Rugs, Carpets, and Decorating

In our most recent shipment from India, we have a good number of dhurrie (alternatively dhurry, durrie, and durry) rugs.  These flatwoven rugs are a traditional floor covering of India and Pakistan.  Although frequently  these are all-cotton, ours are wool on a cotton foundation.  The wool surface is better wearing and easier to maintain than that of cotton.

These rugs are especially woven for us.  Jeff Arcari in one of his visits to the Indian rug-weaving of Bhadohi worked out the color placements in the designs to make them especially appealing to our clientele.   He created six different color combinations.

 Designs of Landry & Arcari Dhurries

These rugs are products of a cottage industry.  A weaving  family will typically have three or four looms under tent cover outside of their homes.  The weaver propels a hand-propelled shuttle to weave the design.  In a number of ways this cottage weaving resembles the production of Harris Tweed in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

We have a large range of size of these designs as rugs and runner: 2’6” x 8’, 2’6” x 13’, 5’ x 8’, 9’ x 12’, and 10’ x 15’.  If we don’t have the exact size that you need, we can trim a rug or sew two or more rugs together.  We have made a stair runner from these dhurries.

With prices starting at $180 these rugs are a great buy.  They would look wonderful in a beach home or a casual room.

We're a big fan of Design New England, a magazine focusing on the best in architecture, interior design, and garden design around New England. We are especially pleased then to be a part of the January/February 2009 issue.

Design New England, January/February 2009 - see page 104

Rug weaving has long been a "cottage industry" and although workshops have been the source of many rugs, the homes of the weavers are the source of many more. Weavers weave outside their homes on portable looms. The weaver may sell her rugs at the local market place, under contract to an exporter, or hold on to the rugs until the family needs money from their sale. The original "at home" business, cottage rug weaving operations have employed families for centuries.

Jeffrey, our Oriental Rugs Manager, makes frequent buying trips to Southeast Asia. In his travels to work with his overseas rug productions, he found that most of the local children of the rug weavers involved in the cottage rug industry were unable to attend school because of the high cost of school and the prohibitive distances to get there. To improve the lives of our carpet producers and their families, Landry & Arcari Oriental Rugs and Carpeting made a substantial donation to have a school built in the Bhadohi district of northern India. Now serving 200 children, the free school has made education available for the children of the community, most of whom are the first generation in their family to attend school.