Area Rugs & Flooring (10)

How to Repair a Hooked Rug
The latched hooked rug is a centuries old art form. Hooked rugs can often be found in antique shops, rummage sales, estate sales and consignment shops. If you find a hooked rug that needs repair, this article tells you how to repair and restore one to functional beauty. There are nine steps to the instructions. A simple outline is as follows: examine binding and the body of the rug to find any holes or breaks in the cloth; draw circles on the back side to mark areas that need replacement; cut away the damages portions with an X-acto knife; cut out pieces of burlap to fit the areas that were cut away; fit the burlap into the holes and sew each new piece of burlap into with double-threaded stitches, getting the burlap pieces to fit seamlessly around the entire edge of the holes; take the rug to yarn shops and purchase yarn that matches the yarn on the rug as closely as possible; latch the new yarn into the repair holes and trim the latch hooked yarn so it's the same length as the existing latch hooked yarn; and examine the existing binding that is not damaged and try to recreate the replacement binding as nearly as possible.

Collection of Tips About Carpets and More from ThisOldHouse.com
This page at ThisOldHouse.com has links to articles and videos about wall-to-wall carpets, stair runners, green flooring options, and similar items. One article by Charlotte Bernard has a slideshow of photos and tips on how to buy the right wall-to-wall carpets. This includes questions to ask before buying one and how to add or replace these carpets. A portion of this post explains the different types of fabric used in carpets, such as wool and nylon. Another article is about choosing the right oriental rugs. There are also articles containing tips on how to install, repair, and maintain these household items.

Should You Clean Your Carpet Yourself or Hire Pros?
The Carpet and Rug Institute says that if you properly maintain your quality carpeting, it should last 10 to 15 years. So it makes a lot of sense to get it cleaned with some frequency. Also, dirty carpeting is an eyesore. You can hire a professional cleaning service, but they are not cheap. They have to bring in a machine, move your furniture, pre-spot, and all that. In any case, you're responsible for doing a lot of work like removing small furniture and items. The article estimates that you can realize a cost savings of more than 50 percent by doing it yourself. If you choose to do it yourself, you can rent a rug-cleaning machine for perhaps $45 a day, plus the cost of the cleaning solution. The machine is easy to use. It's recommended to use several fans and a dehumidifier or air conditioner to expedite the drying time (which you'd need to do in hiring a professional service, as well).

Choosing the Right Size Area Rug for A Room
This article on Decorating Studio posits the idea that choosing the right size rug shouldn't be much of a problem for space or room, so why is it? The problem, it says, is that there are no so many rules of thumb about the correct size, that there are not numerous opposing opinions out there, is this is not helpful. So while a size chart of rug sizes for room dimensions is provided, the goal of this article is provide some basic facts about rug size versus room size, and to acknowledge that there are no hard rules here. In other words, it's your decision what you want your home and the effect of a rug to look like. Here's a few concepts discussed: Most people think leaving 18 inches of bare floor space around a rugs makes the room look better proportioned, and this can be smaller the smaller the room size. It's recommended to arrange your furniture before deciding what size your new rug will be. Generally, it makes a room look more pulled together for all the legs of the furniture to rest on a room-sized area rug. Or if it's a small rug, you may want all the furniture legs to be off the rug instead. Thus, all legs on, or all legs off, as a rule of thumb. For a rug under a dining room or other table, consider having the rug extend 24 inches from the edge of the table out on all side; this makes it easier to maneuver the chairs. For a rug under a bed, consider having it extend at least 18 inches beyond a King or Queen bed, and at least 12 inches for a Full or Twin. Another rule of thumb is it's generally considered awkward for a heavy traffic area to be half rug and half no rug—you don't want one foot on the rug, and one foot off as you walk the area frequently.

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