The rugs we collect from Long Beach and the barrier island
The barrier island is beach‑house territory even for people who live there year‑round, and the rugs reflect it: cotton dhurries and flatweaves, jute, sisal and seagrass, Moroccan Beni Ourains and shags, machine‑made indoor‑outdoor polypropylene, and a solid share of everyday tufted wool. In the larger year‑round homes of Lido Beach, Point Lookout and the Long Beach West End there are also hand‑knotted Persian and Turkish rugs, and in the older Long Beach apartment buildings and the bungalow‑era houses there are inherited rugs that have been on the same floor since the 1950s.
Every one of them is a sand trap. Sand comes in on feet, dogs and beach bags, falls through the pile, and sits in the foundation grinding the knots from underneath. A room‑size rug from a Long Beach house routinely gives up five to ten pounds of sand in the dusting machine, more than the same rug from anywhere inland, and jute and sisal rugs hold even more because there is no pile to slow it down.
Island Park, Barnum Island and Harbor Isle sit on the bay side at very low elevation and flood from the bay rather than the ocean; their rugs come to us after every nor'easter and every unusually high tide.
Rugs are rolled pile‑out on a tube and wrapped for the route to Farmingdale.
