Cheap Rugs That Look Expensive
What to Look For in a Cheap Rug
How to tell a good inexpensive rug from a bad one at the same price — and why most standard buying advice does not apply here.
4 min read
Latest Articles
Everything published on The Knot Journal, newest first.
Entryway Rugs
Best Materials for Entryway Rugs
The hardest-working rug in the house is doing preventive work for every other rug you own — which changes what to buy and how much to spend on it.
4 min read
Flatweave Rugs
How Durable Are Flatweave Rugs?
No pile means nothing to crush, so a flatweave ages by abrasion instead — twenty to forty years in wool, and a different set of failure points from a pile rug.
3 min readintermediate
Hand-Tufted Rugs
How Long Hand-Tufted Rugs Last
The ceiling is chemistry, not wear — latex degrades on its own schedule, so a tufted rug in a spare room and one in a hallway fail at roughly the same age.
3 min readintermediate
How Rugs Are Made
How a Rug Is Actually Woven
Warping the loom, tying a row, beating the weft, shearing and washing — the sequence, and where the months actually go on a hand-knotted rug.
4 min readintermediate
Jute Rugs
How to Clean a Jute Rug
Jute is the one common fibre that water damages on contact — which means almost every cleaning instinct you have is wrong here, starting with blotting a spill.
4 min read
Kilim Rugs
Types of Kilim
Slit-weave, soumak, cicim and jijim are four different techniques sold under one word — plus the regional traditions, and how to tell them apart by hand.
4 min readintermediate
Kitchen Rugs
Best Materials for Kitchen Rugs
Water, grease and standing time — three demands that between them rule out almost every attractive answer, including the two natural fibres people reach for first.
4 min read
Machine-Made Rugs
How to Judge a Machine-Made Rug
Four checks that separate a good power-loomed rug from a bad one at the same price — density, fibre, dye method and backing.
4 min read
Moroccan Rugs
Types of Moroccan Rugs
Beni Ourain, Azilal, Boucherouite, Beni Mrirt and the flatwoven Kilims — which tribe wove what, and why almost everything sold as "Beni Ourain" is not.
4 min readintermediate
Oriental Rugs
How to Identify an Oriental Rug
Which weaving tradition is it? Knot type, foundation, palette and format narrow an unknown rug to a region in about ten minutes, with no equipment.
4 min readintermediate
Oversized Rugs
Oversized Rugs: A Complete Guide
Price per square foot falls at the top end because almost nobody has the room — plus the delivery problem that has no good solution once the rug has arrived.
4 min readintermediate