You probably know that a great rug can soften up a space and improve the auditory quality of a room by absorbing sound. Today I want to share with you a few reasons why you should consider using vintage rugs in your home!
Sure, I often help clients purchase new rugs. But there’s something truly special about a one-of-a-kind vintage rug! And lucky for you, I’ve found a great new source for quality vintage rugs that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Revival Rugs offers beautiful and affordable vintage pieces online and direct to the consumer, and I can’t wait to show you a few of their beauties that I am using in the historic home we moved into a mere month ago! Here are 4 reasons you should use vintage rugs in your home:
1. A vintage rug is an heirloom piece that defines and grounds a conversation area.
Check out the lovely dark coral rug from Revival Rugs that I chose for my study. I’m absolutely in love with this one, guys.Imagine this spot WITHOUT it. This rug pulls the seating and little tables together, creating a cohesive vignette on this side of the room that draws me in. In fact, I am sitting right here on that sofa as I write this blogpost!
Your kids won’t be fighting over your machine-made rugs when your gone, but there might be a tussle over that gorgeous rug hand-woven by a skilled artisan in Turkey! A great vintage rug makes a room special and unique, which takes me to my next reason to bring one into your home.
2. A vintage rug can add visual interest and character.
Egon vintage Turkish rug, Revival Rugs
While any lovely rug can add visual interest to your room, a vintage rug can bring unique character to your space. Not all rugs are created equally. Machine-made rugs are cheaply and quickly made on power looms controlled by computers. All of Revival Rugs are handmade with traditional techniques and natural fibers. Their vintage rugs are between 30-100 years old, but they also carry new rugs. Their new collections are handwoven today in limited editions, designed and woven in collaboration with artisan partners.
A one-of-a-kind rug always outshines the mass-produced trendy rugs you see on the daily. Come on now, do we really all have to have the same five rugs of everyone else in our neighborhood?? When we follow those trends, we quickly tire of the piece and want to buy the next big trendy rug three years down the line. A timeless vintage rug never goes out of style.
3. Vintage rugs are low maintenance.
You know what it’s like when you buy something new for your home, and its first scratch or scuff breaks your heart just a little? A vintage rug with patina (a nicer word than age or experience!) is already broken in and doesn’t have to be handled with kid gloves.
Vintage rugs are not typically standard size, which actually adds to their character. Some of their small rugs like this one in my little sitting room are recommended for kitchens, bathrooms, studies, foyers, and bedrooms. They’re also very good for closets, if you’re looking for some secret luxury!
Depending on the size of the rug, the Revival Rugs website shows you different ways you can use them to best effect:
And to the question you may be asking after seeing this space: no, this is not the same loveseat as the one in my study! This one is velvet, while the other is chenille. 😉
Back to the low maintenance of vintage rugs. If you’ve ever purchased a mass-produced rug that sheds so much it requires more regular grooming than your Labrador Retriever, you know what it’s like to have to baby some new rugs!
4. Sustainability – purchasing vintage rugs is a beautiful way to recycle.
Did you know that 5 billion pounds of carpet were sent to the landfill in 2017?? That’s kinda shocking, guys. Well-made vintage rugs can last for many decades, even centuries. I know what you may be thinking: how can these rugs be CLEAN? Revival Rugs has an impressive process for cleaning and restoring their rugs, which includes tumbling, trimming, cleaning, overdyeing, and line drying.
Although vintage, my “new” rugs smell fresh and clean – which is important to me. Not too long ago, I found a sweet vintage rug at an estate sale. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t been able to rid it of the musty smell and had to put it out on my screened porch because it’s just not as clean as I want for inside my home!
Here is the rug I chose for the foyer of Granbery Manor. The Revival Rugs website’s color representation of the rugs I chose was excellent. The blues tie in well with my paint color and wallpaper, while the pink echoes some of my vintage McCoy pottery and the adjoining powder room paint color.
If you’ve been following my restoration journey on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, I am still finishing up the rooms in Granbery Manor that I will be sharing soon! Sharing my new favorite source for quality vintage rugs at a fair price was a great opportunity to give you a bit of a sneak peak of a few spaces in the grand old house. We are already enjoying it so much and can’t wait to entertain when the world will allow it.
Thank you to Revival Rugs for providing me with these beautiful rugs for our new home. And guess what? They are providing YOU with a 10% discount with the code DECOROLOGIST10. Be sure to check them out often, as they have new options coming in all the time! I’d love to know what you think about the rugs I chose for our new place.
Disclosure: Revival Rugs compensated me with their beautiful products in exchange for this blogpost. All opinions and thoughts regarding their products are completely my own!
Oh, Kristie! I love all these pics of your home. I’m really enamored with the bag hanging on the doorknob in your sitting room. You have worked so hard to create such beautiful spaces!
Thank you, Lezlie! We’ve come a long way in six months. 🙂
Revival Rugs is a great resource – I’ve been buying from them, also. The rugs are beautiful and the value is great. Their website is easy to navigate and the layout makes it easy to determine how a specific rug will look.
Yes Jean, their website is very well done and I love that it gives different views of every rug so it’s easy to visualize in your space!
Your new old home is absolutely gorgeous. You have lovingly used your talent to bring this beauty into the 21st century without sacrificing its soul. I’m looking forward to seeing it all!
Thank you so much for saying that, Joanne! It’s definitely a labor of love for me. I look forward to being able to invite people in and entertain . . . this house is made for that!
Maybe a wedding…..😉
We are definitely discussing that for next spring! 😉
Try Nok-Out Odor Eliminator for the musty rug. Try in an inconspicuous place first. Not-Out has to permeate the odor infused material.
Elle, thank you for that great tip! I’ve never heard of Nok-Out, but I’m googling it now. 🙂
Hey Kristie – If you’d like my team to look at that rug you had to put on your porch, just reach out. Beautiful blog and so much great insight!
Hi Wendy! Yes, ProCare is definitely the go-to in Nashville for cleaning and caring for textiles and hard surfaces. Thank you for the reminder! If anyone reading needs carpet, tile/grout, or any other interior surfaces, please check them out here: https://www.procareofnashville.com/
I feel like having a solid piece for example a coral colored pillow will emphasize the cohesion more than the current pillow that used the same fabric in the table cloth. From the screen, it’s really hard for me to tell the rug pulls the color together as the green is not obvious on screen, and hard to tell the coral color from the green table cloth either. Not to mention the color of sofa. These are all patterned therefore hard to tell they share something in common. I guess in person it might be more obvious. thank you for sharing and like your blogs. cant wait to see your new home
Thank you, Xuan Li! The great thing about vintage rugs and maximalist design is that you don’t have to worry as much about exact “matching” of colors and fabrics. The rugs are like a piece of art, in that they can almost stand on their own! In decorating an historic home like this one, I prefer for it to look as though things that are loved are collected over time rather than what most would consider a perfectly designed room. We moved in just a few weeks ago and still have a lot of tweaking to do, but that’s the fun part, isn’t it? 🙂
I absolutely love the rug you have in your foyer! Also, a nice touch putting that landscape painting about the hutch.
Going straight to Revival Rugs’ website now. 🙂
I love how you use so much color in your spaces! Your new home is beautiful!
Thank you so much, Elena. We are enjoying getting to know this house and getting a sense of what it wants, if that makes any sense! There’s a lot of compromise with old houses. There’s what YOU want, and there’s what the house demands! I like working out those compromises so that we are all happy with the end result . . .
Love it, Kristie! I’m a fan of vintage rugs myself and your whole home is so refreshing & unique in a sea of gray & “farmhouse” style. Well done!
Thank you, Serena! I need color around me, obviously. 😉
The paint colors you pick are amazing. I love the colors you used in the Peytonsville Road home which were earthy yet modern and then you chose lovely cottage colors for Raintree, which were the opposite of the Peytonsville style. You seem to pick the right colors for the style home you’re painting. And the colors you chose for your own home were perfect too – a little more historic and appropriate for an older home.
Thank you so much, Gia! I don’t just use the same color palettes for every home – I think it’s important to balance what the house/architecture needs with the vibe that the client wants. 🙂
I just LOVE how artisanal they all look! They’re all fantastic and you make it sound so simple to add into any interior.
Thanks, Grace! These rugs are like a great piece of art – it’s less about “matching” other things in the room and more about what you love!
I really like the style of the rug. The style looks old but stunning. It makes me think of my grandma’s house when she’s still alive. Looking forward to your new article.
I’m so lucky because I’ve found a great new source for quality vintage rugs that won’t cost an arm and a leg hehe. Thanks for sharing! Looking for more post from you!
Vintage rugs give a pop of color to your floor and is a real game-changer.
Very helpful. Thank you for sharing <3
This is such a neat and perfect idea.