Shop per collectie

What is the difference between a handmade and machine made carpet?

By purchasing a handmade rug you acquire a fine example of craftsmanship and often also a piece of history. A hand-knotted or hand-woven rug is made according to traditional methods where often work is done with natural dyes in specific colors. The origins of a hand-knotted floorrug can be traced back by an expert through the materials used, button technique, color combinations and the patterns. The rugs are made with a specially designed loom. The entire manufacturing process is done by hand: from spinning and then dyeing the wool to weaving and finishing the rug. That is also the reason that an average vintage rug takes months to make.

Making machine-made rugs is much faster and usually takes hours. This is because a computer-controlled loom is used, which allows them to produce rugs at a rapid pace. Handmade rugs usually use wool, while machine-made rugs also use synthetic materials.

This is the reason why the price of a hand-knotted rug is higher than the price of a machine-made rug. Also, the colors and patterns of handmade rugs are more vibrant and look more natural. A handmade rug of high quality is a sustainable investment in your interior, because it often retains its value or even becomes more valuable.

How do you recognize a handmade carpet?

Do you want to style your interior with a beautiful, handmade rug and have your eye on, for example, a vintage rug or kilim? By taking into account the following specific features of authentic hand-knotted rugs, you can be sure that you are not purchasing a machine-made item.

Edge with fringes

Fringes are an essential part of a hand-knotted rug. You can see them on the two short sides of the rug. They are created by knotting two threads together and are intended to hold the knotted material of the rug together. You can see that the fringes are an attached extension of the material used for the rug. Sometimes the fringes have been removed. If fringes look unnatural, or are attached to the carpet afterwards, then you are dealing with a machine-made carpet.

Bottom of the cloth

The underside of a rug clearly shows the difference between a handmade and machine-made rug. A handmade rug is not attached to a base mat. This makes the bottom of the rug look about the same as the top, but the buttons don't always line up. The colors on the top and bottom are equally bright. With a machine-made rug, the weaving patterns and buttons on the underside are almost always the same and perfect. The colors on the underside are also often duller because machine-made rugs are attached to a base mat.

Perfectly imperfect

Making a rug by hand is very labor intensive. It is virtually impossible for the knotter not to make a mistake in the symmetry of the design during the many months or years he works on the rug. That is why small flaws are an inseparable part of an authentic, hand-knotted carpet. In machine-made carpets, the pattern is very precise and completely symmetrical, and it looks completely unnatural.                                   

The differences in brief:

√ Handmade rugs often use natural materials such as wool, silk and cotton.

√ A hand-knotted rug takes months to make. Machine knotted rugs only take hours.

√ The quality of handmade rugs is much higher and can last for generations.

√ Handmade rugs are not perfect. Sometimes small deviations can be found in the pattern, for example. Machine-made rugs do not have this, which makes them look too perfect and unnatural.

√ The bottom of a handmade rug is a reflection of the top. You can also clearly see the buttons. This is less clear with machine-made carpets and you can often see that it is made on a base mat.

√ Handmade rugs generally retain their value. Machine-made rugs, on the other hand, are not.

√ That is why we only sell handmade rugs.