Vintage rugs combine beauty and practicality like few pieces of interior decor. Much like a pair of favorite jeans, rugs get better with age and can transform any space from OK to distinctly unique. There are affordable vintage rugs out there over hundred year old, so you get to own a piece of history, that's a no-brainer if you ask us. Selecting a vintage rug however can be tricky.
- First there’s the colors. Look out for natural, herbal colors common before synthetics were introduced. They produce a more organic and uneven color as every batch of wool turns out a bit different in hue and saturation. So when looking at blue, or green area in a rug make sure it's not the exact same color tone all over (called "abrash"), if it is, you know it’s synthetic and a rug and probably not that old.
- The same goes with the row of knots visible when you flip the rug over, if it’s all straight it means it's machine-made, uneven means hand-made.
- Then there’s things such as the quality of wool etc. Shiny is good - if it’s old that is. Newer rugs are synthetically treated to look better and end up with a strange artificial sheen.
So, if you fall in love with a beautiful vintage rug, buy it. It’s been beautiful for hundred years, and will be so for a hundred more.
About Medecine.cz
Médecine is the brainchild of interior stylist and decorator Nina Makelberge and sells both boutique brand homewares as well as one-of pieces, including vintage rugs from Turkey, Iran and China.
Photo credit: Frances Loom & Kitchen and Beyond
