What rugs NOT to buy

It happens every day — people realize their rug has a problem.

Maybe it stinks.  Really bad, like stinky shoes, like run away bad.

Maybe it is turning yellow or other colors, on the backing or the backing is coming through the top.

Or the fibers are coming out when you vacuum or walk on it.  Or the color is coming off on the carpet underneath.

Any number of things can be wrong with a rug and most of them can’t be cleaned away.

Here is a great article by one of the experts on rug care, The Rug Chick.  It’s called Pottery Barn Rugs to Run From.

If you’re going to be walking and playing and having pets on your rugs, you need to be sure that the money you are spending is going to be invested in a good quality rug.  Not to get down on Pottery Barn, there are lots of other cheap rug stores that may be selling great rugs, or they may be passing on stinkers.

Before you buy another rug, learn a bit about how to tell what rugs are good, and which ones are bad. Most of the bad ones are cheap.  But that’s not the only criteria — many are made from the wrong backings, have inferior latex or are overdyed.

Take a look and save yourself a lot of money, if you like to decorate around a rug — it can cost thousands to redo your rooms!

Think about it this way, you’d never consider passing your wall to wall carpet down to your kids — it’s just not something you want to keep. But a really good rug (which doesn’t have to cost thousands) is an heirloom — and you want to be able to have it washed professionally and last for generations.

So have fun looking at rugs, and learn a bit about who made it and how it is constructed, and you’ll enjoy it for many years to come.