We specialize in custom designs, colors and shapes to fit any area and décor, whether traditional, country or contemporary. We offer free design support with any custom order and work closely with you to match your fabric, wallpaper or paint. We use only new wool cloth because it is strong, long lasting and stain-resistant. Wool braided rugs provide an environmentally acceptable choice, combining durability and beauty.
The following information may be helpful in ordering your braided rug.
Custom Braided Rug Sizes
Measure carefully for your braided rug. Since we are making your rug to order, there is no need to make it a “standard” size. We can come within an inch or two of any dimensions you want. Putting newspapers on the floor and arranging them to best suit your furniture placement will help to determine your ideal rug size.
Living/Family Rooms: Consider bringing the edge of the braided rug along the front of the sofa/loveseat rather than underneath it; it keeps the rug visually centered in the seating area.
Kitchen/Dining Rooms We recommend a braided rug that is at least four feet wider and longer than the table to allow the chairs to remain on the rug when they’re pulled out.
Bedrooms: Scatter rugs work well in bedrooms; on either side and perhaps at the end of the bed.
Hallways: Leave a border of three to four inches of floor on each side of the braided runner to frame it.
Stair Runners:Stair Runners protect your stairs and will reduce noise going up & down. You can either have it professionally installed by a contractor or we also sell stair rods that can be used to hold your runner in place.
Custom Braided Rug Styles
There are four basic styles of our braided rugs:
Solid or Tone-on-Tone: These braided rugs are made of one color (or two to three closely related colors) with or without a contrasting border.
Pattern: These braided rugs use 7 to 9 wools and have defined bands of colors. If solid bands of color are used in the rug, butting each row is recommended (each row is a separate round of braid, rather than continuous). There is an additional charge for this procedure.
Hit-or-Miss: These braided rugs are made from many different wools in varying lengths randomly pieced together. There can be a theme color carried throughout the rug. A solid border can be added as well.
Combo: These are our most popular braided rugs. They combine the Pattern style and the Hit-or-Miss style to create a rug with subtle bands of color that transition gradually for a beautiful blending of colors, using about 13 different wool. The two variations are the light-medium-dark blending and the random blending.
Custom Braided Rug Shapes
We can make braided rugs that are oval, round, rectangular, square, heart, multi-circle, flower, octagon, hexagon or that fit a special area. We also make braided chair pads, stair treads and stair runners and can add braided borders to hooked rugs. Below are pictures of the various rug shapes and styles we can make, but you are not limited to these, they are just examples of what can be done. Use your imagination!
Round/Combo
Flower/Combo
Multi-Circle/Combo
Oval/Combo
Multi-Circle Oval/Pattern
OvalMultiCircleExample
Rectangle/Hit-or-Miss
Fringed Rectangle/Hit-or-Miss
Radius Corner Rectangle/Combo
Square/Pattern/Butted
Multi Circle Rectangle/Pattern
Octagon/Hit-or-Miss
Octalong/Combo
Hexagon/Combo
Multi Hexagon/Pattern
Heart/Combo
3-circle/Pattern
5 Circle/Combo
7 Circle/Combo
3 Circle Nutting (Larger Center Circle)/Combo
Stair Runner/Pattern
Stair Treads/Combo
Hooked & Braided Flower/Combo
Hooked & Braided Octagon/Pattern
Contents and Construction
Only new wool and wool blends are used in our braided rugs. We carry a large inventory of solid colors, as well as plaids, checks, and tweeds. Two different weights of wool are available, each of which results in a different size braid: coating weight wool, a heavy weight wool, makes about a 1″ braid (our standard braid) and flannel weight wool, a lighter weight wool, makes about a 3/4″ braid. Both styles wear equally well. All of our rugs are made in the USA.
To make our braided rugs we take 3 strips of wool (about 1-1/2” to 1-5/8” wide) and braid them together on our automatic braider. Each edge of the wool strips is folded to the center and then in half, and then over each other, creating 8 layers of wool—very comfy! The strips are then put together (laced) by hand using a flat needle with a curved blunt tip and heavy cotton thread. We splice the ends of the thread instead of knotting to provide a stronger union. The thread lies in the middle of the rug, completely invisible (making the rug truly reversible) and not subject to surface wear and tear, unlike most commercial braided rugs which are machine-stitched on the surface.
Samples
To obtain wool color samples please send $25 together with pieces of fabric, wallpaper or paint chips. If none are available, please be as descriptive as possible in requesting your colors. The $25 will be credited towards your first rug purchase.
Braided Rug Pricing
Our braided rugs are priced by the square foot (length x width). Shapes other than round or oval will be priced higher, as will rugs over 100 s.f. Please contact us for a price on any size and shape rug you want. We require a 50% deposit to place your order, with the balance (plus shipping and handling) due prior to delivery of your rug. We accept cash, personal checks and all major credit cards. Lead-time varies during the year, but averages about 10-12 weeks.
Rug Padding
We recommend padding for underneath your braided rug to prevent slipping and to protect your floor from any sand that might filter through. It is a thin non-skid rubber pad that will not harm your floor.
Custom Hooked Rugs
If you are looking for another style of wool area rug, please consider hooked rugs. We work with a New England mill that uses 100% New Zealand yarn and produces high quality, one-of-a-kind hand tufted rugs that are made to your exact specifications. Please contact us for more information.
Applegates Experience:
Kathy & Warren knew they wanted a braided rug for their kitchen. However they weren’t exactly sure what shape, size, colors & design they should do, here is their experience in working with us.
What made you decide you wanted a braided rug?
We always knew we wanted a braided rug, and the real thing – we see them sometimes at auctions and have several vintage braided rugs already.
How did you find out about us?
We picked up a brochure along one of our travels.
You live in NY so you chose to do the design service remotely – how was that experience?
It was really good – I appreciated all of the support in working with me as I was nervous at first. I didn’t know exactly what we wanted and I was afraid I was going to make a mistake.
What did you think of how we handled the color selection?
That process was really helpful. I started a conversation with Ryan about what I was looking for. I emailed her a bunch of photos of the room and the colors we wanted to include from other furniture, cabinets and several other pieces we had in the room. From those pictures and our conversations Ryan pulled together a very thorough collection of colors and physically mailed them to us.
It was so great to have the actual colors to compare in our room with the actual lighting, etc. We realized that there were some colors we absolutely didn’t want – but also realized we might want to bring in a few more, so we sent more pictures and we got more samples. From there we finalized the colors. With Ryan’s suggestions & help we were able to figure out which colors we wanted to be prominent and which we just wanted a touch of.
How did you select the style of your rug?
We also were unsure of the style of the rug so Ryan sent us several examples of what other customers had done with their rugs and that allowed us to really “see” some of the many possibilities we had! We ended up with a beautiful hit-or-miss rug with a solid border. So unique that it is next to impossible to replicate!
Any other comments?
The team at Country Braid House is super helpful and easy to work with. They were patient and didn’t pester, but also kept tabs to ensure I knew they were still there. They gave great 1-on-1 support in the designing process which for us resulted in a finished product that is just beautiful and exactly what we wanted.
Business hours
Monday-Friday: 9am to 5pm
Saturday: 10am to 4pm
Sunday: By Appointment Only
