Soft as a baby's butt

This weekend I enjoyed some time at my sister's home. Whereas I spend time in the city going to ball games and hanging out along the riverfront, my sister has chosen to call a farm-like suburb home. The rolling hills and tranquil arrangement of homes seems like the absolutely ideal place to raise young ones.

My niece has taken on a personality of her own. She is going on five years old and really knows what is going on around her. My nephew on the other hand is still crawling around. I saw him in his bedroom making his way across when he seem agitated. I picked him up and realized that the carpeting on the floor was not as soft as it should be, and I started thinking of a solution.

What fiber would be ideal for a baby's room? It would have to be very stain resistant, ultra soft and able to hold vibrant colors in the dying process. The answer I came up with was acrylic. Now one must keep in mind what part of the home rugs are being put in, and I will be the first to say that putting rugs made of acrylic in a very heavy traffic area would not be a wise move. However, using such a soft silky fiber in a child's room or nursery is a great way to go. A few things that acrylic has going for it:

1)Cotton like feeling

2)Stain resistant qualities

3)Bold colorings

There are also some drawbacks to acrylic, and it would not be fair for me to just tell you the good points. A few things to be wary about when selecting an acrylic rug are:

1)It may pill. Pilling occurs when the length of the yarn was not significant enough to make it into the yarn twist deeply enough. The yarn twist is also known as bundle encapsulation. Where certain fibers such as nylon have excellent bundle encapsuation (but are not usually as soft as acrylic) the acrylic fiber is shorter, so the rug will have balls of fuzz over the top of it for the first several months that you own it.

2)Acrylic is not a tank. The same qualities that make it ultra soft, also allow it to break down more quickly than a more traditional synthetic yarn such as 6.6 nylon.

With all this in mind, it seems that acrylic has all the good points going for it that one would look for when selecting new rugs for nurseries or children's rooms. The drawbacks with acrylic rugs are not bad, seeing as traffic in a child's room is not as significant as in a primary living area or busy hallway.

When selecting new rugs, it is always wise to consider all points, and not just the general look of the rugs you are considering. Different fibers have different positives and negatives. Be mindful of them and if you have any questions please let me know. All of us here really do enjoy rugs and like to share all of our knowledge about them with you.

Kind Regards,
Wes.