Design Resources

LIVING WITH RUGS

Reprinted from Oregon Home Magazine, December 2008
from the article The Rug Lovers’ Lair by Sheila De La Rosa

When you think of an Oriental rug, do you picture it atop a hardwood floor? So does Christiane Millinger, the co-owner of Madison Millinger, who is a rug importer and a longtime lover of both new and antique textiles. But she also could see hanging an amazing textile on a wall, as she does with a prized 17th century silk textile from Burma that adorns a wall in her Rug Room or angling it across your dining room table for a little drama, as she often does in her own dining room.

We asked Millinger for a few tips for modern living with 100-year-old textiles and Oriental rugs.

Don't think of your good rugs as delicate, precious things. “Rugs are utilitarian textiles,” she says. “I’m also a conservator and restorer of old textiles and I've had many hours to think about the women who wove all these pieces and about how they would've lived with their pieces,” she says. “Their textiles would’ve been hanging on tent walls, serving as luggage and salt bags, or covering tables. Textiles have traditionally been used for everything; they can take a lot of wear.”

Don't sweat the inevitable spills. “I never get nervous about spills because, with a good rug, you can clean anything off of it.” she says. “We have a good rug in our kitchen and one morning, we spilled a whole pot of coffee on,” she says. “Then, the same day, we dropped a jar of blueberry jam on it, which exploded all over the rug. Late that day, a jar of salsa was spilled on it. At that point, we left the kitchen! When I went back to the kitchen to deal with it, I just washed it off with lots of water and mild soap, and then I sent if off to be properly washed. Yes, it's still in the kitchen--and still gorgeous.”

Size Matters. “A too-small rug makes a room look unfinished, unless you intentionally are trying to make a small space look light and airy,” she says. “Rug buying is a economic decision, too, because why pay for a rug to go under a sofa when you won’t see that part of the rug? You have to be sensible about your budget, but if you can afford it, go bigger. It makes the room more comfortable. Ideally, in a large space like our living room, you want all the furniture on top of the rug. But again, there are many exceptions to the rule. You have to think about how many different functions one room has to serve, too.”

Let a rug revive your spirit. “A good rug, as with a good chandelier or a nice pair of earrings, radiates an intelligence and love that was put into it when it was made,” she says. “I feel comforted that women made the old textiles that I get to live with. I just relate to textiles in a deep way. They're extremely easy to live with, too. They lessen the echo in a large room. They filter the air. I love the quality of living around a good rug.”

Realize that if you're living a rug-free life, you're missing out. “If I had to live in rooms without rugs, I would feel as if I were living in a storage warehouse or something,” says Millinger. “You need some texture on the floor, even if it's just a rug of seagrass.”

See the full article, including beautiful photos of Christiane's home, here.

-S.M.D.

©2008 Oregon Home Magazine