Hand-tufted wool rugs from New York to Minneapolis

We always enjoy and appreciate receiving install photos from our interior designer clients.  Here are couple of beautiful recent installations where our custom rugs were specified.

Thanks to Melissa Pollack at Pollack Interiors Co. in Belmore, NY and Tim Ricker at At Home in Edina, MN for trusting us with their custom rugs.  We love working directly with designers to create special rugs in custom sizes and colors to enhance their spaces.

Space design by Melissa Pollack at Pollack Interiors Co. in Belmore, NY
15'5" X 15'5" Pearl Necklace rug by Julie Dasher Rugs
All wool/Hand-tufted

Space design by Tim Ricker at At Home in Edina, MN
4 X 12 Custom Geometric runner by Julie Dasher Rugs
All wool/Hand-tufted 

Casbah rug in Lake Forest, IL

Here are some photos sent to me by our client ESL Design in Lake Forest, IL.  This room was designed by Elizabeth Scott-Lisk at ESL.  She chose our Casbah design in wool and silk, hand-knotted in Nepal with 100 knots per square inch.  We love the colors and how the geometric design complements the beautiful furnishings in the dining room.

Our Wonderful Team in Nepal

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful team in Nepal including our finishing staff who pay such amazing attention to detail as they sort and trim the wool fibers to define the patterns in our rugs. This 12 X 25 foot rug is our 4-color Flamestitch design being made for a client of Maggie Nielsen Interiors in Chappaque, New York.

Introducing the Sylvie & Mira Collection

We are thrilled to be introducing a new collection of rugs designed by Lisa Peck called Sylvie & Mira.  During her 20 years in the industry, Lisa has collaborated with a host of people on a variety of projects that span the gamut of style. She is an expert at working within three-dimensional space, identifying hard materials and mixing them with textures and patterns. Her mastery of color has earned her the nickname “Color Queen” around her office. And while there’s no idea too big or detail too small, Lisa understands the importance of protecting her clients from spending time and money on frivolous extras. Perhaps more importantly Lisa has developed lasting relationships with clients and trade professionals along the way. And she has done so in large part because her pull-no-punches approach and inspired designs knock your socks off.

Lisa's design journey has led to the creation of this beautiful new rug collection, hot off the looms in Nepal.  Here are some of the beautiful samples available in a variety of showrooms around the country, including Julie Dasher Rugs.

Abrash in a rug

Abrash in a rug is a striation created by yarns that are dyed in multiple colors which are fairly close in tone.  Abrash shows a beautiful textural effect which can stand alone without any additional pattern in the design.  The abrash technique can be done in heavy, medium or light variations.

Here is a picture of a rug with heavy abrash that we recently created for Sweet Peas Design in Chicago.  Susan Brunstrum, the owner and head designer, at Sweet Peas had done another rug with us using 3 colors in a heavy abrash in the background of the rug with a cream-colored design in the pattern.  This time, her client wanted just the heavy abrash background and no pattern for a highly subtle, textural rug.  This project didn't leave much for me to do as a designer but I am thrilled with how the rug turned out.

Hand-knotted rug being stretched in the finishing stage

Hand-knotted rug being trimmed in the finishing stage

Beautiful new samples

I can't help but share a picture of 2 new beautiful samples created by our team in Nepal.  The green sample on the right is our English Damask pattern in all Tibetan wool.  This is a strike off for Rebecca Laymon, an interior designer in Raleigh, North Carolina. The sample was woven in 2 different colorways, with half the sample in a mix of green and cream and the other half of the sample in shades of green.  The cream-colored sample is our Quatrefoil pattern in Tibetan wool and raised Chinese silk for Francia Fusik, a designer who has a beautiful new showroom in Windemere, Florida called All In One Decorating Solutions.  Both samples are hand-knotted in Nepal with 100 knots per square inch.

Here is another beautiful wool and silk rug hand-knotted by our expert craftspeople in Nepal.  This rug was produced for an interior designer in Chicago for a client's dining room.  It is our Stately Damask pattern with raised silk.

Thank you for your generosity

As most of you know, there were 2 very powerful earthquakes in Nepal recently resulting in great loss of life and property for the people there.  Julie Dasher Rugs has received tremendous support from many of our clients, friends and family for our supplier in Nepal and for Goodweave. Goodweave is on the ground in Nepal providing a myriad of services for the children, their families and also supporting the efforts to rebuild so that properties are more earthquake resistant in the future. We are truly humbled by your generosity and are happy to report that our factory in Nepal is fully operational.  Our supplier and his team are amazing people and are recovering from this challenge with grace and strength.  We admire them greatly.

In that light, here are some pictures of a beautiful rug they just finished for one of our clients, an interior design firm in Washington, D.C.  The attention to detail and craftsmanship of this talented team are evident.

The Mystery Behind Lanolin in Wool as a Stain Blocker

You may hear from rug dealers that the lanolin in the wool in their rugs repels liquids...that it is a natural stain blocker.  Well, wool does have lanolin in its raw state.  In the case of our hand-knotted rugs which are made in Nepal, the wool is imported from Tibet and comes in 2 forms...cold-water washed and chemical-washed wool.  The lanolin content in chemical-washed wool is low compared to cold-water washed wool.

However, here's what happens in the wool dyeing process:

Step 1: Washing the wool...along with the lanolin, there are a lot of impurities in the wool like dirt, soil and even sheep feces (sorry...but it's a big issue!)  The wool needs to be bathed in hot water and detergent to remove these impurities and to allow the dye to absorb well into the fiber.  This process strips off a large percentage of the lanolin content in the wool.

Step 2:  Dyeing the wool...this process totally removes the lanolin content in the wool.  For the wool fibers to absorb the dyes, the water needs to be boiled consistently over 100 degrees.  Lanolin melts at temperatures ranging from 40 to 50 degrees and thus at this stage, the lanolin dissolves into the hot water.

LESSON 1:  Don't believe those rug dealers that tell you that their dyed wool rugs have lanolin that helps to repel stains.  This would only be possible if the lanolin was massaged BACK into the wool rug once the rug was finished and washed... think of it like putting conditioner on your hair after shampooing.

LESSON 2: WOOL IS STILL THE BEST FIBER IN OUR OPINION FOR RUGS.  IT IS EXTREMELY CLEANABLE, RESILIENT/BOUNCES BACK, LONG-LASTING, SOFT AND LUXURIOUS. WE JUST WANTED TO SHARE THE TRUTH ABOUT LANOLIN.

Note: If the wool rugs are UNDYED, then they may still have some lanolin in the wool.

Attention to Detail and Craftsmanship

We are so fortunate to have such wonderful interior designer clients who give us the opportunity to create beautiful rugs for their projects!  Here is our Livorno pattern with a lovely merlot colored silk in the scrolls of the design.

Chinese silk in a merlot color woven into the scrolls in the Livorno design

Our Livorno design, an oversized damask pattern

Thanks to our expert craftspeople in Nepal who produce an exquisite product

Dare to be special! A custom stair runner and landing rug for a Kenwood home in Minneapolis

Here's a stair runner project we recently completed with interior designer, Janie Delaney, in Minneapolis.

The client wanted something colorful and fresh for her Kenwood home staircase and landing which can be seen as soon as you enter the home.  Janie thinks it is lively and fun but has depth and character so that it works with the house.  In Janie's words...it's "KILLER"!!  Better in person of course and the client loves it!

Installation--the runner was made in 4 sections so as to get a perfect match on each stair.
The project was templated and hand-knotted in Nepal by our wonderful weavers there.

Here is the hand-drawn template and the 4 sections of the runner.

Picture of the landing rug

Close-up...heavy abrash striation in the background of the rug

Landing area...love the zebra pillow

Original digital rendering with final colors selected
Pattern by Julie Dasher