Tips for Selecting the Best High Traffic Area Rugs

There are a lot of high-traffic areas in your home. It is challenging to keep up with our busy lives, especially with the floor wear and tear!  This article will share tips for selecting the best high-traffic area rugs.

Take a look at your home. Dining room, living room (kitchen, entry, hallway, bathroom, etc.) When you think about these home areas, you realize how much they are used. So naturally, you decorate these areas according to high traffic. You pay attention to each element.

The most damaged and rapidly aging decoration elements are floors in living rooms with heavy foot traffic. Whether the base of your living space is hardwood, tile, or laminate, you must protect it from withstanding this heavy foot traffic. Because your children run around the house, play games, and constantly spill food on the floor. If you have pets, you have a lot of pet hair on all your bases. You invite your friends and family members to your home. There's nothing like dinners together and parties. So how do you protect your floors against them, and can you even protect them?

In heavy foot traffic family rooms, we use area rugs to protect floors, warm the atmosphere and create a decoration focal point. But the area rugs we prefer for these areas should be different from the ones we prefer for low traffic areas. We call these area rugs high traffic area rugs. In other words, the area rugs used for these areas appear as a different rug type on their own.

High traffic area rugs are rugs made of durable materials that are stain resistant, low pile, high pile, flat weave, water resistant, fade resistant and are preferred for entries, hallways, living rooms, dining rooms, bathrooms and kid’s rooms.

High traffic areas are areas with heavy foot traffic. There are many features that an area rug produced for these areas should have. Rug makers take many things into consideration when making area rugs that will be used in a high traffic area. Such as production materials, weaving technique, color, shape, size, pleat length.

With an area rug made with all this in mind, you don't have to worry about it getting dirty, stained or worn when using it in your high traffic area. So, if you're going to have to tiptoe over it, then why have it?

The must-have features of the perfect rug for high traffic areas are:

• Material: The primary feature to be considered in high traffic area rugs is the material and weaving. Because if the material used is not suitable, regardless of the other characteristics of the area rug, it will wear out quickly when used in these areas. The fibers used will show themselves in the weaving of the area rug and create a durable material-woven combination. The durable fibers that should be used in the production of these high traffic area rugs are synthetic, polypropylene, cotton and wool fibers.

Wool rugs are suitable for use in living spaces with high foot traffic. It has stain resistance properties. They match perfectly with hard flooring. For more traffic, it is recommended to choose a wool rug with a lower pile. In other words, pile height is a feature to be considered in wool rugs. When evaluating rug options, if softness and comfort are important to you, you can buy a beautiful rug made of these natural fibers. Wool is the right rug material when it comes to these. Most of the wool rugs produced today are produced in accordance with professional cleaning. If you want to have an oriental rug, but also a high traffic area rug, then you are choosing the right rug material. Here are some wool rugs for your taste and preference: 

Cotton is generally used in area rug production by mixing it with wool and other natural fibers. The most important advantage of this material is that it makes the area rug comfortable, soft and durable. Steam cleaning can be carried out to clean cotton mixed area rugs. Here are some cotton rug designs we think you may like:

Finally, there are area rugs made from synthetic fibers such as polypropylene and nylon. Synthetic rugs are the rugs produced especially for high traffic. Synthetic fabrics are the materials that are least affected by foot traffic. If easy cleaning, comfortable use, permanence of bright colors, freedom in color selection, not worrying about direct sunlight, and being able to choose light but solid colors are important to you, then synthetic rugs will be the ideal choice for you and will make a huge difference in your life.

We would also like to point out that the favorite rug of pet owners is synthetic rug. As Mark & Day we can proudly say that polyester rugs (synthetic) our specialty.

A natural fiber rug other than cotton and wool is not suitable for use in high traffic spaces.

• Weaving: Weaving is the second most important high traffic area rug feature. So, the weaving technique used can make a rug the best or the worst rug for those areas.

Without second thought, the flat weave is the best weaving technique for high traffic. This technique allows durable fibers to be used in weaving. It is both a fine weaving type and at the same time provides a very durable rug. Flat weave rugs can be used in all living spaces with or without high traffic, in terms of comfort, softness and easy cleaning. Dust mites in your family room cannot be accommodated in this rug, they can be easily cleaned. It is a weaving technique that fits perfectly with natural materials.

A rug woven with this technique is a low-pile rug and does not cause hairing. You can use anti slip mats to prevent them from slipping. They offer color options where you can create color combinations with all kinds of furniture pieces. You don't need to spend a lot of time maintaining and cleaning a modern flat weave low pile rug. In flat weave rugs, cotton, wool or cotton-wool blend fibers are generally preferred.

To summarize briefly, the biggest advantage of flat weave is low pile. High pile rugs are not suitable for use in high traffic areas in terms of cleaning and maintenance. They require grueling proper care.

• Color: You use decoration and interior design elements by using very different color schemes in your living spaces. You want to incorporate trendy colors and furnishings into the decoration of your home. However, when it comes to the color of the rugs you use in high traffic areas, you may not be that free. Because these areas are extremely open to dirt, dust and stains. In these living rooms, something is spilled on your rug every day and your rug gets stained. Working every day to remove stains from your rug is very challenging and tedious. If you don't clean it, this time you will be faced with a bad and dirty rug look.

What will save you from this compelling indecision is to choose a high traffic area with the right colors. This means that bright and light rugs are not suitable for use in areas where you and your family spend most of your time. But that doesn't mean you have to choose very dark rugs. White, beige, light pastel colors, bright yellows and light blues are not suitable for the rugs you will use in these areas.  On the other hand, you can comfortably use all other rug colors that are medium dark and do not show stains. The goal here is to mask the daily dirt, dust and stains that build up on your rug. Of course, if you don't wear shoes when walking around the house, if you like to walk around the house barefoot, then you are free to opt for a lighter colored rug.

 With all this in mind, Mark & Day offers high traffic area rugs that match your preferences perfectly.

If you have spent a lot of money buying a shag rug for your high traffic area, we regret to inform you that you have made a very wrong investment. Because you will understand that you need to buy a new and different area rug as soon as you use it. Shag rugs are not resistant to heavy foot traffic. They lose their brightness on the first day they are used in these areas. They are delicate rugs, so they are not resistant to professional cleaning, and stain removal materials. The use of these cleaning methods causes them to lose their aesthetic properties and wear out in a short time. If you do have such a shag rug though, then you might want to consider using it in a low-traffic area in your home.

Polyester is a subspecies of synthetic materials. It has exactly the same properties as rugs made from other synthetic materials such as nylon and polypropylene. Polyester, that is, synthetic rugs, are the rugs that will be an excellent choice for use in high traffic areas in all respects. These rugs are produced by focusing entirely on stain resistant, easy cleaning, durability, direct sunlight and they are quite affordable. They provide you with comfort and softness.  These rugs come in a variety of colors and patterns suitable for versatile use. Resistance to crushing is one of their most prominent features. You do not experience problems such as abrasion, fading, mold and mildew with polyester rugs. You don't need to get professional cleaning service when cleaning them. By applying simple cleaning methods, you can clean them without getting tired.

Sisal is a plant that grows in harsh geographical conditions. Similar to hemp. It has an extremely strong and durable fiber structure. For this reason, its usage area in textile is quite wide. It is a type of fiber that is often preferred in weaving. A rug woven tightly as a flat weave from sisal fibers will definitely be a very good choice for high traffic area use. For this reason, we see the use of sisal rugs, especially in business spaces such as offices. This is such a strong natural fiber that it is very difficult to tear, break and be damaged, as is the case with synthetic fibers. What you'll love most about a sisal rug is that it never stains. Its easy-to-clean, stain-proof, extremely durable and natural fiber nature can make it your favorite decoration product.

There are multiple durable area rug materials. Which of these is the most durable depends entirely on what kind of rug you want in your high traffic area.

There Are 6 Most Durable Area Rug Materials:

Wool: Wool material offers you multiple benefits. If you want the rug in your living room to be durable but also have other features, a wool rug is for you. Wool rug is not just durable. It is the soft ground under your bare feet. It warms both the style of your decoration and your room. It prevents the cold coming from the ground. Wool rugs are very suitable for people with a classical taste.

Polypropylene: It is one of the synthetic fiber types and is as durable as other synthetic materials in this group. It is a rug material that offers countless options in terms of color, pattern and style.

Nylon: Another synthetic rug material such as polypropylene. It is used in the production of rugs that can be used easily in outdoor areas as well as in indoor high traffic areas.

And the others are sisal, jute, and seagrass.