For years, rug sellers have been using aging techniques to make new rugs look older than they actually are.

Sometimes, they use this deceptively to charge more for their rugs. Other times they will acknowledge the fact that the rug has been artificially aged/distressed to conform to certain customers’ taste.

At Ageless Rug Treasures in St. Louis, we only carry the most genuine rugs and deception is something you will never encounter at our establishment.

You may find this article informative about the practice of making new rugs look old:

Oriental rugs improve with use. Colors soften, the wool pile grows polished and lustrous.

Even the nicks and stains old rugs accumulate add character. For at least a hundred years, rug sellers have devised ways to simulate an old-rug look in new rugs, with methods ranging from harmless- to nearly fatal. Some shoppers (and rugmakers) are passionately opposed to the concept of making a new rug look old. Others, like Jack Simantrob, the rugmaker/owner of Art Resources in Los Angeles, are more pragmatic. I had voiced concerns to him about what seemed to me to be the high degree of distressing at that time in one line of his rugs. ‘You know’ he said, ‘it is very important to many people to get just the right look in their homes, especially people with good taste.

Not everyone has the money to spend on an antique rug, or sixty years to wait for a new rug to grow old.

Even if you have the money to spend, it is not always possible to find the right antique rug. Yes, distressing a rug may take years of useful life out of it, but a new, distresses rug will last at least as long as an expensive antique and cost much less. As long as people know what they are buying, why not give them what they want, if we can?’

Source: Oriental Rugs Today by Emmet Eiland