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Home Decorating

Thinking about purchasing a natural fiber rug (jute, sisal, etc.)

12 years ago

Hello Folks,

I am thinking about purchasing a natural fiber rug for our great room but have a few concerns... On the positive side I really like the casual look and the fact that they are neutral colors. I have neutral furniture (dark leather couch, khaki chairs) and neutral (khaki beige)walls. I plan to add color with pillows, window treatments and accessories. My concerns are I don't want a rug that is uncomfortable to walk on (we will not be sitting on it just walking/standing) and I don't want a rug that is difficult to clean and stains easily (I have three kids). Another thing I'm wondering is if there is a big difference in the quality of these rugs. Could I go with one from Overstock (cheaper) or should I stick to a company that specializes in these like sisalrugs.com or naturalfiberrugs.com? I would love to hear anyone's experience with these rugs or any suggestions. One more thing- I need a rug that is more "oatmeal", "almond" or "khaki" in color. Most of them seem to be too gold for my wall color.

Thanks so much for any help!

Jill

Featured Answer

mtnrdredux_gw

12 years ago

I plug them all the time, but if you are looking for cheap rusg that look nice .... and feel nice, Dash and Albert is great. Not sisal though...

Here is a link that might be useful: love these guys

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Comments (6)

mtnrdredux_gw
12 years ago
You probably do not want a true sisal in a great room; they are ouchy.

Like anything, yes, there are quality differences. I had a wool sisal look for several years and it wore like iron, but it is very pricey.

For this house I bought a wool blend sisal. It cost less than pure wool but looks and feels great.

Good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: my sisal
lynxe
12 years ago
I had a fiber rug in our previous house, a Pottery Barn true sisal or perhaps true jute with border that I may have bought online, and I can tell you that one wouldn't want to walk on it in bare feet. I still have it in fact, rolled up in the attic, complete with old stains from cat puke on it. On the plus side, however, it was very hard-wearing - very possibly completely indestructible.
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I just was browsing my latest Home Decorators catalog and I saw a Faux Sisal that caught my eye. I would need to see it in person. I'm starting to think about adding a cat to the household and natural sisal is not an option, so faux may be for me. It says it is soft. I would think something like this would probably be available in the box stores. http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Cove_Area_Rug/880/ This post was edited by wendyb on Sat, Feb 1, 14 at 9:26
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We do have rug pads underneath, albeit cheap ones from Ikea that are an open weave sort of design so I'm not sure how much they are helping. They do keep the rugs from shifting. Love_the_yard: no, they are not laminate but a very inexpensive engineered hardwood made if birch. Because the wood is fairly soft, and there's only a thin layer of it, it dents and scratches very easily. A regular laminate would be much more durable. In fact, that's what we replaced. The previous laminate held up fairly well over the past eight years with only a few dings, but the color and design was dated and I hated it. We went with the engineered hardwood for resale, this way we can say"hardwood". There are of course, much more durable engineered hardwoods out there, we just went with a .69 a sq ft lumber liquidators special as we are selling and wanted to invest as little as possible.
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I think it depends on your style. Several decades ago I was a guest at the home of family friends in Winchester, Massachusetts. They enjoyed a comfortable, but un-fussy and unpretentious home and lifestyle. They had two golden retrievers that were hunting dogs as well as family pets. Their house was solid, attractive, low-slung single story but ample. They had two large, plain, sisal or jute carpets that covered most of the living room wooden floor. I didn't notice any stains or uneven coloration or tears. The rugs were not fancy schmancy, nor new. Just well made. I've never forgotten that look, the large dogs, the warmth of the family and their home. I made a mental note to try to strive toward that sort of honest, straightforward and modest beauty and simplicity. It was like the first perennial gardens I encountered as a child -- something so uncomplicated and elegant and so completely and genuinely connected to the earth around us. Well, now you have exactly how I feel about sisal/jute rugs.
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Another fan of the poly rugs. We bought our first ones when the kids were little and we had huge dogs and put them in the foyer, laundry room and front hall. Those things lasted for years until we got a puppy who decided that the carpet fringe was delicious and then went on to chew the rugs. We replaced them with newer ones and when we moved gave them to the kids - they must be 20 years old by now. We bought them at Macy's, Orvis and even the big box stores. I love the look of jute and sisal but would never buy them, they do absorb dirt, crumbs and liquid and some are not comfortable when bare foot. So if you find some please report back.
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awm03
12 years ago
I have a seagrass rug in my DR that is surprisingly tough, stain resistant (at least long enough for you to run and get a towel), but not soft underfoot. I just bought a jute rug for the LR. It's soft underfoot, but I don't know about cleanability yet or even how durable it is.

However, for the price of these rugs, I would still consider using them in a family room, especially if they are going to take a beating. I paid $350 for a 9x12 jute rug (the soft one). You could put it in a family room, flip it over when one side starts to look bad, then toss it when the other side's done, and have $$$ left over to buy a new one, all for the price of a fabric rug.

On the other hand, you might want to consider an oriental design if you have kids. I used an inexpensive wool oriental rug in our DR when the kids were growing up, for 18 years in fact. It hid everything. It was a dark, busy pattern. You'd never know a whole can of orange soda got spilled on it at some point. It cleaned well.
clubcracker
12 years ago
We just ordered a coue of braided jute rugs and one seagrass rug from overstock for our great room and dining area. The price could not be beat and they all looked nice but the seagrass was hard underfoot whereas the jute is soft. I don't know yet how well they will wear but we have kids and dogs and I vacuum every day or two and so far so good.

Our jute rugs vary in tone even though they are technically the same color. I notice overstock had a bleached jute rug that might work if you don't want it to be too gold.

Good luck!
Mary
jillandmatt
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you all so much for the feedback. I have ruled out seagrass or sisal because the consensus seems to be that they are not comfortable to walk on. That leaves jute, jute/wool blend or a synthetic sisal (100% nylon) that looks like sisal but is soft and is said to resist stains. Does anyone have any experience with "synthetic sisal"?
Thanks again!

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