Our versatile jute rugs are perfect for creating intimacy and defining a space. Their natural, chunky texture creates a cosy feel in living, dining and bedrooms alike. Quite frankly, we can’t get enough of them!
WHAT IS A JUTE RUG AND WHAT MAKES IT SO SPECIAL?
Also known as “the golden fibre” due to its gorgeous lustre, jute is a long, soft, shiny and incredibly versatile vegetable fibre. Jute rugs are known for their durability. With its anti-static, insulating and moisture regulating qualities combined with its natural strength and flexibility, jute is one of the world’s most important and widely-used vegetable fibres—second only, of course, to cotton.
Jute is mainly grown and harvested by about four million small farmers in Bangladesh and India. The industry creates jobs that support hundreds of thousands of workers and their families—from harvesting the raw materials to processing the yarn, to creating the finished products.
All our beautiful jute rugs are expertly woven by highly skilled weavers on a hand loom. These weavers utilise a variety of traditional techniques to create the timeless designs you see proudly displayed in-store and on our website.
HOW DO I CLEAN A SPILL ON MY JUTE RUG?
Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us!
Acting fast is the most important thing when it comes to addressing spills on your jute rug. It can be the difference as between being left with a permanent stain and your rug coming up as good as new. So, it begs to be repeated: ACT FAST.
It just so happens that I have personal experience with this because of my brother spilling a full glass of red wine on my beautiful Herringbone Natural Gold Rug, just a couple of months after I got it. [Sigh.] It had to happen eventually.
I was in the kitchen at the time, so I first knew something had happened when my mum bolted into the room yelling “Salt! Salt! We need salt!”
It must be said that pouring salt all over the spill area (after soaking up what we could with paper towels) was purely an instinctive move and not a part of the manufacturer’s instructions. However, the salt application certainly bought us some time while we looked up the manufacturer’s instructions for accidental spills (available in the care and warranty tab on all jute rugs listed on our website).
Red wine was classed as a “severe spill” according to the manufacturer. For severe spills, the first suggested treatment was to act quickly and wipe up the excess. That we had done already. After about half an hour, my brother vacuumed up the salt pile so that we could see what we were dealing with. It wasn’t pretty and, while Mum was convinced the rug was doomed, we persevered and applied the second recommended treatment: a weak alkaline solution of water and bicarbonate of soda (I used a ratio of about 2:1). The trick with this step was to apply the solution with a soft brush to penetrate the fibres. Scrubbing could have resulted in matting so, instead, I used more of a massaging motion to work the solution into the rug.
The point of the alkaline solution (i.e. the bicarb soda and water) was to dilute the acid and dyes in the red wine. Well, it did something, because the red stain started turning grey-blue. Great. With more paper towels, I blotted the area to soak up the excess moisture and this is what I was left with:
Yep, I agree: it looks like mould. Not the result I was hoping for. However, the manufacturer’s instructions did say to “repeat this process several to many times” until the stain lifts. There was still hope!
As you can see in the photo, most of the pasty bicarb solution remained stuck in the fibres of the rug. I decided to let it dry overnight, which would serve the dual purpose of both giving it more time to work its magic as well as make the vacuuming job much easier. Twenty-four hours later, this is what it looked like:
Success! I must admit, a part of me genuinely expected to be left with a permanent stain. Instead, all that remained was a darker patch where the rug was still wet.
Now, it’s important to mention that the rug I bought has a latex back. This means that (especially in the wintry weather) it took a long, long time to dry—I’m talking weeks. Here’s how it looked after a fortnight:
Mind you, I probably soaked it with more water than was ultimately necessary, which wouldn’t have helped…
At the end of the day, I was extremely impressed with the results of this cleaning method—you just have to be patient and persevere. And if there's anything I can take away from this experience, it's to follow the manufacturer's instructions, even if it initially doesn't look like it's working.
—Thalia