Flooring, Carpets and Rugs

Times were tough for early American settlers. They had to make the very best use of all the resources at their disposal and beautiful traditional braided rugs are one happy outcome of their frugality.

Women at that time used old worn out clothes and cut them into strips of cloth which they stitched together to form long lengths of fabric. Three lengths of fabric would then be braided together to form a thick rope braid and then the braids would be stitched together in a coil to form a braided rug. These rugs were a treasured possession in what might otherwise be a bleak home environment providing warmth and comfort underfoot as well as a little color.

From those early beginnings, the braided rug has become a lot more sophisticated. Rather than a mixture of fabrics being used, the rugs are now often made in one type of fabric and colors selected to form a beautiful work of art for your floor. For example, you can now get wool braided rugs and chenille braided rugs as well as those made from the more common cotton fabric. And single colors are no problem. If you want a pink braided rug for your little girl’s bedroom or a white braided rug for yours you can buy one to suit. And whereas traditional braided rugs used to be round or oval (the easiest shapes to create) you can now buy square braided rugs and rectangular shapes too.

Because of the nature of these rugs they were usually hand made so cheap braided rugs used to be few and far between. Now of course handicrafts are often brought in from third world countries and you can buy hand made rugs at a lower cost.

With innovations in manufacturing, machine made braided rugs are also now available. These are for sale at much lower prices than the handcrafted versions. If you are looking to buy large braided rugs this can make a huge difference to the cost as the hand made versions take so much time to produce.

However, as in all things, you get what you pay for. The best and most expensive rugs are made in the US by craftspeople and these are generally true works of art due to the selection of patterns and materials. If you want the best but don’t have a large budget look for discount braided rugs at the end of season sales or have a go at making your own – if the early settlers could do it with so few resources then you can do this too. They are a lot of fun to make and you can select whatever colors and fabrics you like. You’ll find a whole selection of braided rugs here on Amazon (many with discounts) as well as a few books with instructions on how to make braided rugs yourself.