We’ve covered the subject of rug care in a number of our blogs at David J Wilkins, oriental rugs are precious items, they deserve loving homes and to be treated with a certain level of respect. So our next blog explores some of the ways you can ruin a perfectly good rug if you have a moment of madness, never do the following, you’ll regret it if you do! Don’t... Scrub rugs Shock, horror, you spill something on a Persian and want to clean it right away. That’s good as long as you take the appropriate cleaning method. The temptation will be to scrub the rug with a wet cloth or worst still, attack it with a scrubbing brush. That’s plain crazy behaviour. Scrub a rug and you’ll ruin the fibres. Gently dab stains away or blot the liquid with a paper towel, scrub a rug at your peril! Use unknown chemicals on rugs Okay you have a spill so you decide to pour the entire contents of your cleaning cupboard on the stain. This is madness too. You should never attempt to clean a rug with a chemical agent without testing a miniscule area first, fail to do so and you could ruin the rug. Place heavy or pointy items of furniture on rugs Got a spindly legged table you think would look lovely placed on top of a Persian rug? Think carefully about this action. Pointy feet damage carpets. Leave your rug furniture-free to preserve the quality of the fibres. Put a rug under a sunlit window Sunlight bleaches fabrics and fibres. Leave an Oriental rug for too long in direct sunlight and it could start to suffer from colour fade after a while. Use a rug in humid environments Humidity causes problems with rugs as well. Place an oriental rug inside a room that suffers from high moisture or intense humidity levels and mould could start to grow on the fibres. Steer clear of humid environments if you want to keep your rug moisture-free. Of course, you could totally ignore our advice and ruin a perfectly good rug if you like. Do you really want that to happen when you have just invested in a Persian though?

If you’ve invested in a beautiful oriental rug it’s only natural that you’ll want to give it pride of place in your home so that you can enjoy it properly. This inevitably means that from time to time your rug will require cleaning. Whilst it’s always best to let the professionals clean your rug for you, it is possible to shampoo it yourself if you know how. Follow this step by step guide and your rug will look as good as new in no time...

1. Begin by vacuuming your rug in situ on both sides to remove as much dust and dirt as you can. After giving it a good vacuum take it outside, hang it over the washing line and beat it to knock out any remaining dirt and dust.
2. Once you’ve knocked all of the dust out of your rug, move it to a clean, flat area ready to be shampooed. A garage floor, clean driveway, or a patio will usually work well for this sort of thing.
3. Wet the rug all over with cool water then do a colour run test on a small, inconspicuous area with a very mild, ammonia-free rug shampoo. If the colours don’t run then you can proceed with shampooing the entire rug, using a soft, long-bristled brush to clean the front and back.
4. Brush the shampoo softly into the rug in the direction of the pile, ensuring that you wet the nap completely with the soapy water.
5. Use a soft brush to gently clean the rug’s fringes with the soapy water. Run the brush along the fringe, away from the body of the rug, repeating until the fringes are clean.
6. Use a hose to rinse the entire rug with cool, running water. Be sure to completely rinse out all of the shampoo from the front and back of the rug.
7. Remove any standing water from the rug using a clean squeegee. Run it along the grain of the rug until you’ve squeezed out all of the excess water, then lay the rug flat to air dry.
8. Make sure the rug is fully dry on both sides before you move it back into its original position, then gently vacuum to smooth it out.