Rug Placement Tips

It’s easy to think there’s no wrong way to arrange an area rug, and that well-crafted Persian rugs are so beautiful and exquisite they’d look good in any room, in any arrangement, and in any environment. While in some ways this is true, certain rules of interior design show us that there are in fact ideal ways to arrange your rug in a room. Here are tips for rug placement from the professionals (us!):

Living Room – When planning how to arrange your living room furniture over your new area rug, there are two main ways to do this, depending on the size of your room and the size of the rug. In one scenario, all legs of all furniture are on the rug. The sofa or sectional legs, chair legs, end table legs, etc. are all positioned on the rug, with no legs on the underlying flooring. In smaller rooms, you can position the front two legs of larger furniture on the rug, and end tables or the coffee table will have all legs on the rug. This arrangement can also help smaller rooms feel larger. In either scenario, the room should feel balanced.
Dining Room – When choosing the best rug for the dining room, or when arranging your rug in the dining room in the optimal way, the primary rule is for all legs of all chairs to be on the rug, whether the chairs are pushed in, or guests are sitting in them. This can be tricky in small rooms, or if you have a large dining room table, but it is the look that will provide the most pleasing aesthetic for your rug and for the room.
Bedroom – In bedrooms, there are several ways to arrange your area rugs for the best look. You can choose to have two smaller rugs or even two runners and position them on either side of the bed. Or you can choose to have a single, larger area rug, generally positioned underneath the bed with the upper two legs of the bed on the bare flooring and the lower two legs of the bed on the rug. If you have a very large Oriental rug, all four legs of the bed can be positioned on the rug, as can all legs of nightstands or other furniture that is near the bed.

Your Oriental area rugs deserve the best: they should be arranged in rooms that highlight their beauty, and when it comes to cleaning and maintenance, that means scheduling routine maintenance cleaning – and deep cleaning when needed – with a high-quality local rug cleaning company. There are many good rug cleaning companies in the area, but RugPro is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL rug owners have relied on for years. We’re passionate about Oriental rugs, and it shows! We’re the trusted rug cleaners for Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra, and Riverside, specializing in the highest quality rug cleaning coupled with outstanding customer service. When the time comes to deep clean your area rugs, call on us!

Popular Persian Rug Styles

Persian rugs, the specific type of Oriental rug that originates from present day Iran, are known for extremely high-quality fibers and craftsmanship, extraordinarily dense pile, and smaller handtied knots than other Oriental rugs. If you own a Persian rug, you’re familiar with high quality artisan work, and you likely treasure it! If you’re thinking of purchasing a Persian rug, this list of 7 popular types of Persian rugs can help you decide which style is right for you.

Popular Persian Rugs:

Gabbeh Rugs – These thick, course rugs are woven by tribe members in the Zagros mountains, and feature simple designs and natural dyes, typically in orange, red, and rust tones.
Hamedan Rugs – Hamedan rugs are typically simple in design and use a palette of blue, red, brown, and ivory dyes. The Hamedan region includes hundreds of villages, and each has its traditional patterns.
Heriz Rugs – These rugs always feature a medallion in the center and large corner pieces, typically in bright, vibrant colors.
Isfahan Rugs – These silk and wool rugs feature symmetry, typically with a single medallion surrounded by vine designs.
Kashan Rugs – These are bold, “statement” rugs, and typically feature a large medallion in the center, and vibrant hues of rich red, blue, and ivory. Kashan rugs range from 100-800 knots per square inch, making them very high-quality pieces.
Sarouk Rugs – Sarouk rugs incorporate blue weft fibers and intricate, colorful designs.
Tabriz Rugs – Tabriz rugs originate from one of the oldest rug weaving regions: Azerbaijan. They are delicate, high-quality rugs with intricate designs.

Whether you decide on a Gabbeh, Hamedan, Isfahan, or other type of high quality handknotted area rug, you’ll need to find an equally good rug cleaning company to clean and maintain your new treasure. RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL rug owners have relied on for years. Our highly trained rug cleaners have the expertise, training, and passion required to deep clean heirloom rugs safely and effectively. If you live in Riverside, San Marco, Ortega, Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra, or anywhere in Northeast Florida, and want the highest quality care for your rugs, we’re the rug cleaning service for you!

What is Rug Dusting?

Routine vacuuming is an important part of keeping your Oriental rug in good shape. Once or twice per week, depending on how much foot traffic the rug gets, you bring out the vacuum, make sure the beater bar is raised or deactivated, and give the Persian rugs in your home a thorough vacuuming. With weekly vacuuming, much of the dirt, sand, and debris that is tracked over the rug is removed and prevented from burrowing into your rug’s fibers and causing damage.

Household vacuums, however, do not remove all of the dust and debris. To truly remove the dust, dander, and other dry soil from your rug’s fibers, it’s important to schedule professional rug dusting for your rug, ideally 1-2 times per year. During the rug dusting process, the rug is spread across a grate and highly trained rug cleaning professionals operate an industrial strength rug dusting tool by pushing it slowly and gently over the rug. This rug dusting tool produces harmonic vibrations (tens of thousands per minute!) which loosen the debris in the rug and cause it to fall out of the rug fibers and into the grate below. It is not uncommon for several pounds of dry soil to be removed from the rug during this process. The rug dusting tool used by the best professional rug cleaning companies has the power to remove significantly more debris, dander, and dust than the household vacuum ever could.

Dust and dirt cause damage to your rug’s fibers. The edges of these miniscule particles are jagged, and they slice and etch the fine fibers of your rug as they’re tracked deeper into the backing of the rug, ultimately causing it to dull and deteriorate prematurely. The best local rug cleaning service can help! RugPro is the best rug cleaning company Jacksonville FL homeowners turn to for their rug cleaning needs. Our teams of rug cleaning experts have provided outstanding service to customers throughout Florida’s First Coast, including Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Mandarin, Riverside, and more! Call on us for your rug dusting appointment and be prepared to love the results!

Rugs for Small Spaces

As devout rug lovers, we believe there’s a beautiful handknotted area rug for any room in the house, even the smallest rooms! Here are some tips for finding the best rug for the small spaces in your home:

Solid Hues – Busy patterns and high contrast can make small spaces feel even smaller, so try solid hues or soft, simple, neutral patterns.
Stripes – A striped pattern can make the room seem larger. If you arrange the rug so that the strips are horizontal, the room will seem wider, and if the stripes are vertical, the room will seem longer. Take advantage of this optical illusion, and your striped area rug can make a small space seem much more spacious.
Room-Sized Rug – Room sized rugs are great for small spaces, and light hues and tones make the room feel still larger.
Padding – Even in small spaces, remember to get a high-quality rug pad for your rug. Good rug pads preserve the rug and make it more comfortable to walk on.

Once you’ve determined the best rugs for small rooms in your home, be sure to schedule routine cleaning to keep the rug in great shape! All the best Jacksonville FL rug cleaners provide maintenance cleaning, deep cleaning, and other customized cleanings, and can provide rug pads for underneath your rug and rug protectant for overtop your rug. In short, when you find the best rug cleaner in your area, it will be easy to make sure your rug stays in great shape for years to come! RugPro is the best professional rug cleaning company used by homeowners and rug lovers in Southside, San Marco, Riverside, Ortega, and Jacksonville FL. Call on us for your rug cleaning needs!

Removing Pet Urine from Rugs

When your pet has an “accident” on your beloved Oriental area rug, speed is critical. The sooner you can address the spill, and the faster you can extract the pet urine, the better the chances you’ll be able to protect your rug against the damage that can be sustained from the urine stain.

Why is it so important that you clean up pet accidents as quickly as possible? Pet urine is highly acidic when it is released, and when this acid comes into contact with the acid dyes in your rug, this chemical reaction can change the color of your rug and create a deep-set stain that can become permanent. Protect your color and beauty – and cleanliness – of your rug by acting quickly to clean up pet urine!

Here is what to do when your pet pees on your Persian rug:

Assess – Check how deep the urine has spread into the rug. If the urine has seeped into the backing of the rug, the best solution is to call on a highly rated professional rug cleaning company. Professional rug cleaning will be required in order to thoroughly wash the rug and attempt to remove all urine from the rug’s fibers and foundation.
Blot – Using a clean cotton towel, gently blot the area. Continually blot the spill until the urine stops transferring. We recommend using a white towel to blot so that it’s easier to determine when the urine is no longer being absorbed.
Pressure – Fold a fresh, clean cotton towel and place it underneath the rug, directly under the spill or problem area. Place another clean cotton towel on the face of the rug, directly over the spill. Then put as much pressure or weight on the area as you can, ideally by standing on the area. By placing clean, dry cotton towels on both ends of the spill and then applying pressure, the majority of the spill should absorb into the towels. Stand on the towel for several minutes. Then replace the towels with yet more clean dry towels and set something heavy on the top towel, such as brick. Do not place heavy books on the affected area, or anything else that the urine could transfer to.
Check for Odor – Once you have extracted all contaminated moisture from the rug onto your towels, check the rug for odor. If you detect odor, you should contact the best local rug cleaning service and schedule a restoration cleaning appointment right away. Even if you do not detect odor, we strongly advise hiring a high-quality rug cleaning company to examine your rug and discuss cleaning options. If you were able to remove most of the urine, your rug could likely still benefit from professional deep cleaning. If you did not address the urine spill quickly enough or adequately, the rug will require professional deep cleaning, ideally in a rug bath with a custom designed cleaning regimen.
Post-Cleaning Protectant – If you have pets, be sure to have your professional rug cleaning team apply a protectant to your rug after it has been cleaned.

Pet lovers know we have to take the bad with the good, but pet urine can spell disaster for your prized area rug if the spill or stain is not handled correctly and immediately. If you have pets in your home, become familiar with the best rug cleaning service in your area! Pet owners in Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Riverside, and San Marco call on RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning for everything from light dusting to restorative deep cleaning for their rugs. We are the best professional rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL homeowners rely on, and we’d love the opportunity to provide deep cleaning for your Oriental rugs!

Why Hire Pro Rug Cleaners?

You know it’s important to keep your rug clean, but can you do this yourself, or should you hire professional rug cleaners to do it? Our tips can help you decide when to schedule a cleaning appointment with the best local rug cleaning company!

Method – High quality handknotted Oriental rugs need to be cleaned using specific methods. The best way to clean your Persian rugs is in a rug bath, where the method of washing emulates the river currents of ancient times.
Skill – To get your area rug truly clean takes skill and training. When your rug needs to be deep cleaned with water and cleaning solutions and not just “spot cleaned,” you need to call on a great rug cleaning service that invests time and training into their technicians in order to guarantee great results.
Safety – Hiring professional rug cleaners to clean your Oriental rug is safer for your rug. If you clean your rug yourself, do you know what to do if the rug starts bleeding dye? Highly trained rug cleaning experts do know how to handle this. If you clean your Oriental rug yourself, you risk damaging it; if you call on a good rug cleaning company like RugPro, you can rest assured your rug will be cleaned well and without incident.
Customized Cleaning – A great rug cleaning company values custom cleaning and will take the time to understand your rug’s makeup, history, problem areas, usage, etc., along with your desired results, and the technicians will then design and implement the best cleaning routine based on that information. As a result, your rug receives the best possible cleaning, you love the way it looks and feels afterward, and it’s ready to be enjoyed for time to come!
Cost Effective – It may seem counterintuitive but calling on highly rated rug cleaning professionals can save you money. By the time you rent the cleaning equipment you need, figure out how to use it, and spend the day cleaning your rug, you will have spent much of your time, money, and energy that could have been spent doing something else, something that you love. Trust your rug to a great rug cleaner, and then just relax. Your rug will look great, and you won’t need to have worried about it.

There are many great Jacksonville rug cleaning companies, but RugPro is the trusted professional rug cleaner for homeowners throughout Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Mandarin, Southside, Riverside, and the greater Jacksonville area. We love what we do and it shows! We have rave reviews and devoted customers, and we’d love to provide the same level of service to you and your rugs.

How Often Do I Clean My Rug?

A common question that rug owners and collectors ask us is, “How often should I clean my Oriental rug?” Many factors can determine how frequently to have your area rugs professionally cleaned, but a great starting point is this:

Dusting / Dry Soil Removal – Recommended every 6-12 months
Maintenance Cleaning – Recommended every 12-18 months
Deep Cleaning – Recommended every 2-3 years
Restorative Cleaning – Recommended upon severe contamination

Plenty of factors help to determine how often you should clean your area rugs, such as:

Placement & Traffic – Where is the rug located? If it’s tucked away in a rarely used guestroom, you might not need to have it professionally cleaned as frequently as that timeline suggests. Or, if it’s right at the entrance to your house, and your family and guests track dirt and sand and debris onto it every day, you’ll need to have it cleaned more frequently than just once every year or year and a half, as the timeline suggests.
Pets & Kids – Who else lives in your home? If you have pets that shed fur or perhaps aren’t completely housebroken yet, or if you have young kids that are prone to spilling snacks or creating other messes, you’ll need to have your rug cleaned more frequently in order to keep it in good repair and looking great.
Style & Construction – Sometimes even the construction of your rug can determine how frequently you need to have it professionally cleaned. For example, if you have a rug with very low pile, you may be able to effectively keep it very clean with routine vacuuming, whereas if your rug has very dense silk fibers, though routine vacuuming will help keep it in good shape, professional dusting and cleaning will be needed routinely.

Your rug is an investment and a beautiful element to your home’s ambiance and décor, and one of the best ways to ensure it stays in great shape for you to enjoy for years is to schedule routine cleaning with a highly rated professional rug cleaning company in your area.

RugPro is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their Turkish, Navajo, Chinese, Persian, and other handknotted area rugs. We’ve served Nocatee, Ponte Vedra, Mandarin, Riverside, San Marco, and downtown Jacksonville for years and have become the trusted local rug cleaning service. We’d love to help keep your rug in beautiful condition with deep cleaning, maintenance cleaning, or restorative cleaning.

How NOT to Clean Your Rug

High quality wool or silk area rugs last for decades – or longer! – when handled, cleaned, and cared for the right way. It’s also important to know how not to clean your beautiful Persian and Oriental rug! These beautiful rugs are, in essence, handmade works of art, and certain cleaning methods can cause damage to them. Here are tips from professional rug cleaners to help you avoid any dangerous or damaging rug cleaning methods:

No Scrubbing – The aggressive motion of scrubbing can damage or break the fibers of a wool or silk rug, ultimately causing the torn fibers to create fuzz along the surface of the rug. Broken and scratched fibers also cause a rug to look dull and lose its beautiful sheen. Even if you use a gentle scrubbing motion, the item you use to clean the rug may also cause damage. Avoid abrasive brushes and bristles for this reason. Rather than scrub or use abrasive supplies, blot away spills or moisture as soon as you notice such an issue. Use a paper towel or clean white towel so that you can see the spill as it is absorbed and continue blotting until you have removed as much as possible of the spill.
No Steam Cleaning – Do not use steam cleaning, or even very hot water to clean Oriental rugs. Hot water can cause the rug fibers to shrink, warp, or twist, and can cause dyes to bleed. High quality rugs are colored with vegetal dyes, and these dyes can be very unstable and bleed easily. Be sure to keep the water temperature under 150-degrees during cleaning, and better still, simply leave wet cleaning to a highly rated professional rug cleaning company.
No Abrasive Cleaners – Wool fibers and silk fibers, though they are very strong, are also sensitive and harsh chemicals can case severe damage to them. Use cleaners with neutral pH levels, and always read any label on your rug or information from the manufacturer before applying a cleaning solution to it. Even when you find a cleaning agent you feel comfortable using, be sure to first test a small, inconspicuous area on the rug, typically on the backside of the rug, to be sure the chemical cleaner will not cause damage.

Rug cleaning is highly specialized work, and for the best results that do not damage your beautiful rugs, it’s recommended that you call on a good local rug cleaning service to provide professional cleaning. RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning is the best rug cleaning company Jacksonville FL customers trust with their handmade rugs. We serve customers throughout Riverside, Ponte Vedra Beach, Southside, Atlantic Beach, and throughout Jacksonville, and they love the results every time! We’d love the opportunity to take care of your beautiful area rugs too, beginning with a free in-person quote. Let’s get started!

What’s Hiding in My Wool Rug?

One of the things that makes handknotted wool and silk area rugs so exquisite is the density of the weave. However, it’s this very feature that also allows dust and debris to get trapped in Oriental and Persian rugs, leading to degradation of the rug. Here are a few of the things that might be lurking in your favorite area rug and need to be removed:

SAND – If you live in Ponte Vedra, Atlantic Beach, or anywhere along the beaches, there will be sand in your rug’s fibers, and this can be detrimental. The coarse sand particles etch away at your rug’s fibers, causing them to dull prematurely and even break.
SOIL – Even extremely conscientious homeowners must face dust and soil buildup in their Persian rugs. Dust, dander, and fine soil get tracked or blown inside and make their way to your rug’s fibers and backing. Routine vacuuming is the best way to keep dust and soil buildup under control, but even with weekly vacuuming, your rug benefits profoundly from highly rated professional rug cleaning.
ODORS – Spilled food or drink, smoke, pet “accidents,” and other spills and mishaps happen, and if there’s an odor attached, that odor can linger in your rug’s fibers long after the spill is blotted away.
MILDEW – If your rug has been in storage, particularly if it was not correctly rolled and readied for storage, it could have mildew or mold in the fibers. Rugs that have been exposed to moisture can develop a mold or mildew infestation that will only grow until properly handled, typically by a good professional rug cleaning service.
BUGS – Fleas, dust mites, and other minuscule bugs can prowl undetected in a wool or silk area rug before finally springing onto an unsuspecting family member or visitor. Rid your Oriental rug of such infestations with a custom cleaning from the best rug cleaning company in your area.

The best way to get dense, luxurious rugs thoroughly clean is by professional deep cleaning by hand. There are many good Jacksonville rug cleaning companies, but the best professional rug cleaners offer completely customized cleanings, which often include deep cleaning in a rug bath. Your rug deserves quality care, and indeed quality care will keep it in great shape for decades to come!

What is Abrash?

Handknotted rugs, like any handmade work of art, have inherent characteristics that add to their uniqueness and appeal. Abrash is one of those characteristics that appears in fine Persian and Oriental rugs and adds a layer of intrigue and beauty, and for most rug collectors, desirability.

“Abrash,” which comes from the Arabic word for “mottled,” appears as variations of a single color within a rug’s field. Most commonly, these color variations appear as lines or striations on the rug, though they can also appear as dappling or flecks. These color variations range from barely noticeable to dramatic. So if you’re looking at a deep green field on your oriental rug but you see paler green lines or flecks running horizontally across the field, you’re probably looking at abrash.

The abrash effect is the result of variances in the dyeing process. One batch of dye may have more pigmentation. With vegetable dyes in particular, variations can occur among batches or even within the same batch of dye. Indigo, rose madder, saffron, and other such raw materials that are sourced for their pigmentation are found in nature, and can be affected by something as seemingly innocuous as location or changes in weather. Even the way the fibers are twisted can affect the absorption of dye and cause one spool of yarn to be slightly different in color than that of another spool.

When the rug is then being created on the loom, the weaver will replace the spool when the thread runs out. Though the new yarn may be identified as the same color, the changes during the dye process mean the color won’t necessarily be an exact match. So, the lines or mottling of abrash are really the specific areas where new thread was incorporated during the handknotting process. To an untrained eye, abrash may be misconceived as a flaw in the dyeing or weaving process. In reality, it is an earmark of handcraft, and a desirable and highly sought feature of hand-knotted rugs.

Abrash is just one example of the exquisite features of handmade rugs. Such treasures need to be routinely cleaned, not only with weekly vacuuming and general maintenance, but also with routine cleaning by a highly rated professional rug cleaning company. RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning is the best local rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL homeowners depend on for their rug cleaning and care. We’ve cared for and deep cleaned Persian rugs for homeowners throughout Jacksonville, Fleming Island, Nocatee, Ponte Vedra Beach, and throughout the region, and we’d love for you to trust us with your fine area rugs. You’ll love the results of a RugPro rug cleaning!