54 
House & Garden 
HOOK RUGS—RUGS OF THE FUTURE 
The Revival of the Making of Hook Rugs Gives a New Note to Floor Decoration 
and Opens Up Some Interesting Possibilities 
NINA WILCOX PUTNAM 
W HEN any notable revolution occurs in the 
fashion in interior decoration, the re-furbish¬ 
ing of a room is, of course, only begun when 
the furniture itself has been changed. Which is 
especially true of the current craze for what is termed 
modern painted furniture, as nothing has been so 
drastic as this latest innovation. 
With the successive advents of American Colonial, 
Early English or indeed any other resurrection, even 
to the gilt of the Louis periods, or the stately uncom¬ 
fortableness of the Italian Renaissance craze, the 
eager householder who desired to make a change, yet 
could not afford a complete and thorough renovation, 
was able to make certain accessories of wall and floor 
fit into the new scheme. 
This is not true with the purely decorative painted 
furniture of today. Simple wall-coverings have come 
to be a matter of course with persons of taste, and 
one may have a lovely creamy papering against which 
mahogany of the Colonial period shone pleasantly. 
Furthermore when that mahogany has been removed 
to some Siberia, the same wall remains as an ac¬ 
ceptable background: even for the gay new furniture 
which has emanated from those two great cultural 
sources of interior decoration — Vienna and Green¬ 
wich Village! 
The Problem of the Floor 
There remains the problem of the floor. For gen¬ 
erations it has curiously enough seemed to be con¬ 
sidered the least important part of any room. Why 
this should be so is as much a mystery to the enlight¬ 
ened mind of a modern decorator, as is the lack 
of hygiene in the long-tail gowns which our 
mothers trailed along the pavements of the public 
streets to the hygienic vision of a modern trained 
nurse. 
The revolution in floor decoration probably 
had its basis in the same idea which scissored off 
our mothers’ skirts; hygiene and practicality. 
The old interlined carpets which were considered 
necessary to every well-regulated household, and 
which lay from one May first to another, ac¬ 
cumulating the sand-storm of dust and germs 
which their annual resurrection and renovation 
gave forth, have gone. In their place have come 
rugs; a great variety of rugs, each new kind as 
a rule, worse than the other, so far as any 
artistic and decorative value is concerned; al¬ 
ways excepting of course, the higher types of 
orientals which were originally designed for use 
as divan and even table covers, and were not, in 
the Occident, trodden upon until late in the 16th 
Century—and then only rarely. 
When to Use Oriental Rugs 
There is a tradition that the oriental rug will 
fit in anywhere. This is about as true as that 
an oriental human will fit in anywhere. It is a 
fact that the standard of design and color in 
oriental rugs is generally so much higher than 
anything which the European countries or America 
has until recently been able to produce, that decora¬ 
tors have turned to them as a matter of course as the 
solution of what to do with the floor. 
Nevertheless it is a fact that the vast majority of 
oriental rugs are unsuitable to any room in which a 
period decoration is faithfully carried out, unless it 
be French-Chinese or purely oriental. A heterogene¬ 
ous room made more for comfort than interest, may 
A modern hook rug executed by Amy Mali 
Hicks. The colors are gray and green on 
rose. Material is rags of knitted goods 
An antique hook rug of fine design in soft, bright 
colors. Made about 75 years ago. Material is wool 
and cotton rags 
well be so furnished as to its floor. With the advent 
of the modern painted furniture an entirely new prob- 
le'm has arisen: and this can be met only with some¬ 
thing as new as the furniture itself and new in the 
same sense i. e .:—the modernization of a Mid-Vic¬ 
torian idea. Decorators have tried the braided rug, 
and the plain velvet rug, in suitable tones. Both of 
these lacked something, and now they are trying the 
Colonial hook rug 
The Colonial Hook Rug 
This is good, but not quite good enough. The 
real solution for the floor-coverings of the modern 
painted room lies in the Colonial hook rug made up 
in a modern design especially patterned to harmonize 
with the furniture of tire particular room in which it 
is to be used. 
The Colonial hook rug, during the last six months, 
has been rapidly coming into its own. It is of an 
utterly different texture from the old-fashioned rag 
carpet, although it is usually made from cotton rags. 
It can also be made of new woolen material and in 
the latter case the finished product has a thick pile, 
soft and deep — indeed even deeper than that of 
Chinese or French velvet carpet, though of course 
not so fine. The more you walk on a hook rug, the 
more splendid its texture becomes, the more definite 
and yet more delightfully blended the pattern grows. 
The foundations of these rugs are of canvas, coarse 
and loosely woven, and preferably of linen fibre. By 
a simple mechanical process the material that is to 
form the mat is pulled through the foundation. The 
best method is the steel hook, which looks like a 
small, bent screw-driver, with which the endless 
strips of rags are pulled through the mat in 
loops, working from the front. Rugs so made 
are almost as good on one side as on the 
other. When wool is used, the lo’ops may be cut 
and a pile results. But in the case of linen or 
cotton rags, the material frays too easily, and a 
more lasting quality is obtained by leaving the 
loops intact. Silk can be handled in this way, 
but the effect is less pleasing, and the durability 
uncertain. 
Antique Hook Rugs 
These rugs were largely used in America from 
Colonial days until the early 60’s. As far as I 
have been able to discover they have never been 
made by manufacturers, but only by individual 
women as pieces of fancy work. The succeeding 
generations considered them monstrosities and 
excepting for the texture, this was in most cases 
a well-founded supposition. Many of the de¬ 
signs were unspeakably bad, and the colors such 
as would appeal only to the taste of those who 
admire the extreme modern French School of 
painting. The familiar patterns were of an 
especial type, such as a white woolly lamb re¬ 
posing uncomfortably against the Rock of Ages: 
(Continued on page 58) 
Modern hook rug by Amy Mali Hicks. Blue border, 
white ground, vari-colored floral design. Canton 
flannel rags 
A hook rug in black 
and green, by Nor¬ 
man Jacobsen 
It was this sort of pattern that put the antique hook 
rug out of favor. A black dog until magenta border. 
Cotton rags 
