If that's a Karastan the fringe isn't added on, it's part of the warp of the rug.

If you have no intention of selling the rug you could trim the fringe that's on there but cutting it off and adding fringe is going to affect the structure of the rug.........and its value.

Too funny! I've thought about doing that myself. We have brick floors and Oriental rugs throughout our house and the ones with the long fringe are such a PIA! They hardly ever lay straight and get so messy looking. Turk, my bad-boy dobie, chewed on the foyer rug's fringe when he was a pup. That side's now up against the front door and so it looks naturally messy while hiding the chewed part ;^P
In recent years I've refused to buy any rug without the shorter fringe. I've seriously thought of trimming the fringe on the longer ones myself. To me, that's a more practical solution . . . except for the foyer rug. I'm waiting to hear about replacing fringe on your thread for that one!
Lynn

I would trim the fringe before I would think of replacing it. The rug was a great find!

My eyes tricked me, and I first read the thread title as: "Has anyone ever refrigerated their rug?"

annz: It's my understanding that the fringe is sewn on with Karastan rugs and it does seem to be the case. I was thinking I could take it off with a seam ripper.

lynneinnewmexico: I'm looking for a rug for my entry right now and believe me having a short fringe it right up there on the list.

marisany: ROTFL! Yes, trimming it would be much easier--esp. as I want it shorter. Then wouldn't it look odd with the little knots or just cut 1/2 of it off from the knots on down. The prob. is it's not only messy but discolored. Perhaps that will wash out, though, it it's cleaned?

Anyone else have any opinions?

I have trimed fringe of my very old Chinese rugs. I am so obsessive/compulsive, constantly trying to straighten each strand. Vac well as clean as possible, then I placed waterproof freezer paper under the fringe and over the rug above the fringe, combed and brushed, then cutback (I used sizzors but a straight edge, healing mat and rotery cutter might be even easier, brushed smooth again til it was laying as perfectly as possible. Then I spray lightly with heavy starch and let completely dry. Touch up as needed. Starch is a great product for many odd jobs!

bodica: That is worth a try. Where do I get the waterproof freezer paper? Do you think I could try to clean the fringe first with a spot cleaner? It seems dirty to me. About how much do you think I should take off?

I don't know about how your particular rug value would be affected but I can tell you it did affect the value of mine. I have an antique Persian that my grandmother bought used when she was a bride. At some point, she trimmed the fringe - I had an appraisal done years ago and the first thing mentioned was the fringe lowering the value. I'm not selling so it's not an issue for me in that way. But someone who "knows" rugs is going to know the fringe on yours has been trimmed or replaced. My guess is the average CL shopper won't know.

I have a hand knotted Oriental rug that I had to take in to have a few pieces of fringe repaired. The owner of the rug store says he "hates" fringe. He told me if my rug were his he would trim the fringe (although my fringe isn't as long as yours) He also said he would "tea stain" it. (one of the reasons he dislikes fringe is because he says it gets dirty) I didn't do either one of those things because my rug was $2500 and I felt odd to do something so drastic to it. I think you could easily cut off half of your fringe or even more.

The Karastan in my dining room has the longer fringe, like yours (in fact, I think it's the same rug, red sarouk). The one in my foyer has the short brush fringe. I don't think the fringe is based on the age of the rug, but which Karastan line it is from.

Karastans are not like antique rugs. A Karastan that now costs $2k will never be worth $10k. I would get it refringed, but get it done professionally, don't just glue it unless you don't care about ruining any resale value.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this. I agree with sue36. I would not even consider altering the fringe on a handknotted rug. However, given it's a Karastan that I only paid $300 for, I've decided to trim the fringe as bodica suggested above. It could always be refringed at a later date. I figure the cost I paid accounted for the poor quality of the fringe so I'm hoping anything I do to make it look better would not diminish the $300 value. This has actually been a learning process for me as I do need a few more rugs for the house and from now on, I will stick to ones with the shorter fringe.