Are you in the market to buy a new Oriental area rug? Congratulations! This is going to drastically improve the look and feel of your home. Before you can move any further deciding on a style or color, you must first know what size rug you need. A properly sized rug can bring a room together, but an improperly sized one will make a space look awkward and unbalanced.

This is an incredibly important first step, one you cannot skip. A too-large area rug will make a room feel small and one that is too small will make the space feel awkward. Knocking off any rugs that aren’t the right size cuts down a lot of options, which is actually a good thing. Limiting the choices frees you up and prevents the paralysis of infinite options. You’ll want to keep these three rules in mind:

Rule #1 Match your rug to the shape of the room. 

In general, you want the shape of the rug to match the shape of the room. Because most living rooms are rectangular, living room rugs should be rectangular. If you’re putting the rug in a bedroom or den that is more square, look for a square rug. Putting a square rug in a longer rectangular room will leave an awkward space at one end.

Rule #2 Always leave space between the rug and the wall.

This brings us to our next point: spacing. An area rug should never reach all the way to the wall. This makes the rooms feel much smaller than it otherwise would. Make sure there is at least six inches of floor space between the area rug and the wall. This means you will want to keep the floor measurements in mind when shopping. Choose an Oriental area rug size that will leave a sufficient amount of space between its edges or fringe and all the walls.

Rule #3 Keep furniture placement consistent.

Do you want the rug to be in the middle of open space or have the furniture be on top? Will the furniture be all the way on top or only halfway, like the front legs of the couch on the floor and back legs on the edge of the rug? There’s no correct answer as long as you keep it consistent. Having the couch all the way off the rug and the loveseat all the way on will make the space feel odd and disconnected.

Serafian’s isn’t just a place to buy a new rug. We also want to educate our shoppers! Once you decide on the size of your area rug, we can also discuss how to find a high-quality rug, the history of different rug designs, and even how to care for your rug once you have it home. This is just one way we show our dedication to our customers! If you’re in the New Mexico area, the place to shop and educate yourself is Serafian’s.

A little over a year ago, we decided to expand our wash operation into a larger facility. It was a big move, and today we’re set up to wash your rugs faster and better than ever before. Join us for a quick tour of our new facility and learn what we can do for you and your rugs.

 

 

 

First we have our “Dry Phase” area. When your rug comes into our facility the first thing we do is measure and inspect it, looking for any special needs that it has. We determine the best methods for cleaning your rug, and contact you if we find any special considerations that need your attention. Next, we remove all of the loose soil from its foundation. This involves an air dusting technique and/or a tumble dusting technique. Our new facility has a large fenced in area where we can do more air dusting than ever before and the largest available tumble duster which gently drops the dirt out of your rug faster than any other known method.

Next we enter the “Wet Phase” area of the facility. First your rug is treated and “pre-spotted” to ensure the dyes remain stable and tough stains are broken apart. If the rug has heavy urine saturation, we use isolated pre-soaking vats to disinfect and break apart the urine before tub washing them. Next, it goes into our wash tub where it churns underwater with gentle chemicals, breaking apart the greasy and dirt in the rug.

 

 

 

 

From there, we scrub and detail the rug, then run it through our Mor washer/rinser machine. Not only is this machine the most advanced of its type in the world, but it is a huge time saver for our workers. While it was being built, we worked directly with the manufacturer to make sure we could control every facet of this cleaning step. This ensures that the process is not only safe and effective for cleaning your rug, but uses surprisingly little water too. This is an important factor in New Mexico’s desert climate.

 

Once your rug is clean, we run it
through our centrifuge, where it spins at 1100 RPM, removing most of the remaining moisture. When your rug leaves the centrifuge, it is just slightly damp. This minimizes the chance for dye bleeds and other problems in drying.

Its hard to put into words just how big a part of our operation the drying room is. It can hold over 5,000 square feet of clean rugs and get all of them dry in a single night. With huge fans keeping the air moving, a powerful heater keeping the temperature high, and a simple but effective method to hang large numbers of rugs, this space is without a doubt one of the biggest upgrades we managed to acquire with our move.

 

After your rug is clean and dry, there are often still more steps that need to be taken. Sometimes this means repairing some damage from your beloved puppy or even re-dying areas on your rug where the sun faded the colors. In our new facility, we have all the space we could ever ask for to address these issues. There is a nice big area to use for the application of moth resistant spray and Fiber ProTector brand stain guard, a sectioned off area where we can stretch and block your rugs, another for pad cutting, a large and supply filled repair area where our workers can address any repair needs your rug may have, and even a “Dye Kitchen” where we can custom mix dyes for recoloring and repairing your rug.

And of course, what tour would be complete without stopping at our employee’s favorite space. The break room, where after a long hard day of washing and repairing rugs, they can take a much needed rest break.

Obviously the most important part!

Want to see a rug go through our process start to finish? Take a few minutes to watch our wash video.

 

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By: Matt Gabel

Matt Gabel is the Retail Manager at Serafian’s Oriental Rugs. He has been working closely with rugs for over 25 years.  Serafian’s offers free pick up and delivery in the Albuquerque metro area. For more information, call (505) 504-RUGS or go to serafians.com

Today, world famous guitarist Larry Mitchell shot a new music video, and Serafian’s was honored to have our rugs present as the setpieces! Larry Mitchell is a Grammy award-winning producer, engineer and performer who has toured the world playing guitar with well-known artists including Tracy Chapman, Billy Squier, Ric Ocasek and Miguel Bosé.

We will be sure to post the video for everyone to see when it is completed. In the meantime, here are some images from the shoot.

With over a hundred rug washers from around the country coming, we are very proud to announce that Serafian’s is hosting rug Summit IX.

http://www.centrum-force.com/rug-summit-sched.html