Care
The Beni Ourain is in more new Long Island living rooms than any other rug, and it is the hardest‑working sand trap we clean. Here is how to keep it looking the way it did in the showroom.
Undyed wool carries lanolin, and lanolin yellows with age, sun and residue. Detergent left in the pile by a floor cleaning yellows it faster and makes it sticky. Urine yellows it instantly. Most of that is reversible with a proper cold wash, a non‑bleach brightening rinse and a clear rinse; sun‑fading at the edges is not. Never let anyone bleach an ivory rug; it damages the wool and yellows again in months.
A deep, open pile is a sieve. Sand and grit fall straight through to the base and stay, where a vacuum never reaches. A room‑size Beni Ourain from a house in Long Beach or the Hamptons routinely gives up five to ten pounds of dry soil in the dusting machine. That grit is abrading the knots from underneath the whole time.
Deep wool crushed under furniture and in traffic lanes locks together, and a hot floor cleaning that dries compressed turns it to felt. A cold wash, a centrifuge and slow drying with the pile groomed bring it back.
Every year in a beach house or a home with pets; every one to two years otherwise. This is more often than a Persian rug because the pile holds more soil and the ivory shows everything. At the Farmingdale plant Moroccan rugs are dusted twice, washed cold with the brightening rinse, rinsed extra, and dried slowly and groomed; the Moroccan rug page covers it. Azilal and Boucherouite rugs add dye control.
Drop‑offs welcome any day; call ahead and you can watch the dye test.
Vacuum and blot, yes. Wet cleaning at home is how they end up yellow, matted and smelling of wet wool. Leave the wash to a plant.
Lanolin, residue and urine yellowing come out with the brightening rinse and a clear rinse. Sun‑fading is permanent.
We identify at inspection; both are cleaned well, and reproductions are priced at the lower end.