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Rug Attributes Part Three - Pattern

Copyright © 2008 Rugs Direct^®

One of the most important features of an area rug is sometimes the most difficult to describe. It is the basic pattern woven into the rug. But articulating what you see on the face of that beautiful rug can be challenging. And when searching for that "just right" rug, people frequently don't know the terminology to use to narrow that search when they have a specific pattern in mind.

Pattern is closely related to style and theme but can be defined more broadly. Basically the rug's pattern is determined by the way lines and curves are used to generate shapes. The industry generally recognizes three main categories of patterns: geometric, curvilinear and pictorial.

As with most things related to area rugs, there is a tremendous amount of overlap between these categories. Still it is useful to understand them. One or the other will probably be more dominant in the rug's pattern than another. This then becomes the best way to describe the pattern of that particular rug.

Let's take a look at the three categories of rug patterns and examine a sample that fits into each group.

Geometric

A geometric rug is created with straight lines, often using a variety of shapes - triangles, squares, diagonal lines, etc. In a way it is somewhat more primitive than the other two patterns. Southwestern and Navaho rugs frequently make use of a geometric pattern, but it's not uncommon in older traditional designs as well.

Curvilinear

When a pattern makes use of a variety of smooth curved lines it is referred to as curvilinear. In fact, that's the definition of the word! It's a bit harder to weave rugs in this pattern and frequently the overall knot density of a curvilinear rug is higher than other, simpler patterns. With the advent of machine-made area rugs, it is much easier - and more economical - to weave a curvilinear pattern than when everything was done strictly by hand. Curvilinear rugs are common in just about all styles and themes of rugs from traditional to contemporary.

Pictorial

A rug with an image of people, animals, flowers or nature falls into the pictorial category. The first rugs created of this type depicted historical events, mythological creatures or famous people. They truly were art forms, often made to hang on a wall instead of placing them on a floor. Today you can find an image of just about anyone or anything on an area rug. Still, as in ancient times, they are not as common or popular as the other two patterns of area rugs. A room's decor has to be just right for a pictorial rug to fit in appropriately.

Rugs Direct carries well over 60,000 area rugs representing all of the above patterns. Our proprietary Rugs Directory search engine will help you find exactly what you are looking for in no time. Click here to visit the Rugs Direct online showroom to find the perfect area rug for your home.

Rug Attributes Part Two - Color

Copyright © 2008 Rugs Direct^®

For many people shopping for an area rug, about the only thing that matters is color. And why not? The rug might be the main focal point of the entire room, and if its color isn't right, then nothing else is going to matter. Plus, rightly so, many people consider area rugs not to be just pieces of fabric that you place on the floor, but true works of art. Few artists create their works without detailed considerations of color; the same is true of the great artisans who design and weave area rugs.

In esoteric circles where they discuss such things, there are some area-rug experts who argue that color is even more important than the overall design of the rug. Their position is that even an outstanding, intricate and appealing design can be ruined with the wrong combination of colors. However, a weak design can be made appealing through the application of a unique color scheme. Plus there are many people who find a solid color area rug useful and attractive in certain situations. This is an example of a rug with NO design, but only color. I think those experts might have a valid point.

In simplest terms, area rugs have a background color and a border color. As noted above, sometimes a rug is made of only a background color. But the vast majority have more than one.

Probably a better term for background color would be dominant color. If you were asked to describe the color of a rug and could only use one word, this would be the color name you choose. Although you can find area rugs with just about any background color imaginable, the most popular are red, blue, yellow and tones of brown or beige. Burgundy, which is a hue of these colors, is probably the single most popular background color used in area rugs - especially traditional, Oriental and Persian ones.

Border colors are often not as easy to identify as the background color. The design and pattern of the rug might be so intricate that you really can't isolate the colors used to create it very well. That's OK, because the goal is to create an impression with color rather than display unique shades. Often a tint or hue in the border of a rug serves as inspiration for the other colors used in a room. Painting your walls the same color as part of the rug's border can create an extremely attractive, coordinated look to the room where everything simply "comes together" in the way professional designers work.

So where do the colors in area rugs come from?

Some rugs are made of natural fibers and often that's were the color originates. Typically these aren't the most vibrant colors and the design possibilities are somewhat limited. So to take wool and infuse it with a rainbow of colors, rug-makers use a variety of dyes.

For the first several thousand years of rug-making only natural dyes were available to color the fibers woven into rugs. The sources for these were a wide variety of plants, animals and minerals. Mixing and blending these components to create just the right color was an impressive skill in and of itself. Often the artisans would work hard to create a collection of primary colors, and then combine these in various ways to come up with just about every perceptible color. It worked a lot like the way we mix paint using a neutral base today.

In the middle of the 1800s, as rugs started to become more and more popular, European rug-makers worked on ways to come up with cheaper and easier-to-manufacturer dyes. The result was synthetic dyes made from coal tar. There were some problems. They were easy to use, but they faded rapidly when exposed to light or water and had a rather unpleasant order. Nobody realized it at the time, but the fumes are also highly toxic. Nevertheless, these dyes were imported in great quantities by Persia (Iran), Anatolia (Turkey) and other rug-making centers throughout the Middle East. The difficulties in using them came to a head in 1903 when the King of Persia officially banned their use in his country!

Fortunately a new type of synthetic dye, chrome dyes, were developed in the early years of the 20th century. Chrome dyes hold their colors perfectly in most all situations and have absolutely no limitations when it comes to blending a specific color or shade.

Rugs Direct carries over 60,000 area rugs in every combination of color and hue you can imagine. You may easily shop by color using our proprietary area-rug search tool, the Rugs Directory. Click here to visit on online showroom.