy choice as long as you take your time and look at all of the different styles that are available to you. One style would be a faded oriental rug that you can purchase at an almost any furniture store because they usually use these rugs as part of their displays as well, and there is typically nothing in a furniture store that is not for sale. If you state that you are interested in a rug, most places will sell it to you. The faded type of Oriental rug will add class to just about any room, but make sure it does not class with the room decor, for example if you have an English country room, you would not want to put an oriental rug in there because it does not stick with the theme of the room.

Another good rug would be one that has a floral design that is hooked for a more Victorian type of room or a more antique room, maybe even an old-world style of room. There are so many different floral designs to choose from and it would be difficult to not be able to at least find one that will go with just about any decor that is in this style.

Another good place for this type of rug would be in a breakfast nook or on most dining room tiles or hardwood floors. Typically, these rooms have a bland color on the floor and adding a floral area rug will give the room a very welcoming feel.

If you are looking for new ways to decorate your home. Check out Birdhouses and more at this website. They have a fantastic selection of home decor.

 

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Finding the Correct Oriental Rug

Posted by Dirk Anderson on October 16th, 2009

The beauty of having an oriental area rug is having it be the centerpiece of a room so that it can add style and comfort to a room where you spend a good majority of your time at home in. There are several quality oriental area rugs that you can find that are affordable as well as make a great heirloom to pass on to your future generations. In the quest of searching for the perfect area rug, there are definitely some things you need to keep in mind and this article is going to focus on some of the more important aspects of shopping for the right oriental area rug.

One of the first things you are going to want to focus on in your search is to pay attention to the material that the rug is made with. There are generally two types of material used for making oriental rugs, one is a made from synthetic material and the other is made from natural material. The thing you need to keep in mind most when choosing the rug and the material it is made with is to make sure that where you intend to put the rug plays a big factor on which type of rug is going to be best. If you are buying the oriental area rug for a high traffic area, you are going to want to spend a little more and invest in the ones made with natural fibers because they are more equipped to handle the high traffic.

The next thing you want to look at is the KPSI factor. KPSI stands for knots per square inch and the higher the knots, the better quality of rug you are looking at. Additionally, there are a lot of people who own oriental rugs that are always on the look-out for new rugs and these people are very well versed in what it takes to search for that perfect rug and they also will tell you that having a handmade rug versus a machine made rug is the best kind to find. It is easy to tell whether or not you are looking at a handmade rug because you will find tiny flaws in the overall character of the rug, whereas a machine is programmed to design the rug with zero flaws.

Of course this is all subject to you and your preference and personal style. There are some people that would rather have a rug that has no flaws in it, regardless of how small the flaw might be.

Lastly, you want to make sure that the oriental area rug you choose is authentic. Once again, another step that is easy because each authentic rug will come with a certificate of authenticity that will contain details on it such as the size, the origin of the rug, how old it is, the materials it is made with and the KPSI. It is important to also keep that certificate for insurance purposes because an investment like this is not going to be cheap and should something happen to your rug, you will want to have the peace of mind that it can be replaced.

If you are looking for new ways to decorate your home. Check out Birdhouses and more at this website. They have a fantastic selection of home decor.

 

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Making Your Own Hand Crafted Braided Rug

Posted by Dirk Williams on October 16th, 2009

Rugs have been used for many centuries to accent a room or provide a place for a pet to call home, or even to relieve the stress that furniture can put on carpet or bare flooring. Making your own rug is not only rewarding because it is something you make with your own hands, but it is rewarding because it can dress up just about any room and also, provided you follow instructions and your craftsmanship is impeccable, can be passed down to other generations as well as making a great gift.

The first thing you will need to do is take a trip to the fabric store to choose the colors of fabric and style that you want. You will need to choose a very sturdy fabric because remember, this is an area rug or a rug that might have a lot of traffic on it and you do not want it to fall apart in a year. Fabrics that are made of strong material such as denim or very strong cotton are both good choices. Keep the decor of the room in mind too. You do not want to make a purple and pink rug for a room that has primarily neutral colors in it so stick with the color of the room, but you can be creative in design.

The next thing you will want to do is make sure that you purchase enough material to create the size of rug you want. Most braided rugs are typically either 2×3 Ft. or 3×5 ft. and you can shape them either oval or round depending on your needs. Obviously, there are rugs that are quite a bit larger than this, but for making your first rug, I recommend choosing one just this size to start out with so that you can get a feel for what it will take to create a braided area rug much larger. So with that said, you will need to purchase enough material to cut strips of fabric at least twice that amount because you will be braiding and coiling this rug, it is better to have too much than not enough.

When you have your material ready to go, you will want to cut 3 strips of each fabric into long strips that are approximately 3 inches wide. If you are going for the alternating color look, then make sure that you have the colors in a row the way you want them to appear in the coil. For example, if you are doing a red, white and blue rug, it is best to put the stripes in a red, white and blue order instead of red, blue and white. You will achieve a more flow-like look by doing this.

Next, you will want to sew the ends of each strand together at one end and you can refer to that end as the top of your braid and then once you have sewn them together, you can start braiding until you reach the end. Once you reach the end, you will want to sew that end together to complete the braid.

The final step is going to be coiling and sewing the coil to finish the area rug. You will coil the braid just like a snake would coil and make sure that you start from one end of the braid and place the color you want visible in the center of the rug up.

You will need to hand stitch the inside of the coil with nylon thread because this will be the strongest holding thread. Each time you coil the braid around to the spot where you made your first hand stitch, you will want to make another hand stitch in the same spot for each coil around.

When you reach the end of your coil, you will tuck in the ends between the folds of the previous coils and sew that down firmly. Now you are ready to check the rug for any frays or loose threads and trim them off or sew them down.

You project is complete and you now have a new accent piece to place in any room you choose!

If you are looking for new ways to decorate your home. Check out Birdhouses and more at this website. They have a fantastic selection of home decor.

 

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