What Is A High-End Rug?

High-end rugs, also known as ‘luxury rugs’, can sell for $1,000s.

They are in a class entirely different from the commonly seen mass-produced commercial carpeting and rugs.

There’s a reason why high-end rugs sell for so much. Of course, there are more affordable high-end rugs available as well.

Quality matters. That said, just because it sells for a lot doesn’t mean it’s high-end. Here’s everything you need to know.

It’s Art

High-end rugs are, first and foremost, art. These aren’t just floor coverings. Luxury rugs are sometimes purchased not to be stepped on but to be hung like art on the wall. This is the art, prestige, and pride put into these works.

Browsing a collection like ArtiPlanto, these are very natural, handcrafted, and beautifully handwoven rugs. The designs are vintage, antique-based, and yet, still modern. All materials are carefully sourced. This type of rug is very much treated like art because, from our view, it is.

Woven By Hand

Rugs can be made either by machine, hand-woven, or hand-tufted.

Machine-made rugs are mass-produced and aren’t of great worth. It’s the other two types to look for, if you’re searching strictly for quality. Hand-woven and hand-tufted rugs take time to form, requiring a skilled, experienced artisan to oversee its creation.

Top Quality Materials

The most valuable high-end artisan rugs are made from natural materials, such as wool or silk. Synthetic material is not generally used.

Fortunately, there’s a lot of variability in the types of these materials with wool alone ranging from soft and luxurious to harder and more affordable. Feel the rug. Ideally, it will be soft. Notice the design. If it’s not clear, it may be a sign it’s a lower-quality woven rug.

Pile Length

The best rugs are arguably the most fine and have a short pile length. Hand-woven rugs are intricate, requiring more knots per inch than large-scale designs. It’s very refined work.

Typically, pile length hints at the difficulty it took to make the rug. More difficult rugs require a mastery – a true mastery! – to create them. Most high-end rugs come with fine pile lengths but not necessarily all do so do not make this your sole criteria point.

Natural Dyes or No Dyes

There are two types of rug dyes – chemical-based and natural dyes, such as vegetable dyes.

Chemical degrades the material but is used on lower-quality rugs for convenience. More preferable, natural dyes are used by rug weavers everywhere for high-end rugs. Sometimes, no dyes are used with handwoven rugs. Some artisans can produce a beautiful design without natural dyes.

Age Verification

Rug-making has gone through many eras. Each one has its own characteristics of rug-weaving.

Sometimes, these styles are mimicked to imitate the style of an older rug and to sell a rug as older than it is. If you are concerned about whether your rug is a replicate or real, consider bringing it to an appraiser.