FLOOR COVERINGS
It is well to remember that the foundation of every decorating scheme rightly should be the floor-covering. One's rugs or carpetings may contrast with the wall treatment, or they may complement it, but next to the room itself they are the largest color expanse. A good deal of thought needs to be given to the floor covering's selection. One can well afford to invest slightly more in this decorative accessory and obtain the soft new colors which lend so much charm to furniture groupings.
Floor coverings of proper texture and pattern can lend much sparkle and life to a room or they can ruin one's most carefully selected ensemble if they are drab and listless.
Floor coverings are divided into two groups: The soft-surface fabrics are made from a variety of textile fibers including wool which is the one most widely used; and the hard surface fabrics, including linoleum and the felt-base prints.
Soft-surface floor coverings are made both by hand and by machinery. The first class includes all Oriental rugs; European hand-knotted rugs; floor tapestries; and a few hooked, braided, and woven hand-craft rugs of limited production. The second class includes a wide range, of fabrics, nearly all of which are produced by the chenille, Wilton, Axminster, drum print, roller print, or ingrain processes.
ORIENTAL RUGS[21]
Rugs are woven in quantity in Persia, Turkey, India, and China, with a smaller production in Turkestan, Greece, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan. With few exceptions, the finer rugs come from Persia. Small rugs, woven primarily for individual or family use, are made throughout the rug-weaving countries. Small rugs made primarily for export, and the larger room-size rugs, usually called carpets, are woven chiefly in a few great production districts of the four countries first named.
In all oriental rugs the pile is knotted by hand, and in most weaves the wool is also scoured, carded, spun, and dyed by hand. Aniline dyes are used in many of the cheaper rugs—particularly in those woven outside of Persia—and either a superior quality of chemical dyes or the old vegetable dyes in the better rugs. All rugs except the poorest and cheapest are fast in color, unless they have been "painted."
Most oriental rugs are carefully made of good wool, and their durability under reasonable conditions of service is guaranteed by responsible dealers. The widespread notion that any oriental rug, however cheap and however abused in service, will wear indefinitely is of course absurd. Rugs are made of wool, not of concrete. Even in the Orient they wear out in time, notwithstanding the fact that they are not touched by heavy shoes. In the matter of durability oriental rugs have no inherent advantage over domestics. Everything depends upon the choice of wools and skill in handling.