What drives the cost
- KPSI — more knots per square inch means more weaver-hours per square foot, and labour is the largest line in any hand-knotted rug. This is the single biggest driver.
- Materials — silk costs far more than wool both to buy and to weave, because silk is finer and slower to work. A wool-and-silk blend lands in between.
- Pattern complexity — fine curvilinear and pictorial patterns demand higher density and more colour changes than open geometric fields, which adds time.
- Size — cost is non-linear. Set-up, sampling, and finishing are largely fixed, so very small rugs carry a higher effective per-square-foot cost, and larger pieces can be marginally more efficient per square foot.
The 30-year cost argument
Compare the lifecycle, not the sticker. A hand-knotted rug holds — and often appreciates — its value across decades and can be cleaned and repaired indefinitely. A machine-made or hand-tufted rug depreciates to effectively zero and is thrown away when it wears out. Spread across thirty years, the hand-knotted piece is often the cheaper line item, because you buy it once instead of three or four times. The fuller version of this math — replacement cycles, cleaning costs, resale — is worth modelling out for a client on the fence.
For the construction side of the same decision, see hand-knotted vs hand-tufted, and browse full tier detail on the collections overview.
Trade pricing
Approved trade partners see net pricing — the wholesale floor — and mark up however they choose; we never quote retail to your client. We do not publish net numbers, but they are available the moment your trade account is approved. Apply through trade partners.