![Difference Between a Rug and a Carpet](http://markandday.com/cdn/shop/articles/img-1677619501015.jpg?v=1677621047&width=1100)
What’s The Difference Between a Rug and a Carpet?
Mark & DayRugs and carpets are the most indispensable complements of our home decoration styles in terms of floor covering. They add elegance, home warmth, and comfort to our rooms and other living spaces.
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At first glance, both rugs and carpets may seem to have the same purpose and areas of use, but when you dig into the details, you can see significant differences.
This article discusses what carpets and rugs are, their characteristic features, and how they differ from each other.
What is a Rug?
The word rug had a meaning of coarse fabric in the United Kingdom and the 1550s and was rooted in a Scandinavian origin.
Floor rugs are used for floor covering and are made of thick and heavy fabric. Rugs are produced using the weaving technique. In the past, they were relatively only small in size due to their intended use, but nowadays, it is possible to find them of all sizes.
Rugs are floor coverings that have been used by both nomads and settled people in different geographies of the world since ancient times.
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They are still and even widely used in homes, hotels, and offices today. Sometimes they are also preferred as wall rugs if they are suitable for a decoration style. The rug is similar to a carpet in production techniques, materials such as cotton and wool, and material dyes. For this reason, sometimes rugs are even called thin carpets.
Although the production techniques are the same for carpets and rugs, rugs are created with simpler weaving techniques compared to carpets. For this reason, the production time of rugs is short. This advantage makes them more affordable.
What is a Carpet?
The word carpet comes from the Old French word "carpite", which means "very decorated cloth".
Carpets can be woven by hand or machine, or the tufting method is preferred. Carpets can be produced to suit every need. They don’t have a standard thickness, size, thread, or material type. That's why they can be customized. The term thick and heavy fabric for floor covering is also used for carpets.
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Today, they are generally produced by machine mass production methods for casual use. However, there are still varieties produced as hand-woven, and these are considered real works of art. Therefore, their prices are also very high. They require special care and cleaning methods.
In the past, they were mostly made of woolen threads, depending on the conditions and material resources. Today, there are numerous types of yarn materials which are used in carpet production.
In addition, there are synthetic threads such as polypropylene, acrylic, and polyester and natural threads such as bamboo, cotton, wool, and jute. The most characteristic feature of carpets is that their surfaces are short and densely piled, called piles.
There are also embroidered and non-embroidered types of carpets, and they can be preferred for floor coverings, furniture, and wall decoration as wall carpets. A wall carpet can be a unique decoration item mainly because wall carpeting requires a great deal of orientalist wall carpeting experience.
As a wall-to-wall floor covering, you should prefer carpet as a product, as you have heard and know before. However, wall-to-wall carpeting requires expertise, so if you want wall-to-wall carpeting in your room or office, we recommend seeking service from expert home decoration companies.
There is no doubt that although a carpet is a compelling product, it can be used as a very stylish decoration item for a hardwood floor.
When we come across a rug and a carpet, and if we should choose one of them, which one will you choose, how will you decide, and what are their familiar and different aspects, let's take a look at these points.
What’s The Difference Between a Rug and a Carpet?
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- Size: Rugs have always been more significant than rugs in their origins and are designed to be the focal point of a room, office, or living space. For this reason, their size is larger than rugs, and they are ostentatious. Care should be taken when choosing carpets due to their size. When their sizes and patterns or colors come together, they can make your decoration style excessive. Especially when we consider that minimal styles and lines are trendier today, this does not create a very desirable appearance. However, if you want to cover the floor of an entire room completely, you should choose a carpet, definitely not a rug. Because a thickly woven fabric carpet is more suitable for this due to its characteristics and unique back sides.
Today, contrary to the past, rug sizes can be offered to you with endless options. Therefore, you do not need to hesitate to choose rugs for smaller or larger floor coverings.
- Slip and Trip Resistance: You can choose either carpet or rug for beautiful hardwood flooring. Both will offer you the decoration beauty which you desire. Since carpets are heavier than rugs, they are more resistant to slipping and tripping compared to rugs. The edges of the rugs may not provide sufficient resistance to tripping. However, this problem can be easily solved with non-slip mats.
- Maintenance and Cleaning: When it comes to maintenance and cleaning, carpets are unfortunately not as practical and comfortable as rugs. Because even though carpets are produced with the mass production technique in the machine, they should be cleaned more carefully and sensitively due to the effect of having a pile surface. Extreme care must be taken not to spill things that may leave stains on the carpets because you cannot use cleaning products that can remove these difficult stains on carpets. Even if you use it, you may not get satisfactory results, and your carpet may be damaged. But when it comes to rugs, the situation is more heartwarming. You can clean rugs in many different ways. There are even machine-washable versions available.
- Types of Floor: While carpets are used on delicate hardwood floors, hardwood flooring's finish can be damaged over time, as they are heavy and have a hard-back side. However, because rugs are lighter than carpets, they do not cause these polish problems and damage.
Can carpets be used as rugs?
A rug is light, but a carpet is heavy and cannot be carried easily. You can use a rug for any decoration style; it offers variety for your home or office decoration. A Carpet cannot be used as a substitute for a rug, as it cannot provide convenient features for every living space, office, or room the features it has. Carpets generally have standard sizes, and these floor coverings are not adjustable in terms of dimensions. Size options are minimal, so they may not suit every living space where rugs can be used. Although carpets offer different options according to today's fashion trends, they are still designed in accordance with certain styles which are more classical. However, home decoration designs and styles are now more minimal, modernist, and straightforward. At this point, carpets cannot meet these trend style demands and expectations as much as rugs. Carpet maintenance and cleaning require precision. However, in the intense pace of our modern age, modern people do not have time to spend on the care and cleaning needed for a carpet.
Why are rugs better than carpets?
Rugs are always preferred more than carpets because they are light and, therefore, easily moveable. For example, when changing the decoration of your living room, you may need help moving the carpet, but you can move a rug without help.
Their portability means they also provide more significant benefits in terms of cleaning. Rugs overlap more with modern styles than carpets.
Rugs do not have a pile surface due to their manufacturing technique. Therefore, most rugs are anti-allergic.
On the other hand, Carpets have the potential to be allergic when you take your production materials into account. Being piled on is also one of the biggest obstacles to being anti-allergic.