Rug Shopping 101

Three years ago when I started dating Andrew he was SO proud to show off his Persian Rugs that he had purchased while stationed in Bahrain. I thought they were nice and made sure to smile and approve. For a bachelor he had some pretty nice things - though it definitely wasn't my taste. Then when we moved in together in Maryland, placing the rugs was a huge deal. I was like,

"Okay, I mean, they're nice - but I really like this one I saw at Pottery Barn..." 

Needless to say, he was SUPER offended. I mean, the rugs were beautiful and all - but it wasn't really my style...YET. We may have had a fight about it. Okay, we totally fought about it.

I gave in and the rugs were moved to center stage in the living room and our bedroom. Honestly, they grew on me over the years, and randomly one night I asked him how much he spent on them. Finally I was truly impressed - but then he told me what they would cost IF you could find them in the States and I was really impressed. I know - I'm a bit materialistic, so sue me. Suddenly - these rugs were awesome.

And..when I say that you can't buy these carpets in the US - I mean it. There are US sanctions forbidding the import of Iranian made carpets. So folks...if you want a beautiful carpet now's the time to get one while we are here!

Anyways, since our first rug argument we have since decided that we want our house to feel eclectic and have rugs/art/decor from all of our duty stations. We call it, "Decor with Meaning".

When we got our orders to Bahrain, Andrew could not wait to get back to his favorite carpet place, Oasis Carpets, and get some more rugs. My thought was, "REALLY? MORE Persian rugs? Isn't 2 enough?!"

Fast forward to our third week here. I couldn't understand why Andrew was so giddy to go into the Carpet store until we went in.

It. Was. Awesome.

Abdul, the owner had sold Andrew our two carpets 4 YEARS ago, as luck would have it - he was at the shop when we walked in. 

Here's where it gets CRAZY...he REMEMBERED Andrew from 4 years ago. He said most of his business comes from the base, so it wasn't like Andrew was the only 6'4" white guy buying a rug from him. There is Navy memorabilia all over the shop. But this guy...this guy was amazing. He remembered that Andrew was with HM-14, but was working with HM-15. He remembered that he flew 53s...and he REMEMBERED the carpets that Andrew had purchased! 

I mean seriously. This guy sells A LOT of carpets. I was impressed. 

So, we chatted for a while and told him that we would be back to buy some carpets in the next 2 years. I guess I didn't realize at the time that Andrew really meant, I'll be back in 4 weeks before moving into the villa to buy carpets. But, that's what he meant. 

As soon as it was for sure that we would get this awesome villa we made a trip to the rug store. As you can tell by the pictures of the villa - there are a lot of hard, cold floors. This is obviously good considering the oppressive heat of Bahrain, but we needed a little warmth from some carpets. 

The grin on Andrew's face was priceless as we walked in and said, "Well...we need to buy 2 carpets!"

From that point on - the carpet experience was like an awesome dream. I felt like Julia Roberts in 'Pretty Woman' but instead of clothes...it was carpets. So not really nearly as cool, and no red ruby necklace - but still so much fun. Most of all I was shocked that my penny pinching husband was so willing and excited to spend money. He was like a little kid in a candy shop...so I just went with it!
I mean, what girl turns down a shopping spree...rugs or not?!

(Note: this is SOOO much cooler than the time Andrew bought me a bathroom rug for my birthday present. That was not cool. I will never let him live that one down. AND yes, that was my ONLY present, and NO it wasn't even there in time for my birthday. So it was, "Hey, Happy Birthday, I bought you a bathroom rug but it won't be here until next weekend" not his finest moment. Nor mine, I cried. What?! A rug?! Where's my ring?! Yes, this was WAYYY better.)

Ready to shop!

So here you go...

HOW TO BUY A PERSIAN CARPET 101

Some friendly tips:

1. Pick your Carpet place. Our favorite is Oasis Carpets in Carpet Alley. Great service, great English, great selection. We walked in and told them we were there to buy some rugs and they waited on us hand and foot after that. (They even went over to Shawarma Alley and got Caden fresh orange juice.) You can visit their website HERE. They go into Iran every month to buy the carpets, so their selection is always changing and they get them straight from the source. 

2. Know before you go what size you are looking for - and ABOUT how much you want to spend. The price range is pretty wide. All of the rugs are hand-made, all one of a kind, almost all are beautiful, but some are silk, some have 600 knots per square inch (more affordable), and some have 1000 knots per square inch (these ones feel AMAZING, and are super pricey). Spare yourself the grief and don't fall in love with the $10,000 rug. This is like wedding dress shopping in a couture shop with a David's Bridal budget. Just don't do it. 

3. You don't need to know what you are looking for - and I suggest that you keep an open mind. In my mind I wanted a neutral colored rug that would go with anything. In the end I got a more unique one that will make a little bit of a statement. Hey - if we are going to have an expensive, one of a kind Persian rug, I guess I want people to notice it!

4. If you can, buy more than 1. You can get a bigger discount - and hey...why not?!

5. Sit back and relax as they put on the show! All you need to do is nod your head yes or no and they do all of the work!

6. NEGOTIATE. Don't take the first price - they will always come down. We negotiated ours down by about 100 BD ($265). 

7. Enjoy - and keep the red wine AWAY from the rug. 

*8. AND try not to look too much like a hot mess while shopping. You might realize halfway through that the kind woman also rug shopping and giving you her opinion is the Ambassador's wife. Just saying...

The Process

As soon as we told them what we wanted, a team of 4 guys came out and started tossing around thousand dollar carpets like no big deal. I was cringing...and also adding up the ridiculous amount of money in carpets stored in this tiny shop.

The owner - the guy in the white - stood there and directed while the others got a serious workout. It was awesome. He would reference a rug and they would know the exact one. To me - they all started blending together and I was going cross eyed after a while. 

One by one they unfolded the carpets and I would simply make a face (smile = maybe, disgust = no way), or nod, or speak, any of those worked. I was ONE with the carpet team.

 The first goal is just to weed out the NOs...then we went through the maybes, and kept narrowing it further and further down.

If there were two that were similar we would put them side by side, stare at them, walk around them, walk on them, and then pick one. I think we were there for hours.

 It felt like forever, but in a good way.
 

Oh, and taking your shoes off is a MUST - you need to feel it under your bare feet. After all, this is going on your floor you better like how it feels. 

 For our biggest purchase, for the main living room, we decided to go with a Nain (nye-een). Here is some information from the Oasis Website:

Nain Rugs - The Synonym for "Fine" Among the finest carpets in the world, the word nain is sometimes used in Iran as a synonym for 'fine'. These elegant carpets are produced in and around the city of Nain; a favorite of many collectors, Nains are precise, delicate and can be stunningly beautiful. Excellent grades of wool and silk are used on foundations of fine cotton. Typical details include the curvilinear vines with forked leaves, Shah Abbas flowers, birds and animals, and regal borders.

Come Sample Our Selection of Nain Rugs

Although Nain is not a very old rug-weaving city, it is well established and among the most valued carpet-producing centers in Iran. It has adopted most of its skills from the very ancient, neighboring city of Isfahan. Customs and traditions here have changed very little in the past century. Nain's talented master weavers may take several years to complete a single carpet. Though very similar in appearance to Isfahans, they are easily identifiable because of their distinctive color scheme and smooth, closely clipped pile. Nain are all signed (Habibian is the most reputable family in Nain). Nain carpets are available in three levels of quality (based upon knots per square inch, double knotted - the higher the number the higher the quality):

After an hour or so we had narrowed the gazillion rugs we looked at to these three - you can't really see them all very well in this picture.

I was HEAVILY leaning towards the rug in the middle (it was SO unlike any other that we saw)...then I found out that it was $4,000 and the other two we were looking at were about half that price.

The owner told us that he occasionally likes to put his rugs on eBay, just to see what people would be willing to pay in the States. He had the center rug posted last week, after a few days it got to $12,000...then he pulled it off. So, in some ways, I can justify this as an investment, right?!

In the end I decided that I felt too guilty spending that much and would rather get a less expensive rug. To my shock and surprise Andrew was like, "If you really want the one in the middle we can get it." AND I was like,
"Who the hell are you? What did you do with my husband?"

Even the owner said to me, "Isn't the wife supposed to be the one wanting to spend more money!?!"

My oh my...what has my husband turned me into?!

There's only one other time he was like this - engagement ring shopping. Again - I thought an alien had invaded his body. I guess when it's something he really wants the price doesn't matter. I mean, I am pretty great after all.

After much debate and going back and forth. We bought the one above! I love it. It was the only one I saw with yellow in it. And the flowers were different than any of the others. I'm pretty excited for it! I think it isn't too in your face like some of the others, yet it still adds a pop of color. I can't wait to put it down in the living room TOMORROW!!!

Davis was excited too...this is what he did while we shopped.

So...deciding on the living area rug was the biggest challenge. After that we went through the process again for a rug for Caden's room. For his room we went with a less expensive, durable, blue rug.

I thought we were done there, then my crazy-rug-buying-possessed husband asked, "Do you want to get an entryway rug too?!"

Ummm..."SURE!"

So we went through the process AGAIN for an entryway rug!

We narrowed it down to 3. Oh...and want to get your MIND BLOWN?

The rugs look totally different depending on what side of the rug you are standing on! So during the process make sure you walk around all 4 sides of the rug - it is a completely different rug from different angles.

Here's an example:

The 3 entryway rugs we were debating over from the "Light Colored" angle

AND...

The same exact 3 rugs from the opposite side!

Is your mind blown? 

Mine is! 

Oh, and I never could decide on just one - so we got all 3. 

All together we walked away with 5 rugs...AND that's when our credit card company froze our cards. They thought FOR SURE that someone had stolen our credit cards and had gone on a rug buying shopping spree in Bahrain. Andrew had a fun time explaining to them that it really WAS us doing all of that shopping. Yes, we are in Bahrain, YES, we just bought a bunch of rugs in Carpet Alley. I swear he almost had to give a DNA sample to them to prove that it really was us. 

Meanwhile, Caden was pretending to be Spider-Man in the stack of rugs! Hey, at least if he fell, it would be cushioned.

So there you, go. Rug Shopping 101.

This was such a fun and special experience. I highly recommend that if you get a chance to do this, you take full advantaged. We are so blessed to be in a position where we can. I will cherish these rugs forever (they better last that long) and am cured of my desire to buy Pottery Barn rugs ever again.

And as far as this rug goes....we still want it. Though we've decided that for now, we'll take a picture of it and come back in a year. We asked if they could find another one for us when we were ready. He said that he would try. So in one year we will try to find it again, and hope that in the ensuing 12 months they can locate one for us in Iran and bring it back for us take home.

OH...another VERY cool thing. We will be hosting a "Rug Flop" sometime in the next year. Think Tupperware, or Mary Kay, or Cookie Lee jewelry party but with RUGS! They will bring the rugs, the food, and the drinks and we have our friends over to rug shop with us!

I can't wait. I just wish I could take THIS business back to states with me!!

Seriously friends and family - if you want a Persian rug, let us know now! We already have orders from some of you. I will gladly go rug shopping as much as needed!

AND FOLKS....TOMORROW we move in to our villa!!! I feel like it's Christmas Eve right now! So excited!!!!

But this year, Santa is bringing me an entire truck full of my own home-goods and 5 new Persian Rugs! 

and That's 'Watts' She Said...