All About Hooked Area Rugs

Hooked area rugs make for a great addition to any room and are one of the cheapest, fastest ways to change the look of just about any room in your home. Hand hooked rugs can create a focus point or define an area in a room and can really help a lot to bring a little balance to any decor scheme.

They can bring color and excitement to even the most boring of rooms and can add warmth to cold stone, concrete or tile floors. They are also great for protecting the life and integrity of both wood floors and carpeting, or any other type of flooring that might be damaged through long term daily wear and tear, especially in high traffic areas.

Versatility

Hooked area rugs are one of the best, most versatile kinds of area rugs. They are very popular, especially among people who like to have a bit of a crafty, handmade feel to their living space. These rugs are made of wool, one of the oldest known textile fibers put to this purpose.

Wool is very durable, easy to work with and it holds its color well. It is one of the best materials to make a rug out of and has certainly stood up to the test of time. There are rugs on the market that are made out of more modern, man-made (synthetic) fibers, but wool remains the best option in most cases.

How They're Made

Hand hooked area rugs are made using a small tool that looks a lot like a crochet hook, with a little catch lever in one side. This tool is maneuvered around through a grid of backing fabric and basically it is used to tie each individual thread onto the gridded fabric. Through this method, rug makers can create just about any pattern or image imaginable.

The difference in quality among hand hooked rugs lies in two main areas. The first one is the fiber type, with high quality wool being best, and scratchy synthetics being at the bottom of the scale. The other main factor is fiber size. The smaller the fiber, the finer and smoother the rug, but the more fibers a hooked rug artisan has to tie in to create the rug in the first place.

If you are familiar with hand tufted rugs, then you'll be interested to know that a hand hooked rug is made exactly the same way as a hand tufted rug. There is one difference, however: The hand hooked rug usually has a short, looped pile, and not a thick, cut pile. The backing of a hand hooked rug is often a lightweight mesh instead of a something heavy, like canvas backing. Their designs range from country French rugs to traditional rugs.

Home Decoration

There is nothing quite as versatile as hand hooked area rugs when it comes to home decoration. They can be used for many different applications throughout your home and in many different rooms. They are artistic, bringing a bit of flair and charm to any environment, and with the right choices in color, size and shape, they can fit in just about anywhere.

Hooked area rugs can help you to put some more interesting color and patterns into your home design, without looking out of place, by placing them over your existing carpet or flooring. Because many floors are fairly neutral looking already anyway, it is hard to make things too busy-looking by the addition of even the most dramatic hooked rugs.

Moderately Priced

Being moderately priced means these rugs are both beautiful and offer a great variety of designs. Because area rugs are portable, they are easy to switch with each other for a change in the seasons, for a special event, to change the design in your room or even just to suit your mood. So, there's a hooked area rug for every purpose and every occasion.

If you want to leap right in and do some pre-shopping for a hand hooked area rug, I'm sure you'll find the rug that suits your choice in design, material, color, type of weave, and size at one of the recommended sources below.

I can assure you I took great care to select each one. Each ranks high in customer satisfaction, and they have quality rugs in many price ranges, a sure bet they can satisfy their customers' needs.


Or, if you also have an interest in doing-it-yourself, here are a couple of recommended books:

The Rug Hooker's Bible: The Best From 30
Years Of Jane Olson's Rugger's Roundtable

Wool Rug Hooking