Huntingdon Valley Homeowner Returns to Bucks County Carpet and Rug Store Brandon Oriental Rugs - www.BrandonRugs.com - to Select Rug for Living Room Makeover

     Our customer in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania had purchased a rug from Brandon Oriental Rugs for her sun-room over fifteen years ago.

     Needless to say, we were honored by her confidence in our service when, at the beginning of her plans for a makeover of the living room of her home, she visited us again and invited us to help her find a rug to help achieve her goals for the room. She wanted something "non-traditional and unique, but good quality with a refined look; nothing wild but nothing average." With our proprietary Rug-Search(tm) service we located several interesting ideas and forwarded images of them to her. She was very excited by the following idea; which in fact became the rug for her "new" living room:

     As can be seen from the image below, she is transitioning from the traditional look of her home as originally decorated by her designer just before the advent of the new millenium to a more relaxed, informal style in-keeping with her personal tastes and the fresh new looks of today.

The dark, mini-print patterned fabric of her sofa is going to be re-upholstered with the silvery light fabric you see draping it above. Along with it, the hand-knotted modern carpet selected from Brandon (featuring an infinitely tiled "basket-weave" pattern rendered in a dense, luxuriously soft pile of embossed silk and wool) is all that will remain of the room seen above.

New paint; new fireplace mantle, surround, and hearth; additional seating; and new accessories including the homeowners impressive collection of artworks will soon complete the transformation of this intimate living room from well done but "expected" to exceptionally well done.

And our customer deserves all accolades for what will conclude as a stunning achievement. With patience, study, and regard for her own tastes, she is remaking her home according to her sense of style. As a style-maker she has set aside banality to project into her environment the refined expressions of herself.

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How to use a bordered rug with a sectional sofa: Example

Picture shows a successful use of a bordered rug with a sectional sofa. The key is to have the correct rug size to enable the border to be revealed equally in front of the two sections of the sofa (or -- in the case of the furniture "floating" in the room -- behind the long and short sections.) The rug should be large enough too to connect with the chair across the room. As seen here, that chair normally will be placed across a corner of the rug; although that does vary with room arrangement.
Notice too how the rug really pops with the artwork above. A lot is accomplished in an apparently small space.
http://pinterest.com/pin/133348838939473236/

Real Rugs Make Nice Rooms Nicer

The hand-knotted rug is a cool enhancement to this space. It anchors the conjoined rooms; holding them together and softening the entire picture. It makes the living room comfortable and inviting, and contributes much to making this a "Nice Room". BrandonRugs.com

Comfortable Design Is a Balancing Act. Rustic Splendor Shows How It's Done.

The subtle, understatement of the rug is a noncompetitive anchor and enhancement to the splendor of the room. Anyone could be comfortable relaxing away the entire day in this well designed room.

http://pinterest.com/pin/82824080618039051/

Designing with Rugs / A handmade area rug (reproduction Caucasian Shirvan design) lays claim to an otherwise undefined space and establishes an intimate sitting area.

It's easy to see and appreciate from this picture how rugs literally have the power to make a room.

And it doesn't always take a big rug -- this one is only 5' X 4' -- to do the job. The handmade area rug (a reproduction Caucasian Shirvan design) lays claim to an otherwise undefined space and establishes an intimate sitting area.

(originally posted at: http://pinterest.com/pin/133348838939277140/ )

Brandon Rugs finds witnesses in agreement: Houzz and Home 2013 Report Is Good News for Home Furnishings Industry

"In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."

The following link attests to the same optimism concerning home improvement that was a conclusion of the Harvard research study cited in our most recent blog post: 

info.houzz.com/rs/houzz/images/Houzz %26 Home 2013 Report.pdf

The truth of the shared conclusions is thus settled.

The long-awaited time for home improvement appears to be upon us according to research report from Harvard

Strong Signs for Home Improvement

Things are getting better, and if you have not yet accelerated the pace of your home improvement projects, the time for those thoughts is imminent according to this report from The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard: http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/jchs.harvard.edu/files/harvard_jchs_remodeling_report_2013_bw.pdf

(The Joint Center for Housing Studies is a collaborative unit affiliated with the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Harvard Kennedy School.)

And remember that fine quality handmade rugs are a great way to improve your home; an improvement that requires very little effort if you use Brandon Oriental Rugs to help you with your project.

Here's an example of the difference that rugs can make in a room. Our client has a large room with brick walls and floors and has been looking for a rug to bring more luxury to the area. With some rudimentary applications of PhotoShop to a picture of her room she provided to us, we were able to provide a virtual demonstration of the improvement that a fine rug will make in her room.

Before

After (Virtual Room 1)

\
After (Virtual Room 2)

(We won't over-extend this post by showing all the other options presented -- and will post the finished room at a later time -- but this should provide an idea of how real rugs can really improve the look of your rooms.)

How to Install An Oriental Runner on Stairs Demonstrated with Video by Bucks County, PA Rug Store Brandon Oriental Rugs - www.BrandonRugs.com - YouTube

BrandonRugs.com Shows How To Properly Install A Stairway Runner - YouTube

    Using some video shot after we'd installed a matched set of runners on the split stairway in our customer's new home, we demonstrate proper installation guidelines.
     First, we want to make it obvious that REAL hand-knotted runners, which are bordered on all four sides, offer a much more aesthetically pleasing finished look than"roll runners" -- machine made runner stock spooled on large rolls and cut to desired length -- which are bordered on only two sides (and look like a conveyer belts from space to some lower level instead of like framed works of art).
    We also demonstrate our preference for using "stair-holds" or runner "clips" to secure the stairway runner to each tread rather than the use of stair-rods crossing the runner at the back of each tread. The reason for this is that the runner clips allow the runner to be the focus instead of a lot of brass. It's also safer, since rods can be a trip hazard to women descending the stairway in heels. The clips also make it easier to keep the runner clean, and cause much less wear to installed pieces, so that if the runner is removed for use elsewhere there are not permanent wear marks every foot and a half as would be the case with rods.
     We also point out where the runner should start and ideally end on the stairway. In this video, the stairway is split (with an intervening landing) which made it imperative that the top runner not encroach into the landing since an additional rug is going to be placed there.
     As mentioned in the video, the runners used in the installation were originally longer, which meant they needed to be cut to properly fit the new home's back stairway. As we show, if attention is given to pattern matching, and the work of reducing the length is performed by a skilled artisan, the finished look is no less appealing than if the runners had been custom woven for the job. In fact, using existing runners and cutting them to length is much less costly, much less uncertain, and much less time consuming than ordering custom runners.
     If you have questions about any of what we demonstrate in this video, we invite you to call us at 215-794-2300.

Bucks County, PA Oriental Rug Store Video Tour: Brandon Oriental Rugs - BrandonRugs.com - Come and See - YouTube

A brief walk-through of the Brandon Oriental Rugs rug gallery in Central Bucks County Pennsylvania showing a wide selection of rugs which have all been brought to the store to satisfy recent customer requests. Contact Pam or Chris at 215-794-2300 or via e-mail at brandonrugs.com@gmail.com, or, if you're nearby, stop in at 3454 York Road Furlong, PA and take a look around for yourself. Visitors are always welcome, and we're always happy to help you learn more about REAL handmade rugs.

Runners for Split-level Stairway Demonstrating Correct Installation

These hand-knotted stairway runners were recently installed by us in a New Hope, Pennsylvania home as part of an ongoing redecorating project by the owners. The stairway configuration is common in homes. The required lengths for the runners to properly fit were non-standard however, which necessitated cutting the excess from the field of each rug and reattaching its border. This option was less costly, and achieved more expeditiously, than the alternative of commissioning a set of custom-made runners.

Lower Stairway Runner: centered on top riser
(which centers on the landing above.)

Lower Stairway Runner: showing detail of where the rug
was cut and the border reattached. The workmanship
 is excellent, and the repair is not apparent.

View from the upper hallway showing that the
two runners are NOT sewn together.

View of Upper Runner showing that it crosses the landing.
(If the lower runner crossed the landing, it would pose
a trip hazard when descending the stairs.)

Another view of how the two runners "fit"
together. We recommend stairholds instead of
stair-rods for securing handmade runners on stairways.
The runner is featured instead of brass rods;
the rug stays cleaner (rods are a dust/dirt trap);
it's safer because rods can be a trip hazard to women wearing heels.

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