What’s the Revival process for vintage rugs? Are your rugs professionally cleaned?Updated 10 days ago

All of our vintage rugs go through an extensive selection, preparation, and cleaning process to ensure that the quality is what you expect from a vintage rug. Learn more about that process below, and keep in mind that given the vintage nature of our rugs, natural imperfections are to be expected.

Nearly all of our vintage rugs are kept in their natural state, their vibrant color, pattern, and style make a strong visual statement independent of any further processing; these remain as-is. Some rugs we select to be overdyed based on their patterns. While the rugs retain their original visual structure, our dyes update a faded or outdated color scheme to a more monotone, on-trend palette that can easily be worked into any interior.

• Selection: All of our vintage rugs are handpicked from villages in Turkey and Morocco where we inspect their quality and durability. After this initial assessment, we receive them at our cleaning and processing facility.
• Tumbling: We use the same cleaning techniques that have been used for centuries to ensure the integrity and lifespan of the rug. In Turkey, rugs are placed inside a traditional piece of equipment to undergo tumble dusting (imagine an octagonal cylinder with slotted openings). As the tumble dusting chamber rotates gently back and forth, the rug’s woven foundation bends and moves to dislodge, agitate, and effectively remove any dust.
• Shearing: The pile of our knotted vintage Turkish rugs are all made of 100% wool fibers, which naturally “fuzz” over time with use. These are hand-sheared using a rug-shearing tool to even the surface layer in preparation for washing and dyeing. Our Moroccan vintage pieces are not sheared.
• Washing: Next, our vintage rugs are saturated with water before a gentle, pH-balanced cleansing shampoo is applied. A broom with soft bristles is used to hand-scrub each rug before it is rinsed thoroughly of all residue. This shampoo-scrubbing process is repeated 3 times. This seemingly simple process is so effective that it has been relied upon for centuries. Steam cleaning and dry cleaning can actually damage a wool rug, due to harsh chemicals that can break down the wool.
• Drying: After the vintage rugs have been cleaned, they’re line-dried in a shaded area as the wool takes on its new vibrancy.
• Mending: For the final step, our Revival artisans inspect every inch of the rug for any need of repair. Vintage rugs that require repairs are brought to our repair partners, where the rugs are carefully mended.