Home Furnishing: Floor Coverings

( Originally Published 1935 )

Floor coverings may be considered in two different ways, as backgrounds, or as decorative features.

The usual way to regard a rug or carpet is as a background for the furnishings of the room. Ordinarily, it is not desirable to attract attention to the floor, so the floor covering is kept inconspicuous. The best background is a rug or carpet of a solid color. Frequently the right solution of the living-room floor-covering problem is to buy a piece of plain broadloom carpet the length desired, conforming to standard size, such as 9 by 12 feet, because rooms are likely to be of standard sizes. Carpet specially woven and treated on the back so that it does not ravel, no matter where it is cut, is the most practical kind to have, as it can be changed to suit different rooms. In this kind of carpet seams are not sewed, but adjoining pieces are held together with wide bands of adhesive tape. The person who moves often might find it better to have not broadloom but narrow-width carpet, which is sewed together so that the seams are almost invisible. It can be revised easily to fit rooms of different sizes.

Carpets reaching to the wall have a certain rich appearance and give the pleasant effect of belonging that is produced by anything made to fit a place exactly. Such carpets sometimes are used to conceal floors that are in poor condition. A new house may be built with inexpensive floors where carpet is to extend to the wall. Carpet to the wall makes a room appear larger than any smaller covering does.

Patterned rugs or carpets must be regarded as decorative features in furnishing. Making the floor covering important is justifiable:

1. If the rug or carpet is beautiful.
2. If the furniture is uninteresting or sparse.
3. If the room is very large.
4. If the room is too plain.
5. In a dining room where children eat.
6. In a room where no one stays very long.

Rugs usually seem more sanitary than carpets, even in these days of vacuum cleaners, as carpets are not likely to be cleaned so often as rugs.

Design in Rugs and Carpets.   Good design in patterned rugs or carpets is rare. Anyone interested in art quality should avoid nearly all the figured rugs and carpets in the shops. The person with small means and good taste buys plain rugs from necessity, as well as from choice. In carpets there are some mixtures and two-tone effects in very small figures that have about the same effect as a plain carpet. These are often more desirable than plain carpet in rooms subject to hard wear.

The size of patterns in floor covering is almost as important as their design quality. It is necessary, of course, to use small designs with small furniture and in small rooms, and it is advisable to use them also in large rooms. Plain rugs make rooms seem larger than those that have patterns or borders. The wider the border the more it appears to cut up the room.

Well-designed rugs are to be found among genuine Oriental rugs, Scandinavian rugs, American Indian rugs, hooked rugs, rag rugs, and other handmade rugs. The few carpets of good design usually have hooked-rug patterns, modern geometric patterns, plaids, or stripes. A person sensitive to design might find it a sickening experience to visit a rug and carpet section even in the best department stores.

Color Value. The floors and their coverings should be the darkest part of rooms, so as to provide a substantial base for the decorative scheme. They may be lighter in upstairs rooms than downstairs, however, since coloring in general is lighter upstairs. In figured rugs there is often too much contrast between the dark and light colors, making a spotty effect, which seems to jump up at the observer. One can not make this statement too positive: the values in any floor covering should be close. The most successful rugs, Oriental or other, are those in which all the colors seem almost equally dark and no spots call for attention.

Color.Since the floor is a large area it is not desirable to have a brilliant color there. The color of a carpet, even though definite should be subdued, such as dull purple, old gold, midnight blue, mulberry, dull henna, or dull rose. Intense color on the floor makes a room seem smaller. Neutral colors such as brown, taupe, brownish gray, beige, and tan are desirable. Such carpets have the added advantage of permitting an entire change of color scheme in a room every few years, whereas a carpet with a positive color limits the changes. Some artists feel that blue and green are not desirable colors for floors or rugs because they have an atmospheric quality and seem almost to float. Nevertheless they are often used successfully in south bedrooms, dining rooms, sunporches, bathrooms, and kitchens.

Texture in Rugs and Carpets.  It is not enough for floor covering to be well designed and good in color; it has also to be suitable in texture for the place where it is to be used. Fine mahogany furniture requires fine floor covering to accompany it; simple furniture suggests simple rugs.

TYPES OF CARPETS AND RUGS

A. Machine-made (most domestic rugs and carpets).
1. Pile weave (loops cut)-velvet, Wilton, Axminster, Chenille. (loops uncut)-Brussels.
2. Flat weave-ingrain, linen, grass, etc.

B. Handmade (many imported rugs).
1. Pile weave-nearly all Oriental rugs.
2. Flat weave-Kis Kilim, Navajo, Mexican, some Scandinavian and Balkan rugs, rag rugs.

Velvet broadloom carpet is a justly popular type because it is procurable in a great variety of plain colors and a range of prices and widths. It is usually the most desirable living-room floor covering for a medium-priced house unless the house has a very individual scheme of decoration. Certain trade names are used for this carpet instead of the term velvet, which is disliked by some dealers. Practically all plain carpet is velvet carpet, although nine out of ten salesmen call it Wilton because Wilton is a superior variety.

Wilton carpets and rugs are made on jacquard looms especially designed to use many colors. Consequently this type of loom is not ordinarily used for plain carpets. Many reproductions of Oriental rugs and many other figured rugs are Wiltons.

Brussels carpet is practically the same as Wilton, without the cut loops. Brussels carpets have been used very little for a number of years. This carpet has many good points, however, as it wears well, cleans well, and does not get so dusty or matted as cut pile carpets. It lacks the soft, luxurious appearance of cut pile; therefore it is best in decorative plans that have a direct quality, such as Early American or other provincial schemes. It is well adapted for offices and rooms to be used by men.

Axminsters are the most common of the colorful, patterned carpets that are produced today. The designs and colors of these rugs are frequently poor, except in the hooked-rug or "Early American" patterns. It is to be expected that carpet designs will improve.

Chenilles are the most expensive and luxurious of the domestic carpets. They are not made of yarn, but of thick chenille cord, of wool, or rayon. The background is wool instead of linen, making a softer but less durable carpet. Chenilles are nearly always made to order and are procurable in any size or color. This is an expensive carpet that does not give proportionate value for its cost. The Smyrnas are very much like the Chenilles:

Frieze carpet is made of threads twisted instead of plain, which accounts for its characteristic appearance. The cut threads become slightly untwisted so the fibers exposed are uneven in length, and the longer ones cast shadows which add textural interest to the surface.

Linen rugs are desirable because they are medium in cost, wear very well, and come in a large variety of plain or mixed colors. They are good in dining rooms, sunrooms, porches, and halls, or wherever a plain effect is desired.

Stair carpet should be of excellent quaiity, preferably of short uncut pile, because of the wear on it. It is advisable to buy an extra yard or two in length, so that the position of the carpet can be changed each time it is put down. Stair carpet should harmonize with the lower floor in appearance and, if possible, also with the upper. It is obtainable plain, mottled, bordered, or small patterned, and is usually good in design.

Rag rugs are made by machine and also by hand. They look well in most unpretentious rooms. They are often too light in color and in weight to be practical, but it is possible to get dark and heavy ones. Washable cotton rag rugs are used mostly in bedrooms and bathrooms; woolen rag rugs are best for downstairs rooms. Round and oval crocheted or braided rugs are most common, although they can also be made rectangular in shape. Broad or narrow rag carpeting can be purchased by the yard in the shops or sometimes from a woman who has her own loom.

Handmade hooked rugs are made of rags or yarn pulled up through burlap in loops, which may then be cut or left uncut. The old hooked rugs are often delightful, naive, and individual; they seem to be the expression of thrifty, sturdy people. Hooked rugs are suitable in frank and direct rooms, such as peasant or Early Colonial rooms. In a quaint type of bedroom two or three hooked rugs look well on a painted floor; in a living room, small hooked rugs may be used on a wood floor, or on a plain carpet or rug. The woman who is planning to make a hooked rug should take the utmost care to get a design that has artistic merit.

Fiber rugs for indoor and outdoor porches can be procured in a wide range of prices. Plain and mixed effects are usually preferable to the decorated, although geometric designs, stripes, and plaids are very satisfactory. Large conventionalized flowers in stencil-like designs are particularly poor. If green is present it should be like the green of foliage and not a cold bluish acid green. Excellent rugs are made up of separate one-foot squares of rush fastened together to make any desired size. Jute rugs are inexpensive and often well designed. They make very good temporary rugs even for the living room for those who are waiting for the means to buy permanent ones. Chinese seaweed rugs are often excellent in design and color.

Navajo rugs and blankets are generally available in the shops. Geometric forms and positive colors give them a modern appearance that makes it possible to use them with plain, strong, modern furniture as well as with primitive homemade things. These rugs are particularly suitable in rooms of masculine type or in the typical southwestern homes. Most of the Navajo rugs are fairly good in art quality. The best ones are those that have the design and color well broken up and distributed over the rug, rather than concentrated in a few large spaces. The symbolism of the motifs used by the American Indians adds interest to their rugs. Efforts should be made to encourage the handwork of the Indians and to prevent the commercialization of this very interesting native craft. The Navajo rugs are no doubt the best known, and some of the Chimayo rugs are notable for their color and design, but there are others that are desirable also.

Hand-woven rugs are made in various parts of this country. Some are good in design, but some are not. It is possible to have good designs copied at hand-weaving establishments. This should be done oftener than it is as hand-weaving ought to be encouraged.

Numdah rugs from India are made of pounded goat hair felt that is embroidered. Usually they are good in design, but their contrast in color value is often too strong. Those with dark backgrounds may be used as floor rugs; those with light backgrounds make effective wall hangings. Because of their bold design and color, these rugs are likely to prove to be the center of interest in rooms where they are used.

Scandinavian rugs are usually made at home by hand during the long winters. The designs are invariably geometric or highly conventionalized and are generally excellent. The colors are often northern in feeling, the Swedish rugs in particular featuring icy blues. Even the rugs that have been done in the modern style have retained a distinct native flavor through the use of old designs. The Scandinavian rugs are the most desirable rugs made today, but are difficult to procure in this country.

French rugs of historic importance are the Aubusson and Savonnerie, of which there are examples in our museums and largest rug shops. The Aubusson, made in the town of that name, was a tapestry type of hand-woven rug, without pile, having both warp and woof thread of silk or wool. This rug was used most during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and was elaborate in spirit and design. The Savonnerie was a hand-tufted carpet or rug with a deep velvet nap.

In France today these terms do not mean what they formerly did, as practically all flat French rugs are now called aubusson and all pile rugs savonnerie. French rugs of naturalistic and modern design are now procurable in American shops, but they tend to be too elaborate for use in small American homes.

Balkan rugs of excellent design are made by machine and by hand. The Rumanian peasant rugs are particularly suitable to use with provincial furniture. Handmade Hungarian Kis-Kilem rugs are excellent for rooms of a masculine type.

Fur rugs are favored by some decorators. They should be used with discrimination; for example, a velvety fur might suit a certain room that a shaggy fur would not. It seems barbarous to have the head of a dead animal lying an the floor, aside from the fact that it is a stumbling-block. The uneven lines of a natural pelt, too, disturb the regular lines of a room. If a hunter must exhibit his trophies he should confine them to his own study.

A person interested in obtaining distinctive effects should watch the shops for unusual new rugs. Spanish hand-tufted rugs, druggets from Persia and India, Sahos from Nineveh, and new patterns from northern Africa, France, Germany, and Russia should be sought.

ORIENTAL RUGS

The making of Oriental rugs is a great art that is dying, killed by the popularity of its products. The enormous number of rugs required to fill the demand for them which has arisen since 1900 has made factory methods unavoidable. Making Oriental rugs is not an art when it is done commercially for the sake of financial gain. Modern Oriental rugs are entirely different from the old ones in appearance as well as in the spirit in which they are made. Rugs more than fifty years old are considered antique.

The old rugs were made mostly by the nomad tribes of southwestern Asia. These restless people wandered about in order to find pasture for their sheep, which provided them with food, clothing, and rug material. Rug making was their sole industry, and it was an ideal occupation for them. Their simple looms were easy to set up and move, and it was easy for them to transport their surplus rugs to a market.

It is difficult to understand how these crude people could have developed an art of such refinement. They must, of course, have had a great deal of native art ability, for which rug making was the chief outlet of creative expression. To each family the rugs it produced were a source of such great pride that they were made with unbelievable care and patience. Young women made rugs to demonstrate their attainments, and in some places their desirability as wives depended upon their skill as weavers. The designs were often symbolical of the history of the family or tribe using them.

In the old rugs fine materials were a part of their superiority. The wool was washed by hand, spun with care, and dyed with vegetable or animal dyes. Generations of weavers had perfected the dyeing of the yarn, which was according to secret information belonging to some particular household, tribe, or district.

Their religious significance encouraged the makers to expend care and love on their rugs. A prayer rug was cherished above all because it served as a symbol for Mecca, when the owner placed the rug with its niche towards the Holy City and knelt upon it to pray. A prayer rug was never sold by its owner unless he was in desperate need. Rugs were made in the cities too, the most expert weavers making the imperial carpets and those for the floors and walls of mosques.

Today the situation is vastly different. During recent years the weavers have been gathered into centers. With the use of foreign capital, factories have been established, and the weavers, particularly women and small children, work in them, often for a pitifully small wage. Quantity is the result, but art quality is lacking. The designs are now often provided by American rug buyers, who order rugs that suit the popular taste in their country.

The wool yarn is now washed and spun and dyed in the factory. This alone is enough to make an enormous difference in the rugs. When the wool is washed by hand, in streams, it retains enough oil to give the rugs a gloss. The most noticeable difference, however, between the individual-made rug and the factory-made rug is in the coloring. Naturally the nomad tribes had a great variety of color in their rugs. They dyed wool with vegetable dyes as they needed it, and the berries or herbs used for dye were not the same in the many places where they wandered. The man who was doing the dyeing might vary even the colors produced in one locality, for as he smoked and chatted he might let some of the skeins remain in the dye bath longer than others. All such natural variations in the coloring added to the beauty of the rugs. Colors produced with vegetable dye grow more soft and harmonious with time.

Modern rugs are dyed with aniline dyes. Retail rug dealers say that the companies which import modern rugs into the United States put them through a chemical bath which subdues the brilliant aniline colors, making them run together, and sometimes bleaching them out. Then so-called experts, with brushes and dye, paint the rugs, touching up spots, softening unnaturally the definite edges of the patterns, and giving them a false softly blended appearance, which can not possibly result from the technique of weaving. After this bleaching and painting process all the rugs look much alike, most of them being a dark American Beauty-Rose red. Blue or brown motifs are usually so thoroughly blended by the washing, painting, and ironing that they are very unimportant. The ironing process consists of using glycerine and hot rollers to produce a high gloss, which is not permanent, however. The most unsuspecting buyer should know that wool could not have such a shine without artificial aids.

Modern factory-made rugs do not improve and become more valuable with age as the old rugs do. They get shabby and the color becomes ugly, for the wool is lifeless, as the result of the use of aniline dyes and chemical washes.

Persia has tried to protect the art of rug making, but commercial pressure has been too strong for her. At one time she even forbade the importation of aniline dyes and variation of the old designs. Chinese rug making is also in the hands of foreigners. The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics now announces that the weavers of the Caucasus and of Turkestan have been concentrated in weaving centers to use factory methods.

There seems to be no hope for handmade Oriental rugs. Possibly there is no place in our machine age for them. If so, we should admit the fact, and not permit dealers to pretend that the so-called Oriental rugs made today are products of the Oriental genius for weaving beautiful rugs by hand.

Persia, Turkey, and southern Russia have produced the finest rugs in existence. The rugs of China and India are considered inferior in design and color.

Persian Rugs.     The best Persian rugs are outstanding for expert workmanship, subtle coloring, and fine design. Their rather small conventionalized designs are based on natural forms, such as flowers, trees, vines, birds, rivers, and clouds. Some favorite motifs are the Rose of Iran, Tree of Life, and Trailing Vines, all of which are much varied. The Sennah or Persian knot is used, which permits the tying of many knots to the square inch, and therefore the use of short pile. The Kashan rug often has one hundred and fifty knots to the square inch.

A list of Persian rugs follows. The names are those of cities or provinces where the rugs are made, and do not always refer to the particular kind of design that is used. There seems to be no generally accepted spelling for the names of rugs.

1. Bakhshis.
2. Bijar.
3. Feraghan.
4. Hamadan.
5. Herez.  
6. Ispahan.
7. Kara-Dagh.
8. Kashan.
9. Kermanshah.
10. Khorassan.
11. Kirman.
12. Kurdistan.
13. Meshed.
14. Niris.
15. Saraband.
16. Saruk.
17. Sehna.
18. Serapi.
19. Shiraz.
20. Sultanabad.
21. Tabriz.

Turkish Rugs. Turkish rugs are more bold in design than Persian rugs. Patterns consist of more highly conventionalized floral and geometric forms. The lines of city architecture and Turkish symbols such as pinks, tulips, and hyacinths are favorite motifs. The color is less varied and suave than in the Persian, but not so limited as in the Caucasian.

These rugs are made with the Turkish or Ghiordes knot, which alternates a row of pile with two rows of knots, and necessitates a long thick pile to cover the knots. The Mosul rugs are among the best; they are made from both camel's hair and goat's hair. The Anatolian rugs used by the natives for pillows are both cheap and good. Some of the best-known Turkish rugs are listed below:

1. Anatolian.
2. Ak Hissar.
3. Bergama.
4. Ghiordes.
5. Karaman.
6. Kir-Shehr.
7. Konieh.
8. Kulah.
9. Ladik.
10. Makri.
11. Meles.
12. Mosul.
13. Mujur.
14. Smyrna.
15. Yuruk.

Caucasian Rugs (U.S.S.R.). The tribes living on the mountainous isthmus between the Black and the Caspian Seas make the Caucasian rugs. These rugs are even more bold in design and color than the Turkish; possibly the mountain forms and the strong contrasts of snow and earth are reflected in them. Native designs have persisted unaffected by foreign influences. Practically all the patterns are geometric, with the latch hook appearing in nearly all rugs. The Ghiordes knot, wool warp and woof, and the prayer-rug size are characteristics of these rugs. There is almost no variation in the six colors that are used, but fortunately for the achievement of harmony, some one color always predominates.

The Daghestans are especially good Caucasian rugs that are usually made in mosaic designs cleverly executed. The figures are often in the shape of diamonds, hexagons, small crosses, and hooks. Their close pile makes these rugs especially durable.

The list of representative Caucasian rugs published by the trading corporation representing the Soviet Union is given here. Additional types of Caucasian rugs are named by others, however.

1. Armenian (Kuba, Shirvan).
2. Kabistan (Shirvan, Kuba, Baku, Daghestan).
3. Karabagh.
4. Kazak (Gandgea, Georgian).
5. Soumak-Kashmir.

Turkestan Rugs (U.S.S.R.).    These rugs are made by the many nomad tribes that live in the great sandy desert plains now called Soviet Central Asia. Turkestan rugs are called the Red Rugs because they usually are colored a rich, dark, wine red, with small amounts of pink, black, white, yellow, and blue. The designs are largely geometric and are not particularly symbolic. The warp and the short pile are of wool, woven closely into firm rugs.

The Bokhara is an excellent rug with a simple, beautiful pattern of octagons, squares, and triangles combined with the elephant's-foot motif. It is one of the best modern rugs procurable because its subdued color does not have to be chemically faded.

1. Bokhara.
2. Black or Pendi-Bokhara.
3. Khachli-Bokhara.
4. Saddle-bag Bokhara.
5. Afghan-Kerki (Khiva-Bokhara).
6. Beshir.
7. Samarkand (Mongol group).
8. Yomut.

Chinese Rugs.     Chinese rugs are generally very good in workmanship and in materials, but are usually poor in design and monotonous in color. The lack of art quality in these rugs is due mostly to the use of naturalistic motifs scattered over large plain areas. Some of the favorite motifs are circles, octagons, trellis, bats, dragons, birds, and floral patterns. Borders of various widths, which are so helpful to the design quality of most Oriental rugs, are not often found in modern Chinese rugs. The color scheme of blue and tawny yellow of many Chinese rugs is a meager one, when compared to the rich, varied color schemes of most Oriental rugs. Their light coloring makes Chinese rugs more suitable for bedrooms than living rooms. The Chinese people are not to blame for the designs and colors of the rugs that are exported to the United States, however, because these rugs are made according to the directions of American buyers.

Indian Rugs.      Indian rugs have no distinction of their own. Their designs have been copied from other countries, mostly from Turkey, and are more realistic and therefore less beautiful than their models. They display great variety in color and texture, but not fine taste in selection. Importers frequently give names to these rugs to increase their value, but the names do not always indicate the source of the rugs.

Buying an Oriental Rug. The person who wants to buy an Oriental rug should go to a very reliable firm and ask to be shown the difference between the old and the modern rugs. Then she should go to a museum and look at the rugs there, and to a library to study a few good books on Oriental rugs. By this time she should be reasonably well equipped to distinguish between the old and the new. After such study few women would care to buy a modern Oriental rug.

In selecting Oriental rugs it is well to realize that their beauty and character depend upon their individuality, design, color, texture, and workmanship. Oriental rugs are likely to be good in design, but some are better than others. In general, in a rug there is a division into borders and field. There are five common types of rugs, one being the prayer rug, and the others showing medallions, surface repeats, floral decorations, or a tree of life. The surface repeat designs enclosed by many borders are the most desirable. The medallions are usually too conspicuous and heir lines are unrelated to those of a room. Highly conventionalized and geometric motifs are preferable to the naturalistic, which are infrequent except in Chinese and Indian rugs.

One should look for variety in any of the colors in a rug. For example, if an orange-red is present there might also be a crimsonred and a violet-red in other places. One color should dominate in a rug. The color and the design in a rug should express the same idea; for example, a bold design demands a bold color scheme, and a finer design needs more delicate colors. The most common fault of Oriental rugs is spotty appearance due to the presence of very light spaces and very dark ones.

A reliable rug dealer will explain the points of good workmanship and materials, which he usually regards as more important than design or color. Sometimes the price of a rug is determined by the number of knots it has to a square inch. Workmanship and materials are of course important, but without good design and color they are futile.

Room-size Oriental rugs are made for Americans. Since the Orientals did not make them until they began to cater to foreign trade, it is hard to find large old rugs. It is possible to find smaller interesting old rugs in odd sizes. A few smaller rugs give a room a more decorative effect for less money than a large one does. They may be used on a waxed floor or on a plain carpet that is related to them in color.

Imitation Oriental Rugs. The so-called American Orientals made by machinery in imitation of the handmade Oriental rugs are undesirable. Machine reproduction of handwork is always unpleasant in any material, but particularly in Oriental rugs. The charm of the handmade rug lies in the infinite variation in the dye; the personal creative expression, sensitive taste, and patience of the worker; the symbolism of the design for the worker-all the human and romantic elements which are lost in the machine article. It is strange that these intangible influences have such a telling effect on the handmade rug, for it seems living and soulful, whereas the machine-made imitation, even though an excellent likeness, seems as dead as an artificial flower. The human mind wants order, but not perfect order. It is not only pretentious to have an imitation Oriental but also extravagant because a plain rug costs less and is more beautiful in every way.

Arranging Rugs.   If several smaller rugs are used instead of a room-sized one it becomes a problem as to how to place them. In a long room it is better to have a larger rug in the center of the room and a smaller one at each end, or at least at one end. Small rugs should not stray out into the middle of the floor but should be placed before the most important pieces of furniture. They should not be placed diagonally because that interferes with the structural unity of the room.

Pads. Floor coverings should be placed on pads, as this doubles their lives. There are various thicknesses and textures in pads, including a special non-skid material for small rugs.