Fovama Rugs

This past Saturday I was at Fovama Rugs in Westport. I got to chatting with Javad, the owner of Fovama and he was telling me how many of his clients are seeing their oriental rugs as an investment these days. I asked him to explain, as I always viewed them more as a beautiful piece of furniture.

His response, handmade rugs are some of the best values in home decorating due to several factors.

1) The economic growth in China and India (two of the most prolific rug producers) has led to an increase in wages in the building industry when compared to the textile industry. The result is many workers are going into construction creating a labor shortage of rug weavers.

2) Chinese rug factories refuse to make hand knotted rugs because it takes eight to ten months and two weavers to make a 9’x12’ hand knotted rug.

3) Machine made rugs can offer higher profit margins for the manufacturers leading to an increase in inventories of machine made r rugs and a decrease in hand made rugs.

Accorting to Javad these elements will result in much smaller supply and higher prices for hand made rugs in near future!

Of course the prolonged economic slowdown has resulted in a buyer’s market. Last year many rug retailers and even some manufacturers were forced to liquidate their inventories.

How has this affected pricing?

Just a year over a year ago the cost could purchase a fine 9x12 hand knotted rug from India, or China was in the price range of $4,000 to $5,000. Right now many of these rugs arr selling for $2500 to $3000 dollars.

(As I explained to my husband, that could translate into our $2,500 rug turning into a $5,000 floor covering when prices stabilize.)

Javad also mention that many rug retailers have also been forced to sell wall-to-wall carpeting to raise Cash flow. They might not have as big a selection as your average wall-to-wall carpeting dealer, but if you can find what you like you might be able to save a bundle!

Bottom line is now is a great time to go deal hunting! Javad is letting me post a price savings on the blog. Good luck shopping!