Oriental silk rugs (and their cousins, Persian rugs) are simply gorgeous. They allude to a certain tasteful style which is both exotic and luxurious, yet at the same time classic and timeless all at once. Open any magazine with interior photos and there is probably at least one image in there with (what else, of course) a stunning silk carpet gracing the very center of some room. Its just a great look. Which is probably why we do get inquiries from time to time about oriental rugs (and Tibetan carpets as well) as I would like to think our customers have a great sense of taste and well, other then beautiful antiques, what else alludes taste like a silk carpet? With that said, I must admit most are just inquiries and we have not done huge amounts of business in the way of these beautiful carpets. Why? Because, I think because carpets are really a unique “beast of their own” and require their own brand of detailed knowledge and extensive expertise. There is so much to know about them – so much to learn.

The photograph above from Rug Rag, shows artificial silk on the left and genuine silk to the right.

It was while doing some of my own research on the web, when I stumbled upon Matthew and David’s site: Rugrag.com which is exactly that: knowledge and expertise. It’s really quite a good research tool for someone wanting to learn about rugs (and in a very hands on / practical sort of way, I might add).

I emailed them off a few of the rug photos shown below and they quite quickly came back to me with this:

“These are some great looking rugs. From what I can see in these provided images, these are all 100% hand knotted rugs. Really nice looking pieces with good color and design. They appear to have silk-like pile and perhaps silk-like foundation as well: without too much detail in the photographs, they do seem to be some nice examples. ”

I haven’t even begun to really dig into all the information on their site, which is so, so comprehensive, but a couple of posts I really like and thought were very useful were:

• Is it really a Chinese Silk Rug?
• Fibers: Is your Rug Real Silk?
• Introduction to Commercial Chinese 90 Line Oriental Rugs and Carpets
• How To Tell if a Rug is an Oriental Rug or Other? (Tufted vs Machine Made)
• Open Back Chinese Rugs and Carpets Vs. Closed Back

With silk carpets and rugs one factor in pricing is knot count (KPSI) which is a measurement of the number of knots per square inch. It can get a little confusing here though since different geographic locations may use varying measurement (I think this is the case in China…) so again, click over to their site for a much better explanation of what knot count is then I can give.

A close up of a very beautiful 500 knot rug

There are also a few pretty nifty tools on their site, like the Stain Removal Guide for carpets. You select what the stain was caused by, click “remove” and it then gives instructions on potential ways to remove the stain. As an example, I choose “beer” and up came a nice list of what steps to take.

Even Better! An add on bonus is, it passes no judgment on you either for doing something stupid like spilling beer on your gorgeous silk carpet.