Rugs are more than just a covering for your floor. They provide warmth, color, texture and so much more. The rug has been employed as a home decorative element for thousands of years, with origins tracing back to prehistoric times when early humans used animal skins, reeds, grasses, or woven mats for warmth and protection from cold floors.
The earliest indirect evidence of woven textiles or mat-like coverings dates to the Neolithic period (around 5000–4000 BC or earlier) in regions like Egypt and Mesopotamia, where fragments suggest simple woven floor coverings existed.
The element of warmth we mentioned above is two-fold. Rugs provide aesthetic warmth to a room, and they also work as an insulator on hardwood floors, keeping any cold draft from under the house at bay. They also provide a respite for cold feet in the wintertime.
According to the folks at online rug auction, the most popular kinds of rugs are large area rugs with some age and a story. People prefer handmade rugs that have withstood the test of time and have unique pedigree like those from the middle east. As far as color or design, these things vary customer to customer.
Asian rugs are very popular as well. It is believed that nomadic tribes in Central Asia probably began weaving flat-woven fabrics (like kilims) as early as 1000 BC or before, evolving into pile rugs for practical use in tents and later as symbols of status.
It can take days, weeks, or even months for the rug designer and creator to produce some of the nicer rugs you will see on the market. This level of effort and experience isn’t cheap but as the old saying goes “you get what you pay for”.
A rug doesn’t have to be expensive for it to be effective and beloved by its owner. You can sometimes get decent rugs at outlet stores for 100-200 dollars which will serve their purpose beautifully. An antique hand-crafted rug, on the other hand, can cost as much as $7,000.
Quality rugs have good resale value, and some folks have even returned a profit on rare rugs which they have owned and used. The household rug is a part of home life for billions of people on the planet, are you one of them?
