Restoration › Deep Restoration Wash of a Heavily Soiled Silk Rug
Deep Restoration Wash of a Heavily Soiled Silk Rug
This rug arrived unreadable. Where there should have been a navy field and a terracotta border there was a flat grey-beige, and the owner had assumed the colours were simply gone.
BeforeAfter❮❯
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The damage
Years of embedded soil had built up through the full depth of the pile and taken the design with it. The medallion was barely traceable, the border had no colour separation left, and the fringe had gone grey throughout.
What we did
Every dye was tested for fastness first, because a rug this soiled gives no warning about what is underneath. After dry soil extraction the rug was given a full immersion wash with repeated rinses, changing the water until it stopped colouring. The fringe was cleaned separately, and the rug was dried flat in shade and then groomed.
The navy field and terracotta border came back in full, with the turquoise and ivory details in the border readable again. No colour was added at any point — all of this was under the soil.
- Service
- Deep restoration wash
- Material
- Silk pile on a silk foundation
- Condition
- Heavy embedded soiling obscuring the design
- Technique
- Dye-fastness testing, immersion wash, repeated rinsing
- Workshop
- Muscat, Oman
Send us a photo of the damage and we will tell you what can be done and what it costs. Rug Road, Muscat.
More work: see all before and after cases