Arts and Crafts rugs
Arts and Crafts rugs are a historically appropriate way to enhance your craftsman bungalow's original architectural flavor. Back at the origin of the craftsman movement rugs were commonly used over hardwood floors, often red oak. Many are still in use today and appear exceedingly presentable even after the passage of over a century, according to documentarians. By today's specifications the construction of the original rugs is relatively spartan. The knot count in craftsman area rugs was very minimal, maybe only one third of the knots per inch found in a contemporary rug. Yet they have not deteriorated significantly. You can expect even better longevity from today's rugs.
Craftsman style area rugs
Many of the designs of our craftsman style area rugs are historic reproductions. If you have perused catalogs from the era you may recognize some of them. Other designs are recent interpretations, but adhere to the general design principles and use motifs from the period. The majority of our arts and crafts rugs for craftsman interiors are constructed with hand knotted wool, which has qualities that are an impossibility for a machine made rug to reproduce. This is a time honored construction method that results in a distinctive look and feel that has some differences to a machine made rug. For example, a hand made rug will have idiosyncratic dimensions that vary somewhat. An 8 by10 rug may actually measure a few inches plus or minus. For any given rug we may be able to provide a customer with a choice of actual dimensions so they can mark the floor with masking tape to see how it will lay out in advance of ordering.
Not everyone wants to put our craftsman rugs into a vintage bungalow. There is a surprisingly considerable assortment of individuals that have constructed a residence and made an effort to have the design and decor mimic a traditional craftsman home, eschewing commercialization. In accomplishing that effectively it is important to correctly choose the interior and exterior construction materials and decor to create an authentic craftsman flavor. One of the best ways to effect that is through well chosen hand knotted wool craftsman style rugs such as those you see here. That is so much more appropriate than wall to wall carpeting, obviously. Craftsman bungalows, American foursquares, and other related arts and crafts architectural styles almost always have hardwood floors. It is possible to leave them totally exposed, but then you miss the warmth and congeniality of a rug filled room. Also, a room without some soft fabric materials is a room with lots of reflective sound and annoying echoes. It is simply not as livable. Craftsman houses typically have a large dining room that probably adjoins a large living room. There is also usually an entryway or foyer of some sort. At a minimum arts and crafts rugs should be considered for the entry, dining, and living rooms. For other craftsman decor items to lend an authentic flair such as doorbells, mailboxes, bronze plaques, house number, cabinet hardware, interior and exterior light fixtures, light switch plates, heat register and return air grilles, door knobs, and doorbell buttons consider visiting our site at The Craftsman Homes Connection.
routine care, stain prevention and miracle of club soda
It is inadvisable to utilize expensive and smelly chemical cleaners on arts and crafts rugs. Damage will presumptively occur. Instead, it is an exceptional idea to have a six pack of club soda on hand for your craftsman style area rugs. If something that stains is spilled on the rug, then agitate the club soda and saturate the area with most of the bottle. The bubbles will do a great job of preventing the staining compound from permeating the fibers. Then immediately blot up all the liquid with a towel and allow to air dry. This works best for stains that just happened. So get to work fast!
general care techniques to increase longevity
There is a common misconception that craftsman area rugs of this type require some kind of special care. All that is really required is regular vacuuming. If you think about it, dust is a combination of animal,vegetable and mineral particles. The animal and vegetable components are not much to worry about. However, there is always a small element of sand and grit that blows in. These are abrasive. When these abrasive particles get in the knots that can grind and cause wear every time someone adds motion and pressure from stepping on the area. This is why it is so important to vacuum regularly.
accuracy of craftsman rug colors when viewed on computer screen
Computer screens often do not characterize rugs colors accurately. When you are looking at a visual representation you can't get an understanding of how the pile feels. For this reason on many designs we offer samples of the actual rugs that you can purchase, for which you get refunded when you return the sample. On rugs where a sample is not available you can always get a two foot by three foot rug and just consider that a larger sample. Samples are an exceptional idea for a number of reasons.
History of dye usage and aniline versus vegetable dyes on arts and crafts rugs
In the times of the original craftsman era it was not uncommon to use vegetable dyes to create the color spectrum. While that may sound pleasant, there were a multitude of significant drawbacks to the use of vegetable dyes. They would often lose their vibrancy and would consistently fade over time. This was especially true if exposure to the sun was involved, which is something very difficult to avoid when you consider the movement of the sun through the various angles caused by different seasons and different times of day. Our rugs use aniline dyes, which are exceedingly colorfast, especially as contrasted to the agreeable sounding but basically unsatisfactory vegetable dyes, and also have the supplementary benefit of not poisoning the customer.
