Hello bethdeth,

I'm so sorry you had such a terrible experience. I like what you're keeping - a lot! Your tastes are traditional so it shouldn't be too hard to whip this room into shape. Questions first though:

What size bed?

What size rug?

Dressers?

Seating?

Karen

Great questions-

- queen size bed

- 9x12 rug - or possibly two smaller rugs on either side of the bed. We have wood floors - oak - that are original to our 1940s Colonial house

- We want to get a new dresser. It will need to be a vertical 5, drawer type as our room is small.

- Currently we have one chair that I'm getting rid of. There is a built in vanity on one side of the room that can accommodate a stool. Ideally, I'd love to get a pair of (preferably antique) chairs to put on either side of the dresser but they would have to be fairly small. We don't have room at the end of the bed to put a bench, unfortunately.

Planning on getting a new bed, duvet cover/pillows, mirror, dresser, paint and window treatments.

I wouldn't decide on the rug until you have everything else in the room, especially the paint, bedding, and window treatments.

And find a rug seller, either locally or online, that lets you try the rug in your room and then return it for free if it doesn't work for you and for the room.

bethdeth-

Sounds like an awful decorator experience!

Authentic handmade Oriental rugs, either handknotted Persian ones or nomadic or kilims don't come made to order in certain colors.

and you wouldn't want them to, either.

That would be as bad as ordering a piece of "art" in certain colors.

Your best bet would be to amble down to rug dealers and go through the carpets and see what strikes your fancy in terms of color and pattern, and see what types of rugs those are.

Then when you find out what it is you are looking for in terms of rug type, narrow it down to reputable rug dealers in your area.

I would only buy a rug I had seen in real life.

That is the only way to judge quality and and wear. It also cuts down on shipping costs.

The other advantage from buying from a local dealer is that you can have them bring a few to your home and try them in your room, and you select the one that looks the best.

Yes, they will do that.

And a really good place will clean your rug too, the old fashioned way.

And if you are going to spend the money, get a REAL one, not a cheap copy.

A king size bed needs a 9 x 12 rug, but the rug should be approximately 18 inches from the wall, so you might need to go a drop smaller if your room is smaller.

Know that traditional rugs are not made in factories and don't have these exact factory sizes, or exact colors, but they can come close enough for you to work with.

They are beautiful and timeless, and fit exactly with your historical, world eclectic decor.

You first need to decide if it's the rug or curtains that you want to be the design directors for this room. If it's the rug, you will then choose everything else to go with it. If it's the curtains, you will find a rug that works with that fabric.

Don't get the old 5' dresser. Instead, get a chest-on-chest or a high boy. You will then have room for at least a slipper chair. One needs somewhere to sit when putting on panty hose or boots!

You don't mention the size of the room. It will dictate whether you use one large rug (that goes under the bed but covers much of the floor), or rugs on both sides and at the bottom. I have a huge room so that is what I have, but if I could afford it, I would buy carpet and have it cut and bound to use as a very large area rug. My cleaning woman messes up the rugs and pads with the vacuum and it's a bother getting them straight again.

I hope you've learned that professional or not, a designer WORKS FOR YOU and gives you what YOU WANT, not what she wants to give you. A designer has access to fabrics and other things that the consumer does not, and they can give valuable advice as well. Often a client thinks they know what they hope to accomplish but the way to do this is not the direction in which they are going. A designer can help them figure that out and get it right.

You may have difficulty finding a genuine oriental rug that works with teal. Traditionally, oriental rugs were made with natural dyes from vegetables, insect shells, etc, and although many these days are made with artificial dyes, the better ones tend to dtick to the original color palate - crimson, indigo, deep greens, yellows and golds, and of course black, white and brown from the actual wool. Teal is not a color you would necessarily find. So, I'd be hitting the carpet stores first, because it's going to be the hardest element to find. Paint and bedding will have much wider ranges of choice.

Shop Handmade Herat Oriental Afghan Bahara Collection Hand-knotted Oushak Vegeta · More Info

What other colors do you see with teal? You did mention some gold? This one looks to be a very nice quality. Background for me is tons of oriental rugs over the years with a clientele from Washington, D.C. area. I say this so you know I know the difference from one to another. This is a 9 x 12 and you can go back to capture the price. If you are serious with any selections let me know and I'll dig deeper for quality/vs price.

Shop Handmade Herat Oriental Afghan Bahara Collection Hand-knotted Oushak Vegeta · More Info

Anglophilia makes a good point about the dresser issues.

What kind of dresser you need and if you even need a dresser at all depends on what kind of closet situation you have.

Some people have such fantastic huge closets with all sorts of built-ins, they don't need dressers at all!

As to what type of dresser(s), maybe you can give us the dimensions of your room, and better yet, make a plan of your room with dimensions, and locations of windows and doors and closets and how the doors open, and where you think you want to put your bed, and what size it is, so Houzzers can give better suggestions.

While a highboy does take up less space, the traditional triple dresser has the advantage of doing double duty as a TV stand if you want your TV in the bedroom.

Another thing about hand knotted Persian carpets - they may not be the best idea if you eat crackers in bed.

They should not be vacuumed frequently, it loosens the knots.

What you can do daily is use a carpet sweeper which is a lightweight non-electrical device that doesn't use suction so it doesn't loosen the knots.

I'm a Fuller Brush gal back from my school days when my mother sat in the kitchen with "the Fuller Brush Man" while he showed her his wares and she bought a lot. That company made really fine things and still does. But no more house calls!

And this-

You can hang your good rug on a line or over a railing and yes, smack it to get out dust, etc.

People don't do this that much any more now that they use vacuums, but beaters are better. For lots of things :)

Back to the rugs. You can vacuum once in a while, but don't make a habit of it.

And I bet they were in good enough condition for you to inherit them too!

How I wish. No one understood the value of what she had. I was only 12 so no one would listen to a kid!

Oh, that's too bad!

If you are an interior design pro, maybe your love of design and good taste are informed by your exposure to all the lovely things your grandmother had, and the time you spent with your grandmother.

And all that is safely stored in your memory and your mind's eye, the very safest places.

loobab, so true! She taught me all things important and for that I am eternally grateful. Had no idea we would be conjuring up such wonderful memories.

Can you share with us some of the important and unique things she taught you?

And how you use that in your life and work today?

One of her most important lessons was to train your eye to know good from bad. Know everything you can about history which will inform your decisions. Develop catholic tastes. This has been a God send as I have never gravitated to a specific. look. Only buy the best you can afford. Understand what it is you are buying. The best advice was to follow my intuition. There are so many things I observed over the years that I suppose just sank into my hard little head! LOL

I encourage you to find a local store that specializes in “real” Oriental rugs, not machine-made. When we moved from a home with carpeted bedrooms to one with hardwood floors, I was flummoxed and dizzy after visiting furniture stores that sold rugs, discount stores that sold rugs, carpet stores that sold rugs, etc. When we walked into this locally owned rug store with some samples of our colors, one of the owners took us under her wing and immediately found 5 or 6 that were beautiful. Her son drove them out to our house and we were able to see them on our floors with our furniture. Our choices changed! But we came away with 2 lovely (and yes, expensive) rugs that will last a lifetime. They are the highlight of our rooms, and we are so pleased to have found true experts.