Guide · For the trade
Silk rugs: real silk, wool and silk blends, and the artificial silks on a spec sheet
Silk rugs are hand-knotted or hand-loomed in mulberry silk, usually at 1/4 to 3/8 inch pile and 100 to 300 knots per square inch, and they belong in a primary bedroom, a formal living room or on a wall. A wool and silk rug, with silk at 20 to 50 percent of the pile, is the practical luxury spec: wool carries the wear, silk carries the sheen. Everything sold as art silk, bamboo silk or faux silk is viscose, and it stains with water.
This guide is for the designer putting a silk or a wool-silk rug into a scheme, and for the junior reading a spec sheet that says "silk" and needing to know which kind. It covers the fiber, the blends, how to tell real silk from artificial, where a silk rug can and cannot go, what to tell the client about care, and sizes and lead times. The hand-knotted rugs guide covers knot counts and construction; the viscose rugs guide covers the artificial silks on their own.
What silk is, and why it behaves the way it does
Real rug silk is a protein filament unwound from the mulberry silkworm's cocoon, up to 1,000 yards long, which is why it reflects light as a continuous sheen rather than the scattered glow of a staple fiber. It takes dye more intensely than wool and has no scales, so it does not felt or pill. It is also hydrophilic: it absorbs water, swells, and dries with a ring, and it loses about 20 percent of its strength when wet, which is the whole reason a silk rug stays out of a dining room. A hand-knotted rug in pure silk at 200 knots or more is a textile first and a floor second.
Wool and silk rugs: the blends and what the percentage means
| Fiber | Look | Wear | Water and stains | Where to spec |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 percent silk | Full sheen, color shifts with the viewing angle | Low; crushes under furniture | Marks; professional cleaning only | Bedroom, wall, a formal room with no traffic path |
| Wool with silk highlights, 10 to 30 percent | Wool field, pattern or outline in silk | Good; wool carries the floor | Blot the silk areas; wool tolerates more | Living rooms, primary suites, studies |
| Wool and silk, 50/50 | Soft overall sheen, luxurious hand | Moderate | Treat as silk | Primary bedrooms, formal living |
| Viscose, bamboo silk, art silk | Silk sheen at a lower price | Low; mats and yellows with water | Permanent water marks | Bedrooms only, never a kitchen, bath or dining room |
| Tencel (lyocell) | Soft sheen, slightly matte | Better than viscose | Stains, less than viscose | Bedrooms, low-traffic living rooms |
The percentage tells you where the silk is. In a 20 percent blend the silk is usually the design (a vine, a border, an outline) knotted in silk against a wool ground, which gives the sheen where the eye goes and the wool where the feet go. In a 50/50 the fibers are plied or alternated through the field. Our silk and viscose filter holds 214 styles across rugs and broadloom, and the hand-knotted wool and silk designs come mainly from Prestige Mills, emma gardner design, Harcourt and Stanton Rug Co.
Real silk rug vs artificial: how to tell on the sample
Four checks. Price: a real silk hand-knotted rug costs several times a viscose of the same size, and a bargain silk is viscose. Hand: rub the pile briskly with a palm; silk warms quickly, viscose stays cool. Back: on a real silk hand-knotted rug the knots are fine and the design is sharp on the reverse, with a cotton or silk foundation; a viscose rug is often hand-loomed or hand-tufted, with a backing cloth or a latex layer. Label: the mill spec sheet names the fiber, and "art silk", "bamboo silk", "banana silk" and "faux silk" are all viscose or rayon. If the sheet says "silk" with a percentage, it is silk. Stanton's Polysilk is a polypropylene yarn with a silk luster, a fine broadloom fiber and not silk.
Where a silk rug can go, and where it cannot
Can: a primary bedroom, where it is walked on barefoot twice a day; a formal living room where seating sits on it and traffic goes around; a study; a dressing room; a wall, where a fine silk Persian-pattern rug is a better use of the piece than any floor. Cannot: a dining room (wine, water glasses, dragged chairs), an entry, a hall or a stair, a kitchen, a bath, a family room with children or pets, and anywhere a potted plant or a humidifier sits. For a client who wants the sheen in a living room with real traffic, specify wool with silk highlights at 20 to 30 percent and keep the silk in the pattern.
Sizes, custom sizes and lead times
Line silk and wool-silk rugs run the standard sizes, 5x8 through 10x14, with 12x15 in some programs. Custom sizes, shapes and colorways in wool and silk are full custom through the Design Studio: a rendering in your colors, a woven strike-off in 4 to 6 weeks, and production in 18 to 20 weeks. Silk reads lighter and brighter than wool in the same dye; approve the strike-off in the room's light.
Pad, placement and care to hand the client
Under a silk or wool-silk rug on a hard floor, a 1/4 inch felt-and-rubber pad cut 1 inch short of the edge. Keep heavy furniture off pure silk or use wide glass cups; silk crushes and does not spring back the way wool does. Rotate twice a year. Vacuum with suction only, no beater bar, in the direction of the pile. Blot a spill with a dry white cloth and call a rug cleaner who works in silk; no water, no retail spotter, no steam. Keep it out of direct sun; silk fades faster than wool.
Questions designers ask
Are silk rugs durable?
Durable as a textile, not as a floor. A hand-knotted silk rug lasts generations when it is walked on lightly, cleaned professionally and kept dry. Under daily traffic, furniture and spills it crushes and marks within a few years. A wool and silk blend with the silk in the pattern is the durable way to get the look.
How can you tell real silk from artificial silk?
Price, hand, back and label. Real silk costs several times more, warms under a rubbing palm, shows fine sharp knots on a cotton or silk foundation, and is named "silk" with a percentage on the mill's sheet. Art silk, bamboo silk and faux silk are viscose.
Can a silk rug be cleaned?
Yes, by a specialist in silk, usually off site. Water spotting, steam and retail stain removers all leave marks. For the client's day to day: blot dry, vacuum with suction only, and call the cleaner for anything else.
What percentage of silk should a wool and silk rug have?
20 to 30 percent, with the silk in the design, for a living room that is used. 50 percent for a primary bedroom where sheen is the point. Above that, treat the rug as pure silk and keep it out of traffic.
Where should a silk rug go in a house?
A primary bedroom, a formal living room with traffic around rather than across it, a study, or a wall. Not a dining room, entry, hall, stair, kitchen or bath, and not a room with pets.
Browse: silk and viscose rugs · hand-knotted rugs · specialty fiber rugs · bedroom rugs · hand-knotted rugs guide