Inexpensive palace for an apartment - how to choose, pros and cons

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In Russia, there has been a cult of carpet for half a century. This traditionally oriental piece of furniture came into use even under Peter the Great, when the first domestic carpet manufactories appeared. Peter, as always, brought new fashion from Europe, where carpets by that time had become widespread in the homes of the aristocracy. So, it was mainly French craftsmen who worked in Russian manufactories, and mainly noble families purchased carpets.

However, the real era of carpet worship began in the USSR in the 1960s and 1970s and coincided with the massive construction of Khrushchev-era apartment buildings: the walls were so thin that people had to urgently figure out how to escape the noise. Carpets came to the rescue. A good one cost from 500 rubles, and the average salary in the country was about 120–140 rubles. So the wall attribute soon became a symbol of the owners’ wealth - along with a crystal vase and a TV.

The presentability of carpets is a thing of the distant past, but we will still try to remember what is good about them.

The Pazyryk carpet is the oldest carpet known to mankind (V-VI centuries BC)

Which material is better to choose?

When choosing a carpet, you should pay attention to the materials that are offered in stores. You can purchase a natural or synthetic carpet - both options are suitable for home use. Let's see what advantages these materials can highlight.

Features of natural carpets

Natural raw materials are processed on machines and turned into silk, wool and cotton carpets. Their cost is higher than that of synthetic ones, however, the quality is pleasantly surprising.

Using natural materials, factories create a special, soft pile. Such carpets are especially valuable, and over time they become even more expensive.

Woolen fabrics must be treated with special impregnations that repel dirt and dust, moisture and bacteria. People with allergies should not install wool carpeting.

Lint-free cotton rugs are suitable even for wet and high-traffic areas. Needlewomen hand weave silk carpets with various patterns and ornaments. One, even a small copy, is expensive and lasts a long time.

Natural carpets in stores can be found from cheaper materials: artificial silk, jute.

Features of synthetic carpets

Many people purchase synthetic carpets due to their practicality, bright colors and reasonable cost. They are hypoallergenic and will not harm the health of your family.

A popular synthetic pile material is polypropylene. It is resistant to dust and dirt, easy to clean. Carpets made from another raw material, polyamide, are also resistant to dirt and liquids. Polyamide has a weak side - it fades in direct sunlight.

The best alternative to wool is acrylic pile. It retains all the properties of a natural product, but dries faster and does not cause maintenance problems.

Disadvantages of silk carpets

• Product price . This criterion can be classified as a disadvantage rather conditionally, given the use in its production of only manual labor and materials of the highest quality. The uniqueness of each carpet also affects the final cost.
• Intolerance to high humidity . The room in which the carpet is placed must be dry or well ventilated. If there is strong humidity, mold may appear on silk threads, which is quite difficult to get rid of.
• Need for special care . It is strictly not recommended to clean silk carpets using equipment and coarse wire brushes. For cleaning, use a nylon cloth or soft bristled brushes. You also can’t knock them out, but need to shake them out carefully. If you need deep cleaning, it would be ideal to use dry cleaning services. If you clean the carpet at home using special products, then be sure to check the reaction in a small area before applying the product to the entire carpet. Of course, before doing this, you should carefully read the instructions for the numerator and make sure that it is applicable for silk.
• Risk of carpet damage from moths . This drawback is not a specific feature of silk products and is relevant for all types of natural cows. Therefore, it is important to prevent moths from appearing indoors.

Useful tips for choosing

So, we have examined the main selection criteria. Still, what is it like, an ideal palace? We present some practical tips for choosing, with which you can find exactly what you were looking for.

• Correct color

When choosing the color of the rug, be sure to coordinate it with the whole family so that everyone will like the accessory. For the bedroom you should not choose bright colors; a plain and fluffy carpet is quite suitable. In the nursery you can lay a carpet with an unobtrusive pattern, and in the living room - one that matches the color accents, in a bold shade and with multi-level pile.

• Noise insulation

A good carpet hides sounds. If it's double-layered, you won't hear your loud neighbors downstairs and, in turn, won't bother them with heavy footsteps.

• Comfort and warmth

Many people place carpets on linoleum, tiles, or laminate because it is uncomfortable to walk on a cold and slippery floor. Choose a pile that is warm and pleasant to the touch.

• Suitable size

With the help of a carpet, you can divide a room into several zones: a work area and a relaxation area. You shouldn’t buy a big rug, lay down carpet instead. By the way, small rugs will have a place in the bedroom - dip your toes in the soft fluffy pile every morning.

• Durability and strength of the material

You should not buy the cheapest copies, they will not last long. Choose a carpet with a thick backing and dense lint.

• Health safety for the whole family

Natural carpets can cause allergies - you should not put them in the bedroom. As for synthetic ones, they are hypoallergenic.

Rely on the basic principles, choose the best for yourself.

Advantages of silk carpets

• Exclusivity of each product . It is achieved through manual work, as a result of which the drawing is unique. The weight of a rug varies depending on its shape, size and backing used. Such a carpet can be considered not only as a piece of furniture, but also as a piece of art, even of interest to collectors. Therefore, products are placed not only on the floor, but also often on the walls.
• Health safety and environmental friendliness . Silk is an absolutely natural material, which in very rare cases can cause allergic reactions.
• Strength and durability . Silk threads are very strong and light at the same time. The density of the product does not allow dust to get deep between its fibers.
• Shine and smoothness . The carpet fabric is unusually pleasant to the touch - soft, gliding, and a little cool. At the same time, the pattern is “alive”, can shimmer amazingly, practically does not fade and is not afraid of sunlight. This effect is achieved due to the flexibility of silk threads.
• Able to “adapt” to human skin temperature . A cool surface warms up very quickly when it comes into contact with bare feet. Even small children will enjoy sitting on such a “caring” and gentle carpet.
• Fire resistance . This is a natural feature of silk, which, when in contact with an open fire, does not ignite, but only slightly smolders. Therefore, it will be safe and pleasant to spend a romantic evening by candlelight on silk carpets.
• A sign of refined taste . The presence of a silk carpet in the interior will undoubtedly emphasize the subtle and refined taste of its owner.

Pros and cons of carpets in an apartment

Is it worth buying a carpet for an apartment? How practical would such a solution be for the home? First, let's look at the disadvantages of having carpet:

• Natural lint can cause allergies among residents of the house
• It is necessary to carry out vacuuming weekly, and wet cleaning of lint once every two weeks.
• The carpet may lose brightness or become thinner - you will need to purchase a new one

There are many positive aspects of having carpet in your home:

• Gives accents to the room and complements the overall design of the room
• Allows feet to stay warm and comfortable without slippers
• Conceals excess noise - good for both you and your neighbors
• Allows children to play without fear
• Makes your apartment more comfortable: taking off your formal shoes after work, you can walk along the improvised lawn and relax

Choose a rug that will appeal to the whole family, and it will delight you with its impeccable quality for a long time.

What does the price depend on?

The cost of a carpet product depends on the following factors:

1. Composition and quality of the material. If it is 100% wool, then whose wool is it - sheep, goat or camel, from young or old individuals, and by what technology is it processed. The admixture of natural silk makes the carpet more expensive, and viscose, cotton or synthetics makes it cheaper. The percentage of this impurity also matters.
2. Country of origin and method of manufacture. The most expensive machine-made rugs are European and American, and the cheapest are Chinese and some Russian. Luxurious in both appearance and price, handmade carpets are made in Turkey, Iran and India.
3. Pile height and density. With a similar composition and size, a low-pile carpet costs more than a long-pile one. And the higher the density of the product, the more expensive it is, but also the better quality.
4. Paints and processing. Artificial or natural dyes can be used to dye the fiber. Additional treatment of the carpet against moths and fungi or antistatic impregnation also increases the cost.
5. Shape and size. A large carpet is more expensive than a small one, a rectangle is cheaper than a circle.

Based on the ratio of these parameters, you can easily choose the best option in terms of price and quality ratio.

Price of carpet and carpet

Now we know everything about coating materials, all that remains is to understand how much money we will have to spend. Carpet can be found at prices starting from 100 rubles. More or less acceptable quality starts from 250 rubles per linear meter. You can choose a ready-made option, stitched on all sides, designed for typical premises, and pay upon delivery.

For example, Tarkett “Modena” (Modena) measuring 4 meters square will cost about 1,200 rubles per square meter. Thus, the product will cost about 5,000 rubles. The price depends on the sales region.

Carpets, with the exception of those classified as rugs, cannot be purchased on edge. Usually these are finished, high-quality products. At the same time, rugs start at 1,500 rubles 1.4*2 M. A good option for the living room, the SHAGGY SOFT sh90 / 1.4*2 M CARPET will cost about 3 thousand rubles.

Color spectrum

Modern craftsmen create a wide variety of designs and ornaments. They can make real masterpieces with amazing patterns of flowers and leaves. Ornaments often include: flowers, patterns, trees, animals, landscapes, lines, various figures and symbols.

Colors can be found in a variety of colors - from light and discreet to bright and saturated.

Thus, you can choose a chic silk carpet to match almost any style and interior. Floor or wall covering will add a feeling of comfort and coziness and complete the decor of the room. To create the perfect composition, it is important to choose the right color, pattern and location of the carpet. And to make a silk product look harmonious in the interior, it can be complemented with various accessories in the same color scheme or with an identical pattern. For this they use: pillows, napkins, bedspreads, paintings, vases and other items.

Story

Silk was invented by the Chinese, everyone knows about it. The first silk carpets probably appeared there. But China was an isolated empire for thousands of years, so the rest of the world had no idea about it.

Silk carpet in classic style

Silk carpet in the house

Carpets have been woven in the East for centuries, but from woolen threads. When the borders of the Celestial Empire opened slightly, people admired the unprecedented weightless carpets. The Chinese were in no hurry to disclose the manufacturing technology. The ancient Persians managed to unravel the secret two hundred years BC. However, Chinese silk carpets were still valued: the quality unattainable by competitors was ensured by the experience of thousands of years.

However, as they say in Turkey, it was they who wove the first carpet in the East. This happened near Istanbul in the town of Hereke. It had a unique weave with a knot on each thread, called double Turkish.

Silk carpet with geometric pattern

Silk carpet in the living room interior

Which is better to choose and why?

So now we know what both products are and can draw conclusions on our preferences. To do this, it remains to understand what we should choose and why. When choosing, you need to understand that carpet is a rolled material with unlimited length. Therefore, in fact, it is convenient for non-standard premises.

Carpet, also known as carpet, but without pile, is also sold in rolls, which are convenient to cut. But a real carpet, made by hand or using expensive equipment, is a fixed size that will have to be laid as is. Thus, the carpet may not cover the entire room, and parts of it will be visible.

If the surface is presentable, for example, laminate or parquet, then the carpet will look expensive. In other cases, for example, when you want to hide floor defects, install carpet. But remember that in the case of a wooden floor, if there are no vents under the plinth, there is a possibility of damage to the wood.

Carpet and rugs can't be done without a vacuum cleaner

Choose a coating that matches the decorating style of your home. For example, where uniformity is needed, it is better to give preference to carpet - it is monochromatic. If you need patterns, one might say, a little oriental style, then it should be a carpet. At the same time, the carpet is more durable.

Practice shows that if a product is made from high-quality raw materials, it will last at least 10 years. With carpet, even though it is cheaper, the situation is worse. On average 5-7 years and it has to be changed. As a rule, the pile is no longer so fluffy, and dozens of stains that cannot be removed can be removed during this time.

Still, the carpet is not bad. It does not slip, its edges do not bend. Therefore, it is optimal for children. The sound insulation properties of the two materials are approximately the same, so there is no choice here. To lay carpet and rugs, you do not need special finishing skills. Consider the disadvantages of carpet , the advantages of carpet and other features at the selection stage.

Silk carpets in the interior

They, like any natural material, resist abrasion much worse than synthetics, they get dirty quickly, and professional cleaning of silk carpets is not cheap. Therefore, they are not laid in rooms with intense movement and a large number of people. In private housing, the optimal solution is an office or bedroom. In public places such as restaurants or hotels, these are attributes of VIP zones. They give status to the office of a manager or business person.

Turkish silk carpet

It’s better to hang it on the wall: its beauty will be revealed to the maximum, it will be admired from all sides and angles.

Such coatings fit organically into oriental or classic interiors. Spacious rooms will be decorated with products of any color and tone, small rooms - with light pastel shades.

Chinese silk carpet in the interior of a country house

What is Heat Set

The pile material of a carpet made using hit set technology is nothing more than a by-product of oil refining. It sounds a little scary, but in fact we are talking about polypropylene, which is familiar to everyone. It starts out as translucent granules that go through several processing steps to become a practical and durable flooring material.

How does this happen:

• Polypropylene granules along with dyes and additional substances are placed in an extruder for softening;
• The resulting mass is passed through filters, resulting in voluminous threads;
• The threads are stretched, twisted around their axis to give strength, and treated with antiseptics and dirt-repellent compounds.

After these processing steps, polypropylene acquires properties and characteristics that make it an ideal material for weaving artificial carpets.

Home care for decorative artificial carpets

With a rational approach to the selection of textile products made from synthetic compounds, taking into account the above pros and cons, with proper care, they will serve their owner for a long time and faithfully. For a sofa in the living room, for example, it is better to lay a short-pile or at least medium-pile carpet on the floor. If there are no furry pets in the house, then this can be an acrylic model. “Deep” shaggy polyesters are the best solution for the bedroom

All of the listed types of artificial carpet products can be:

• vacuum, preferably at least two to three times a week, including treatment with a washing device;
• Hand and automatic washing with traditional detergents in slightly warm or cool water is allowed;
• You can wash/remove stains with a napkin or sponge soaked in a soapy solution.
• More details about caring for any carpet will be provided by the manufacturer's instructions on the label. But in no case should you use hot water and aggressive chemical compounds to combat pollution:
• petrol;
• acetone;
• chlorine bleaches.

“To be or not to be” a carpet in your home, to choose artificial or natural - now you can easily decide for yourself, knowing all the pros and cons of their properties.

Go to our catalog of synthetic carpets and choose any one you like, with delivery throughout Moscow and Russia.

Art silk is a brilliant charm. BAUHAUS collection

Carpet “BAUHAUS” DESIGN No. 02-1-BLUE-GOLD Art silk

Art silk is an artificial silk that is visually and tactilely almost indistinguishable from natural silk, but is noticeably more affordable in price. That's why it's so loved by designers and home owners!

Nowadays, the most fashionable modern carpets are woven from art silk to decorate designer interiors. They are especially good for styles that combine elegance and gloss - such as Bauhaus, modern classics and art deco.

In the BAUHAUS collection, the advantages of the material are complemented by bold patterns and colors. It is due to art silk that the shades of these carpets are silky and slightly shimmering, and the shine neatly smoothes out color transitions.

The collection creates a feeling of lightness and luxury, but its main advantage is its texture. Delicate pile that literally melts under your fingers makes art silk carpets welcome guests in the bedroom - it’s so nice to walk on them barefoot!

See more art silk carpets on Kover.ru.

ART SILK RUGS

Handmade or machine?

Whether the carpet really retains the warmth of the human hands that wove it, as the seller swears, can be determined by several signs.

• Fringe. Made by hand, it is created from warp threads. They sew onto the machine product, which produces ties along the side trim.
• Identity of face and back. In the manual version, both sides are equal in brightness. Machine work has a dull underside.
• Substrate. Machine samples have a hard-to-crease adhesive base. Flexible threads are used for handmade products.
• Pile. In hand-made form it is thick, without gaps, dense. A wool base with silk patterns or pure silk is used.
• "Defects". The person who weaves Iranian carpets, for example, is not a robot or a computer, so his work is not as perfect as thousands of clones churned out by a machine. But that’s the beauty of it: subtle deviations in pattern or tone, subtle violations of symmetry. They are unique; making a “twin” is very difficult.
• “Handmade” label on the back of the carpet.

Using these features, it is possible to distinguish a machine-made product from a hand-made one and buy a truly unique item.

Persian silk carpet

Persian silk carpet in the interior

Valuable exclusive

What makes each product exceptionally unique is that it is made by hand. A machine cannot outperform a human when working with delicate materials.

Natural silk carpets are divided into completely silk and combined: with a base of wool fibers, cotton or linen. The first ones are the lightest, highest quality and most expensive. The raw material requires a thicker thread than usual. It is obtained by feeding oak leaves to silkworms.

Real Iranian carpets or analogues from other countries have two hundred knots per square with a side of one centimeter. These products are environmentally friendly, hypoallergenic, and antistatic. They are dyed only with natural dyes: basma, antimony, turmeric. High density and a special weaving technique impart strength, and with good care, the carpet will delight several generations of the family.

Silk carpet in the living room

How to choose a wool carpet

We have discussed most of the operational characteristics above, so we will focus on the design. Considering the service life of a wool carpet, it is worth choosing an option that will remain relevant even if the interior style changes.

European or oriental classics go well with classic design and styles such as loft, vintage and eclectic.

A neutral, single-color rug is a versatile option that serves as an excellent backdrop for any interior. If it’s not flashy and stylish, you can choose a one-color rug with a multi-level textured pile. This design will retain versatility, but will not look boring in combination with minimalism and hi-tech.

If you want to acquire a luxurious item and later make it a family heirloom and antique value, you should look for a suitable example among designer handmade carpets. Such interior decoration will demonstrate your taste and desire for originality.

Wool

One of the most common carpets is wool. They were woven even before the beginning of our era. Popular materials today are:

• sheep fleece;
• camel's wool;
• goat hair.

The most popular is sheep wool. This is due to the availability of this material, as well as its high performance properties. The products are warm and durable. Moreover, they can be made in any style - from classic and rich in patterns to strict plain canvases, made in minimalism and hi-tech style.

Advantages of wool carpets:

• environmental cleanliness;
• naturalness of materials;
• resistant to high humidity.
• Wool absorbs moisture and then evaporates it without negative consequences for the product;
• long service life of carpets;
• rich appearance.

The disadvantages of wool include the fact that moths love it. Therefore, carpets need to be treated with special insect repellent products. In addition, wool products are expensive.