Up Against The Wall!
There are several reasons someone may want to display their rugs on the wall.
It may be a fine silk rug, or an older collectible piece in some disrepair, that they don’t want foot traffic on.
It may be that they have some dogs prone to accidents, or cats marking their territory, so they want to save their textiles from abuse (or save their pocketbooks from having to clean the rugs every other month!).
They may have a home full of wall-to-wall carpeting and so the rugs simply do not lay well on the soft floor. Or they just want to SEE the rugs up on the wall as a piece of art to enjoy looking at.
Whatever the reason, here is what we recommend: using Velcro for hanging rugs. (This is also what is recommended by the Textile Museum, along with their how-to instructions courtesy of George Washington University website. Though they show a machine stitch example, all handwoven rugs must be worked on with hand stitches, NOT by machine.)
Velcro hand sewn to the rug for mounting on the wall.
What I like about using Velcro is that unlike a sleeve and rod, this allows a rug to hang smoothly and evenly against the wall. The weight is evenly distributed along the strip, and because ALL rugs have some unevenness to them, you can adjust them in spots where needed.
It also makes it very easy to take the rugs down for regular dusting, or if there is a wildfire fast approaching (something I’ve experienced myself in San Diego) you can run through your house and grab your old rugs quickly and jolt for the car.
Fringe can hang loose or be tucked under.
The rug sets smoothly against the wall.
It is important that the Velcro strip is attached BY HAND on a handmade rug. Using a fine, strong needle and upholstery thread, you can slide your stitches in between the warps and wefts of the rug so you are NOT structurally altering the rug in any way.
A sewing machine cannot move in between foundation fibers so it powers THROUGH them, and causes damage to the foundation of the rug. If you go hogwild with the sewing machine you can almost perforate the rug, leading to the edge tearing away and off over time.
It is a rule of thumb that machine repairs should NOT be executed on hand woven rugs.
New fringe, sidecord serging, or velcro – all should be done by hand not machine on real rugs (i.e. hand woven rugs). Commodity area rugs, like tufted rugs, or machine made product, then there is no risk of devaluation with machine repairs because there is not much “value” there to take away. And, some have such a heavy construction (sometimes using latex and adhesive) that the ONLY way to repair them is by machine (or a glue gun).
Speaking of glue – do NOT attach Velcro to rugs with glue either. Pretty please. 🙂
If you want to enjoy looking at your rugs up on the wall – then this is the way to go! Velcro!
– Lisa