Rug and Carpet Glossary Trade terms you need to know.
Illustration of warp and weft.
A Special Custom Stair Runner A custom hand-knotted stair runner.
Hand-knotted stair runner approaching landing.
What Covid Is Doing to Trade Shows Covid made big gatherings impossible, including large trade shows. This disruption gave rise to new thinking about trade shows.
Vendor rug display
Where Are the Workers? Everyone we know, whether they are our venders or our interior design clients, all despair over the lack of workers.
Chart of declining labor participation rate.
Design Outlook: Continued Warming

We don't do interior design forecasting or trend picking. We spend our time taking care of the current needs of our interior design customer base.

We don't pretend to know what's coming up, but we are right on the money with what's happening.

A few months back we covered here a new interest in warmer colors in rugs.

Sample: light brown hardwood flooring in two styles.
Breaking In Your New Hand-knotted Rug

Hand-knotted rugs have characteristics that make them seem to be alive. All cause problems. All are easily fixed.

Popups

Also known as "sprouting" little strands of yarn pop up through the top of the pile and can look like your rug is sprouting bits of yarn. 

It's a normal event in the young life of a hand-knotted rug. Here's why.

 

Dealing with popups (sprouting) on hand-knotted rugs.
Rug First

Addison/Dicus & Bailey founder, Gary Dicus, gave a great discourse on picking hand-knotted area rugs. We are in the business of selling rugs, but we don't consider it a sales pitch,

It's just damn good advice.

 

Modern gray rug with modern furniture.
Better Interior Shots with Your Cell Phone

How many times do you as a designer pull out your cell phone and snap a picture?

Maybe you just finished a room and you need for the shot to show your work in the best possible light.

Here are a few tips that can optimize cell phone photography without bogging you down in photography arcana.

These tips are suggested by Edward Chittenden, a photographer who specializes in interior work and who also (full disclosure) is my son.

Cell phone picture in natural light.
New Anatolians

A new shipment of Anatolian rugs is here!

Anatolians are simply rugs from Turkey. The word comes from Greek and means, "the East." 

Oushaks also come from Turkey and are technically "Anatolians." But because of their distinctive style, Oushaks are usually referred to as Oushaks.

As with earlier shipments these rugs are between 40 and 70 years old, making them vintage. Rugs older than 100 are dubbed "antiques."

Anatolian runner in blue with warm accents
Warming Up

Interiors tend to get freshened every 10-15 years.

During that period, things change. What was appropriate for a younger family no longer serves. People may want to simplify. They may just be tired of the old look and long for something new.  

Change was front and center at the New York Rug show, the first we have attended since the Covid19 outbreak. Presented by Cover magazine September 25-27 as "A new boutique show featuring leading high-end rug brands," the show reflects a warming trend.

Hand-knotted rug with hints of browns and greens