Extravagant home decor does not often exist harmoniously with your pets.

Most pet owners know the chaos that cute, but unpredictable animals can bring into their living quarters. 

Long claws, muddy paws, restless teeth, spirited frolicking, violent tantrums, unruly bladders, and unbridled hormones—all these occurrences can be of a concern while selecting your rugs.

We want you to have a seamless home experience while selecting your rug, to expel the worry that your pet might ruin it. This post will outline everything you need to know to select your ideal, pet-friendly rug.

Home in on Hand-knotted Rugs without Fringes

A hand-knotted rugs is structurally pet-proof, being generously protected by the thousands of strong knots looping and linking within its foundation.

This significantly reduces the damage that your pet can inflict on it before you notice their infringement and stop them.

However, there is one traditional rug element that could make your rug vulnerable to your pet: the fringe.

Some rugs have fringes at their edge, and a curious pet biting and pulling at these fringes would unravel the structure of the whole rug. To prevent this, you have two options: you can buy a hand-knotted rug without the fringes. Or you can ask for the services of an expert to remove the fringes on your rug. 

Pick Low-Pile Rugs

The pile is the upper soft layer of the rug, consisting of the thousands of interlinking knots. A low pile has shorter threads and, by corollary, a smaller functional surface area. This makes it less likely to snag dirt, fur, or a long claw.

If your pets are taken to trampling over these intricate creations, it is better that the pile is short so that you avoid it unravelling due to their sharpened cuticles. A low pile rug will also be easier to extract from shed fur, feathers, skin detritus, and excreta. Dusting, vacuum cleaning, and brushing is so much easier when you make this consideration!

Wool is the Pet-friendliest Rug Material

Wool fibers are pliable, maintaining their shape even after they get wet—naturally, a good result after your pet gives into its unruly bladder! This eternally useful, natural material also resists staining and blotching, and if dirt somehow finds its way into a wool rug’s pile, a vacuum cleaner can quickly suction it out.

All this entails that you can even go for one that’s white, without fear that it’ll get immoderately discolored. And, unlike shag area rugs, they’re not fluffy and tempting, so your pet will be less likely to tear at it! Wool is generally regarded as the most preferable rug materials over cotton, silk, jute, etc.

Coordinate Rug Colours to your Pet’s Fur

When your pet sheds, there is a possibility that the fur strands get caught in the pile of the rug. This fur will either, depending on the rug colours, be visible to guests or not. Now, you might think that a dark-coloured rug would generally hide these fallen strands of hair, for the overall look of the room.

That is not strictly true. An area rug that’s closest in colour to your pet’s fur would disguise the shed strands. And if your rug has a low pile, you can eventually remove the infringement with minimal effort. 

Choose Rugs with Busier Patterns

Intricate, busier patterns, with everything going on in terms of lines—curlicues, gyres, and spirals—will tend to disguise shed fur, pet stains, and more. So, in case of an especially drastic stain, your rug will retain most of its original look.

By this logic, minimalist and solid designs should be avoided. The larger expanse of undisturbed colour in these designs allows the eye to catch slight blemishes and discolorations. Multi-coloured traditional and abstract rugs are the most effective at disguising small stains.

Follow these 5 guidelines, and you should mitigate most of the preliminary problems pet owners have to deal with. You will have to eventually deal with stain removal itself, and we have some guidelines—in short: blot, don’t rub; vacuum clean; and brush lightly—to help you in that aspect as well. But, the overall look and feel of your rug and its surroundings will be retained if you wisely choose the right designs, colours, and material! Our consultants at Cocoon Fine Rugs will help you make the right selections; you only have to let us know the specifics!