Rug Restoration Chicago

A repair addresses a specific injury — a moth area, a torn fringe, a chewed corner. Restoration is a full conservation treatment: structural integrity, pile height, surface condition, and cleanliness all evaluated and brought back toward original. It is the kind of work museums commission for their textile collections, performed over weeks rather than days.

Ghorban Ahmadi worked with conservators on rug projects linked to the Louvre, the British Museum, and the State Hermitage between 1984 and 1993. The same hand-conservation standard is what we apply to the antique Persian, Turkish, Caucasian, Central Asian, and Chinese rugs that walk into our Skokie workshop — pieces that have lived in Chicago and North Shore homes for two, three, sometimes four generations.

Restoration is appropriate when damage is not localised: when foundation rot from long-term moisture has compromised the warp; when moth activity has eaten through wide bands of pile; when sun exposure has faded one half of the rug; when previous repairs were done poorly and need to be undone before the rug can be saved. We will tell you honestly when targeted repair is the right call instead — restoration is rarely cheap and is not always warranted.

What full restoration can recover varies with the rug. Hand-knotted Persian and Turkish pieces with intact foundations are the strongest candidates — the underlying structure is still there to rebuild upon. Heavily compromised foundations, dye-bleed from prior bad cleaning, or extensive synthetic-yarn repairs sometimes mean part of the original character is lost forever, and we will say so before you commit.

Once restoration is complete, many clients commission a written appraisal to update insurance documentation — particularly for pieces that appreciate significantly after conservation. RICA-certified reports issued from our workshop are accepted by every major US carrier.