The first thing to be considered when shopping for Oriental rugs is what, exactly, constitutes an Oriental Rug in the first place. The best Oriental rugs are real Oriental rugs, and real Oriental rugs must satisfy a specific set of requirements. First, Oriental rugs must be hand made. If a rug is machine-made, it is not an Oriental rug.

This does not imply that any rug which is made by hand becomes a legitimate Oriental rug. To give an example there are rugs which are made with hand in America by the Native Americans and they are popular as ‘Navajo rugs’ or ‘American Indian rugs’. They are also handmade but the method of weaving is different.

This brings up another one of the features of true Oriental rugs – the fact, obviously, that they are made in the Orient. In this case, the Orient is a fairly loosely defined term: generally, real Oriental rugs are made throughout northern Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Styles of rugs differ from place to place: you can generally research the differences before you begin shopping by getting online and comparing pictures.

One decent equivalent to the expensive Oriental rugs is the “tufted rugs” made in China, India, and some other parts of Asia. Tufted rugs are still made by hand, but are not individually knotted the way real Oriental rugs are. Because of this they are much cheaper than real Oriental rugs – that same twelve by nine foot section in a tufted rug would only be around $700, and would appear almost identical to the $1,500 variety. Keep in mind, though, that the Oriental rug would have a much greater resale value (tufted rugs depreciate quickly) and would last much longer.

A very basic feature of the Oriental rug is that they are hand woven. There are some other types of handmade rugs made in Asia, like the tufted rugs which may look similar but the way it is woven is different. The distinguishing feature of Oriental rugs is the way the knots are tied by hand. This is the reason why these rugs last for such a long time and are also very expensive. It is true that the tufted rug resembles an Oriental rug, but value is almost half and that too goes down very fast.