No matter what type flooring you have chosen for your home, whether it’s wood, tile or even carpeting, chances are that you are going to want to add area rugs. They will not only add color and warmth to a room, create the illusion of partitioning a larger space into smaller segments but will also protect the surface of those heavily trafficked areas.
Since the earliest days of colonial times, cold cabin floors were warmed by braided rugs, a style that is still popular today. Generations of women in families worked on these rugs, grandmothers, mothers and daughters creating the same rug together. Many of these have been passed down and are cherished family heirlooms.
The traditional, hand-made braided area rug is much like a quilt. Unlike our throw-away mentality, today, the early settlers of this country wasted very little. Most worn out clothing and bedding was saved and cut into squares for the next quilting bee. The rest became strips that were hand folded, braided together and laced to create a rug.
Once machines were invented to mass produce most of what was once made by hand, the skills and techniques for braiding were no longer passed from one generation to the next and the practice nearly died out until toward the latter part of the twentieth century. Many of the old crafts experienced a resurgence at that time, and now it is possible to find those with the skill to create a hand-made rug for your home.
A country braided rug in a more casual setting is what usually comes to mind when considering this type of rug. While that is the most popular style, there are certainly many others to choose from. Styles, shapes, colors and sizes come in a wide range of materials and can cost anywhere from under a hundred at a discount store like Wal-Mart to thousands of dollars from specialty manufacturers.
Wool is considered to be the material of choice. Wool blends, cottons, nylons, poly-blends and other synthetic materials are commonly used. The most common commercially made braided rugs are made of yarn. Unlike the hand-made creations of our ancestors, today’s rugs consist of an outer layer of cloth or yarn wrapped around a core of filler material. Higher quality rugs will have filler made of natural pre-shrunk cotton or some sort of synthetic fiber, while cheaper brands may use paper or reprocessed materials. Filler is used to cut costs by reducing the amount of cloth or yarn required and still maintaining the weight and feel expected.
There are many styles and shapes to choose from depending upon the style of your home and the shape of the room it will go in. Oval braided rugs fit nicely in a living room or den while octagon, the newer elongated octagon and round braided rugs are often used as accent rugs in a more defined space. The color you select will vary based on decor and whether you are pairing with ceramic tile, oak, maple or walnut flooring or some other type of surface. The choices are nearly endless.
If you are one of the lucky ones and have one of these treasures that has been passed down through your family, count yourself fortunate indeed. Not only is it every bit as useful as it was when it was made, it is a part of your history. Consider taking the time to talk to the elders of your family. Maybe they can remember stories about those woven strips that will help you and those who come after you learn a little bit more about who you are and how you got here.
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