Scotch Rugs

Scotch rugs are also reversible and are made of Scotch wool. A large rug costs twenty-five dollars. They are made with the weave of an ingrain carpet and are usually artistic in design and coloring. A nursery rug in Scotch wool comes at eighteen dollars and is woven with a charming border of quaint animals.

Rag Rugs

Rag rugs are to be found in the department stores in all sizes, colors, and prices. Many of them are very thick and soft in color and blend admirably with the colonial furniture of a bedroom. A large rug nine by twelve may be purchased for twelve dollars and a half and gives good service, as it washes well. Rag rugs are also suitable for the living room when they are woven from well-worn wool carpet. An old velvet carpet, faded and worn, often makes a rug of most charming texture and color, and the cost of weaving is slight.

Fiber Rugs

Rugs of Scotch Caba Fiber at ten dollars are suitable for the veranda and bedrooms. Large grass rugs may also be found at the same price, smaller rugs for less. They are cold in quality and therefore are more suitable for the summer cottage than for the permanent home.

Carpets Versus Rugs

In this day of vacuum cleaners there has been somewhat of a revival for carpets. If a cleaner is installed in the house with an attachment in each room, it is certainly less work to have carpets than rugs. The effect given by a floor completely covered is warmer, and many people feel that it is more luxurious and inviting. That is a question of taste which may be decided by each home-maker. Velvet, Body Brussels, and Ingrain carpets may be purchased by the running yard at a slightly lower figure a square foot than may be purchased in a rug of the same quality. Plain, soft colors are unquestionably the most artistic but are not always desired because of dust and footprints and the wear which shows in the well-used places before the doors. A patterned carpet, while not so beautiful, shows wear much less, but, if used, the figures should be small and unobtrusive and should be close enough to cover the background well. Then there will be no spotty effect to draw attention to the floor.

The Use Of Domestic Rugs Is Often Preferable To The Use Of Oriental Rugs

For the people of quite limited means the domestic rug or carpet is undoubtedly the wise selection. A cheap oriental rug is usually not beautiful, is loosely woven, and gives poor service. Good orientals, on the other hand, by reason of their very richness are apt to form a painful contrast with the furni ture in the modest home. It is also a mistake to sink a large sum of money in a rug with the idea that a real antique will wear forever. Antiques are only antiques because they have been very carefully used. In the Orient it would be a sacrilege not to remove the footgear before entering a house. Here in America the hard impressions of our stout shoes cause our rugs to wear in a comparatively short time, so, occasionally, there is additional expense for renapping, for weaving in the damaged places, and for making the necessary repairs. However, modern orientals are very satisfactory, for the patterns are beautiful and, as the rugs are new when purchased, the weiring qualities are excellent. Indeed, a modern oriental, while costing much more than a domestic rug, also wears several times as long, so the expense is often no greater in the end. For the householder of sufficient capital to purchase either modern or oriental rugs, the question is merely that of suitability and harmony to the home. In one house an unobtrusive Wilton or Body Brussels rug may seem in keeping with the scheme of furnishing, in another house an oriental rug may add a needed point of interest.

Reference

Hunter, George Leland Home Furnishing. John Lane Company, New York, 1908. Domestic Rugs, Chapter V (Oriental Rugs).