I'm in market for several area rugs and am just taking my time looking, attempting to find the perfect rug before purchasing upholstery and other pieces.
Duane, you helped me (in a post here, last year!) to start to get an understanding of rug quality, guiding me to look at the cost per square foot.
I've found several Tufenkian carpets that are priced around $48/square foot. I'm now looking for opinions on this brand. Is it known just for it's name (because I see it in a lot of trade and design publications) OR is it really a good brand? Same question goes for Safavieh.
Thanks!
I own a Safavieh rug that I got, on clearance, for closer to $5/square foot, which seems like a decent deal for a large carpet that matches the decor and protects the floor (covered with a very light carpet) from my youngster. I'm not sure if you were getting a similar price for Safavieh from your dealer, but if they have a line of carpets that is an order of magnitude greater in cost than the one I bought I would have expected a very different product.
Here's the Safavieh rug I'm looking at: http://safavieh.com/rugs/area/runner...porary/TOB882C
and the Tufenkian: http://www.tufenkiancarpets.com/coll...aterstone.html
If you have your heart set on a specific pattern, I suggest trying to find a local dealer who carries the came category of carpet (price point, manufacturing, materials) so you can see for yourself that it's worth the price, and see what sort of discount off of "retail" the dealer will offer. If you are comfortable with the brands and have some flexibility as to design and when you would make your purchase, "flash sale" sites like Gilt and Ideeli often feature some deeply discounted high end carpets.
Aaron - Thanks for the guidance. I'm making a short trip this weekend to look at the carpets. I really don't have a local dealer with a plentiful selection. Guess what - I actually ran into the Gilt site yesterday for the first time, again doing some searching on the Tufenkian name. I didn't really understand what I saw on the site because it showed some carpets but said something like "sale over" - your post explained what I saw.
Any other suggestions appreciated!
Found this Johnson piece on ebay. Quite pricey!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MID-CENTURY-...b#ht_765wt_754