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Knotty Rug: Turn Your Home into a Showplace!

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It’s the ideal locale to start when you want to vamp up a room, change a mood or simply add a dash of creativity and color. Knotty Rug’s owner, Darrel Wingo, found his passion when a former painting client asked him to help pick out a rug for her living room. She said, “You know my colors better than anyone!” He was hooked. In 2003, he started collecting rugs and having sales on his driveway, building up enough inventory to open the store in 2006. 

“Knotty Rug specializes in a vast selection of newly woven rugs, available in traditional and modern motifs along with our collection of rugs ranging from 50 to more than 100 years old,” Darrel explained. “They’re all hand-knotted, from all over the world and expertly displayed in our 7,000-square-foot showroom. We want to make Knotty Rug a happy and playful place to shop, a sharp contrast to most Orientalist rug stores.” HERLIFE readers will recognize the humorous, catchy lines that call attention to the rugs, such as “the knottier, the better!” A conversation with Darrel reveals facts and fun.

HLM: What services do you provide your customers?
DW: Superior customer service is free and comes with a smile. If we don’t have what you’re looking for, we can locate it or have it custom made for you. We offer complete wet-wash cleaning, the best way to clean your rugs. We also offer minor repairs. We can arrange pickup, delivery and installation. We sell rug pads, even if you didn’t buy your rug from us.

HLM: What should someone think about when shopping for a rug?
DW: There are four things to consider: quality, color, style and size. 

Quality A fine rug has more knots per square inch. This allows the weaver to develop more intricate patterns with a sharper definition, much like pixels on a TV screen. A skilled weaver can tie one knot every two seconds, and individually ties every single knot to create their designs. High-quality hand-knotted rugs hold their value extremely well and are meant to last decades. Traditionally, Iran (Persia) was the source for the finest rugs, the benchmark against which all others were compared. However, the quality of rugs from India, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Tibet and Nepal has improved over the past years to the extent that many Persian-design carpets from these countries are as fine as the Persian originals. A medium- to high-quality 8’x10’ wool rug can have anywhere from 700,000 to 1.4 million knots. An 8’x10’ silk rug can run 4 to 7 million knots. It makes my hands cramp just thinking about it. 

Color Think about a rug as the foundation of your room. Find a rug that you love and use that as the inspiration for your colors and fabrics. You will find that starting with the rug makes creating a harmonious design much easier. The color is up to you; some people go for washed out and grayed tones and other people like more bright vivid colors. Knotty Rug has them all! 

Style Some people shop for rugs based on style, others for nationality. We like to suggest shopping based on the rug’s personality! There are no hard-set rules about having one style or another. Many customers have a variety of styles in their collection, mixing traditional, transitional and modern in the same home.   

Size Yes, size does matter! Bring your measurements with you to the store when shopping. Don’t forget to take note about any floor vents and odd-shaped room details. In dining rooms, we suggest the rug extend 2.5’ to 3’ past all edges of the table. In bedrooms, you want your feet to land on the rug when you get out of bed and have enough of the color and design showing at the end of the bed.

HLM: What’s next for Knotty Rug?
DW: We are relaunching our October sale this year. Customers have loved this sale in the past and we are excited to bring it back after a COVID hiatus. All in-stock merchandise is discounted 15 percent to 50 percent off retail for the month of October. 

We’re fortunate to have relationships with many vendors and weavers and bring in new merchandise all the time. If you have been to the store in the past, come back; it’s always changing. We have launched a new website and will soon be adding a catalog of our complete collection of rugs. Feel free to browse them at home; take note of the stock number and size when you come to the store. Our store manager, Doug Veach, joined us last October and the customers love him. Come in and introduce yourself. Doug would love to show you our latest arrivals.

Visit knottyrug.com, the showroom, 4510 State Line Road, Kansas City, Kansas, or call 913-677-1877.