A custom rug from Organic Looms is drawn with you, knotted by hand, and priced the same per square foot as the rugs already on our floor. There is no design fee, and an odd size costs nothing extra.
Most custom projects start at our showroom in the Scottsdale Design District, on the southwest corner of 68th Street and Thomas Road. You walk the floor, find a rug whose weave and feel you like, and then we change what needs changing. Sometimes that is only the size. Sometimes it is the colors, the pattern and the pile height all at once. Some clients bring a fabric swatch, others a floor plan. Either is a good place to begin.
How does a custom rug order work?
You approve a physical sample before the full rug is ever tied. The whole process has five steps, and each one gives you a chance to change your mind.
It starts with measuring. For most homes in the Valley we come to you, tape out the room and look at the light, because a color that glows under a skylight can go flat in a room shaded by a deep patio overhang. Next we choose the construction and fibers, usually starting from a showroom rug you already like.
Then the design is built in rug design software, a form of AutoCAD that sets the yarn, color and knot for every point on the rug. Colors are matched with real yarn poms, not a screen. After you sign off on the drawing, the workshop weaves a small strike-off in your colors, and it usually reaches Scottsdale 30 to 45 days later. Live with it for a few days. If a color reads wrong at night, it gets fixed before the loom is dressed.
A 50% deposit reserves the loom and the production schedule. Then comes the weaving itself, followed by washing, stretching, sun drying and hand binding, and the balance is due when the rug is ready to be cut from the loom. Local installation is always included.
How long does a custom rug take to make?
For a 9 by 12, plan on about five months from the first meeting to installation. The drawing takes about 30 days and the strike-off another 30 to 45. Then comes roughly 12 weeks of weaving, because a weaver ties about one foot of length a week on a Tibetan-knot rug. A Persian knot is slower.
Many rugs are woven and dried outdoors, so the rainy season at the workshop can add a few weeks. After that, the rug flies to Scottsdale. Shipping by air, never by sea, keeps that last leg predictable. We would rather give you an honest window than a hopeful one.
Got a real deadline, like a move-in date or a photo shoot? Tell us at the first meeting. Because we work with the looms directly, we can sometimes reserve a larger loom or add shifts, but only when we know early. Building a new home? Start the rug when the flooring is chosen, well before the furniture arrives.
What does a custom rug cost compared to a rug in stock?
The same per square foot. Prices run from about $30 a square foot for all wool to $120 for sari silk, so a 9 by 12 in all wool comes to around $3,240 whether it is custom or in stock. The design work costs nothing.
Most stores charge extra for custom, because every importer and exporter between them and the workshop adds a margin to a one-off order. We skip those steps. Christopher buys straight from the looms he visits on his rug buying trips to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that is how our designer net pricing stays below typical retail.
What moves the price is fiber, knot density and size. Silk costs more than wool, and more knots per square inch take longer to tie. We show you where each choice moves the number before you commit, and the strike-off lets you check color and texture before the big spend.
Which sizes and materials can you choose?
Nearly any size, in wool, silk, hemp, jute or linen, or a blend of them.
Each custom rug is woven to order, so the loom is set to your dimensions. That matters in rooms where stock sizes fall short, like a long gallery hall or a great room under a 20 foot ceiling, and we have commissioned rugs well past 15 by 20 feet. The fibers are natural and spun by hand, with no synthetic latex backing and no chemical stain coating, the same standard behind all of our organic, non-toxic rugs.
Wool is our usual pick for Arizona homes. It sits well on hard tile, handles bright sun, and its natural lanolin sheds spills. Silk adds sheen and a softer hand, and it is often knotted into the pattern of a wool rug rather than used alone. Hemp and jute give a flatter, earthier texture for casual rooms. One thing to expect with any custom color: dye lots are matched by eye, so a little movement in tone is normal. It is part of what shows you how a hand-knotted rug is woven and not printed.
Can our interior designer work with you directly?
Yes. A large share of our custom work comes through interior designers, architects and realtors, and we are set up for it.
We hold rugs while your client decides, lend 1 by 1, 2 by 2 and 2 by 3 samples for your studio, and coordinate specifications and delivery with whoever is running the project. A designer can pull fabric at one of the trade showrooms on the same block and match it against our yarn poms that afternoon. If a custom rug will take longer than your client can go without one, we can place a loaner rug in the room until it arrives.
Scale is where designers lean on us most. Estates in north Scottsdale and around Camelback Mountain often have rooms no stock size can fill, and we have made enough large rugs for Paradise Valley homes to know how the proportions work in them. As one trade client wrote in a Google review, "We have purchased numerous rugs from Organic Looms for our clients and have yet to have a client disappointed."
