What is in a name?

I have noticed that when writing blog entries, I reference my personal experiences often. It probably makes me come off as a wine swilling socialite. I will leave that up to your interpretation, but suffice it to say this joint doesn't run itself! At any rate, while I was at a recent garden party in Detroit, an acquaintance told me he had just bought new carpets.

This made me think about what he meant. Was he telling me he had installed wall to wall carpet, or was he telling me he had bought some new area rugs? In this case he was telling me he purchased new rugs. So how does the industry tell the difference between carpet and rugs?

In short, carpet is usually related to wall to wall soft-surface goods. These products are stretched over a hard floor and tacked down over padding. Think about the strips of wood that run along the perimeter of a room that has tacks sticking out of it. This sort of application is what is traditionally known as carpet or carpeting.

So what are rugs? The industry standard for rugs is a soft surface item that varies significantly in size, but is not installed with the use of stretching and tacking down. Rugs can be of such a size that they nearly fill an entire room covering up almost the entire floor beneath. They can also be quite a bit smaller than a room, covering only a section of the floor. Carpet and rugs are common in the fact they both should have pad beneath them. The pad used for carpet is different than the pad used for rugs though, and we offer only the sort of pad that would be used under rugs.

One really great thing about rugs is that if one decided to sell their home, rugs are not considered a permanent fixture, and can therefore be taken with the seller at the time of moving. On the other hand, carpet is considered a permanent fixture and must be left behind upon sale. In many instances, the cost of installing carpet can be very close to the cost of the carpet itself.

Whats more, rugs can be moved around from room to room and cleaned either in the home or taken to a professional off site cleaner. In contrast, wall to wall carpet must be cleaned inside the home.

Finally, rugs are usually much more colorful and patterned. The benefit of this is twofold. One is that the rugs add color and style to a room and can pull together a range of different styling cues into a single cohesive feel. Carpet is usually a solid color, or has a few colors in it. The second benefit that rugs have over carpets is that rugs are able to hide spills more easily since they have so many colors in them.

So what is in a name? A whole lot. In fact, the difference between carpets and rugs is significant. Now if you call me slightly biased you would be correct. This being said, rugs really are a better choice for today's home interior. So be sure to keep that in mind as you consider your options.

Until next time...thanks for reading!

Wes

Guru of Rugs.