The method, and why it matters

A hand-knotted rug is wool or silk on a cotton or wool foundation, coloured with dyes that were never made to sit in hot water. Heat shrinks wool and pulls the foundation out of square. It also loosens dye, which is how a red border ends up bleeding into an ivory field. Strong detergents strip the lanolin out of wool, and a rug that has lost its lanolin looks dry and takes dirt faster afterwards.

Cold water and plant-based soap avoid all of that. It is slower - the rug is washed by hand from both sides and rinsed until the water runs clear - but the rug comes back the same size, with its colours where the weaver put them and its pile still soft.

What the coast does to a rug

Almost everything we see here comes from three things. Salt air settles into the pile and holds moisture, so a rug feels slightly damp and picks up grit. Beach sand works its way down to the foundation, where it cuts the fibres every time someone walks across the rug - that is why we dust rugs dry before any water. And strong sun through wide windows fades a stripe down one side of a rug over a season or two.

Then there is the smell. A home closed up for months, with the air off and the humidity up, leaves a rug musty. That odour is in the whole thickness of the rug, not on the surface, so it is treated in the wash and dried flat with moving air rather than sprayed over with fragrance.

Careful in the home, clear about the price

We wrap rugs at the door, move and replace furniture, and work with building management on elevators and insurance paperwork when a condo asks for it. You get a price before we start, and if a repair or a fade is not worth spending money on, we will say so. Pickup and delivery are free anywhere in Palm Beach County. We are licensed and insured.