Are jute rugs a good idea?

Hubs and I live a pretty harmonious life. He loves to build fix and work, I love to cook, shop and run my little skincare side hustle. One of the greatest things that works for us is that he has absolutely no objections when I play with the house. Knock through a wall and rebuild the kitchen? Not a problem- show me where to start. Raccoon wallpaper darling? Of course, I’ll go get my steamer. Jute rugs? Of cour- oh hang on. What the hell! No way we are not having them!!!!!

Now this took me aback too, what on earth is wrong with Jute? you ask.

Well turns out quite a lot as it happens.

Before we get negative, lets start with why I wanted it in the first place. We have wood floors across the whole downstairs of our 3 bed terrace. I thought we could do with something a little softer underfoot in places. The hallway for example. I don’t consider myself to be in the fluffy wool rug brigade. Neither do I feel drawn to orientalist designs, too stately. So I was looking for something contemporary that wouldn’t need much maintenance.

We’d recently visited friends in Brighton that had beautiful Jute rugs adorning their raw wood floors from the moment you stepped in. If they can have them, so can I. But here’s the clincher – our friends don’t have A. Teenage boys or B. two teenage sized dogs, meaning that their rugs mostly stayed clean, whilst mine no doubt will get absolutely filthy. As it turns out absolutely filthy Jute rugs are your worst nightmare because- and listen carefully, their natural water absorbent fibres mean they literally CANNOT BE CLEANED!!! I had been told.

These words were still ringing in my ears the next day when I completely ignored what my husband had said and stood in the rug department of Dunelm. “I’d like two large sized please, I think I can manage getting them in the car.”

I know what you’re thinking – what do you do then if something gets spilt on it? Well, funny you should say that because that evening  whilst we were in bed Ripley, one of our teenage sized dogs thought that the rug felt like outdoors, so she took a wee and a poo on it. It actually felt like my husband had paid her to do it just so he could look at me the way he did when we woke up to discover it.

The rug was ruined by all counts – though I was determined to save it’s young life. I had nothing to lose so I promptly picked and soaked up what I could from it then draped it over the garden fence. Then I went to work with the power hose and a bottle of zoflora. Basically I rinsed and rinsed and disinfected until the rug was complete soaked and then I waited for it to dry. three long,  hot 80 degree days that is.

As it turns out, the rug was fine albeit it need turning a few times to prevent a crease forming from draping over the fence, but it worked – this time.

See the thing is conditions were on my side. We were experiencing unusually high temperatures and so it eventually dried out thoroughly in the fresh air of my garden. But those conditions aren’t easily recreated. Now that temperatures have dropped I’ll never be able to dry a rug indoors with a heat source as that will risk shrinkage. Plus my whole rug is a decidedly darker shade than it was before due to the soaking. Had this happened in a small area such as a tea or coffee stain I’d be left with a patch and the tannin stains from those drinks.

So all in all, hubs was right. Owning Jute rugs is a nightmare, and I’m tempted to say not worth it. There are a few products on the market designed to clean them, though they come in powder form designed to cling to dirt that you then vacuum up. The results are marginal.

We now have the rug back on the hallway floor with a child’s gate keeping the hallway blocked off from the teenage sized dogs. But sadly I live in fear of one of the real teenagers leaving the gate open and I really will be saying goodbye to my Jute.

We bought our rug here, I might get another one!

If you need advise on cleaning a jute rug go here.