Three Tricks of the Trade

Handmade Rug Edition Not to toot our own horns too loudly, but the entire R&H team knows a great deal about rugs. After all, owners Rakesh and Dolly Agarwal have been in the rug business for over 25 years, and they share their passion and knowledge with all team members. That knowledge includes plenty tricks of the trade. While the tricks aren’t trade secrets guarded as heavily as the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe (Remember when the national news followed its relocation in 2009 via a locked box handcuffed to its personal security guard?!), it’s likely you may not have heard them before. So, we thought we’d take this chance to share three insider tips!

1.  Put your rug on ice: Well, sort of. A great thing about hand-knotted rugs is that they’re made of wool fibers, which are resilient and can literally bounce back! If, over time, your furniture has left indentations on your rug and you’d like to get rid of them, take an ice cube and gently rub it over the depressions. You can use your fingers or even a brush as well once the areas are a bit moist to loosen the fibers and get them to fill the space again. Of course, you don’t want to soak the areas. While wool is naturally mold resistant, a saturated rug is never a great idea.

2.  Give your rug a hair cut: Handmade rugs often “sprout,” which means that a bit of the threading can rise or sprout up from the rug’s surface (face). If this has happened or is happening with your rug, don’t worry, it’s completely natural and harmless, as well as an easy fix! All you need to do is take a pair of scissors and snip the thread close to the rug’s face. Just don’t pull, as pulling could cause permanent damage.

3.  Stop, drop, and roll: As mentioned above, handmade wool rugs are incredibly resilient. In addition to being able to bounce back from furniture impressions, they can also bounce back from being folded and stored. To help the rug lie flat on your surface from storage, first roll it. The shaping and smoothing action will help the rug fall naturally when unrolled. You can also vacuum the rug a few times to nudge it back to its natural shape. As you may have experienced, we often fold our tufted and machine-made rugs as well as our hand-knotted pieces to help you transport them from our stores. This rolling tip can certainly also be applied once you’ve gotten your rug home (as shown with the tufted rugs in the photo above), to help get it settled into its new space! Be on the lookout for more home furnishings trade tricks here in the future. Have your own insider tip about rugs, furniture, artwork, etc. to add to this trio? Send us an email or share your ideas in a comment on this post!