All About Braided Area Rugs

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Braided area rugs were born out of necessity, and if there is such a thing as an All-American floor covering, it would have to be the good old oval braided rug!

Unlike the palaces and country homes of the wealthy in Europe, with their fine, hand-woven works of floor art imported from the Middle East, homes in the American colonies had hard, cold, wooden floors. The entrance, or mud room as it was called, got – you guessed it – muddy. The obvious answer to the colonists was to braid straw mats and place them strategically in the home. Not only did they help prevent muddy boots from soiling the floors, but they also did a good job of insulating and cushioning those cold, hard floors from one's feet.

According to Michelle Stenson, a noted authority on braiding rugs from Abington, Massachusetts, in the early 1800s New England became a center for woolen fabric mills. This made wool more readily available and it was soon used to braid area rugs. These became preferable to the older straw mats because they were more durable, could be cleaned and quite frankly, were much more attractive. Most were homemade, because it was still far too expensive to import a pre-made rug from Europe or the Orient.

In those early days of braiding area rugs, there really was not much thought given to designs, patterns or colors. According to Stenson, women used whatever wool was available – often cutting up old clothing – so the patterns tended to resemble quilts of the time with a patchwork of colors and patterns all mixed together. They even had a description for this: the “hit-or-miss” pattern. Most all of these rugs had a strand of black wool that ran through the entire rug. This wasn’t by design, but was because almost all pants, suits and coats were made of black wool at the time, so black wool was more readily available than any other colors.

Eventually the braiding of area rugs became much more of an art form. Jan Jurtz, who collects antique braided rugs in Tilton, New Hampshire, notes that flowers and concentric circles became popular early on. She also has samples in her collection that demonstrate how precise variations in color and shading became more prevalent, and that much more attention began to be paid to the design of the rug’s border.

Braiding remains a popular hobby in America today, and to “braiders” there is nothing more satisfying than displaying an original piece of rug-art with its intricate interplay of patterns and colors. But major advancements in the technology behind machine-made braided rugs have made this popular style available – and affordable - to those of us without the time, skills or patience to painstakingly create our own!

As a side note, the mathematics behind creating a braided area rug is quite fascinating. For example, you typically start by calculating the length of braid needed for one square foot. In a rug that uses spacing of one inch and three strands per braid, this comes to 24 yards per square foot.

The next step is to calculate the area of the rug itself. Without resorting to integral Calculus, I’ve determined that a 5’ x 7’ oval rug is 29.63 square feet. After one more simple multiplication problem, we discover that a rather typical oval braided area rug uses a whopping 711 yards of fabric. Imagine - over seven football fields of fabric for one moderately sized area rug!

Colonial Mills, Inc. (CMI) is one of the largest manufacturers of popular braided area rugs. Their headquarters is in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. CMI has taken the traditional method of braiding area rugs and moved it into the 21st Century. The quantity of collections, designs, sizes and shapes they offer makes it possible to use braided rugs to decorate any room in your home. Here are some specific tips offered by the company:

• Rug size is important; the size should allow a furniture grouping to fit completely on or completely off the rug.
• When placing a room-sized rug on a hardwood floor, select a rug that allows 8” to 10” of wood to be exposed around the rug’s perimeter.
• Define groupings with an area rug. When a rug touches all furnishings in a grouping it pulls them together.
• When determining placement of rugs, ensure safety and that the edges will not be tripped over in high traffic areas.
• For a rug that is to be placed underneath a dining table, add 24” to 30” per side to the table’s dimensions so that the chairs can be pulled away from the table without moving off of the rug.

CMI also offers valuable tips on the specific care necessary for a fine, braided area rug:

Cleaning
Vacuum your rug regularly using the hard surface attachment. Do not use the beater bar on a braided rug. Remove spots with any dry cleaning fluid. Periodic professional dry cleaning is recommended.

Maintenance
If any of the threads that hold the braids loosen or break simply sew them together with a needle and strong thread. Trim loose ends with scissors; never pull them out of the rug. Reverse the rug twice a year to achieve twice the wear.

Padding
Floor padding is strongly recommended to prevent yarn color dye transfer and provide comfort, safety, and durability.

Laying a New Rug
Due to tight packing for shipment, a new braided area rug might not initially lay flat. Starting from the center, work any wrinkles out with hands or pole, but be careful not to stretch the fabric.

Originally most all braided area rugs were oval in shape. Occasionally, depending upon need, people would weave a circular one. For a long time, that was pretty much it. But today, innovative manufacturers such as CMI, are making rectangular braids, square braided rugs and even shapes such a hearts, half-ovals (also called “hearth rugs”) and long hallway runners. The design possibilities have opened up tremendously, so if you are partial to traditional American braids, you no longer have any limitations as to where you can place a braided area rug.

Rugs Direct has over 330 braided rug collections available in their online showroom. To explore some of the exiting designs that might go perfectly in your home, please click here.