RUG BUYING MADE EASIER SOME TIPS TO SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

A rug can change a room. A deep warm color underfoot can pull a room together and give it a cozy feel, while a pale pastel can open the same room up with a cool touch.

With more and more homes showing off warm wood floors and cool tiles, home owners are seeking out large, elaborately patterned pieces of floor art that can help set the tone for an entire room. Often they'll buy the rug first and decorate around it.

Oriental rugs, known for their colors and patterns, are probably the most sought-after area rugs. They are hand woven, unlike most domestic or other imports.

Rug seekers in Los Angeles don't need to search far and wide. Practically every street corner contains a rug merchant claiming to offer quality products. As with most handmade items, Oriental rugs don't come cheap, and there's often misrepresentation.

It's no joke when those gorgeous colors on your $20,000 purchase start to bleed after an unfortunate encounter with a glass of water, and you have no way of getting your money back or replacing your rug.

Buyers involved in a rug hunt can take steps to protect themselves - both in the search for a dealer and for the rug itself.

``The idea is that if you ask enough questions intelligently, you get more respect from the dealer you're working with,'' says Kathy Jarvis, director of design at Glabman's Furniture and Interior Design in Woodland Hills.

``Do comparison shopping. Do research. Go out and look at a bunch of different rugs in different places.''

``I would run screaming from the store from any dealer who started talking about rugs as financial investments,'' adds Roz Rustigian, president of the Oriental Rug Retailers of America, the agency that serves as a watch dog to the Oriental rug industry. ``It should be referred to that way only in terms of it being money well spent, its long-lasting usefulness and that it be in good condition. This is not a CD.''

It is very much, however, an item that needs a little pre-purchase research. Here are a few tips on what to look for and what to avoid.

< The merchant.

Find out how long a dealer has been at a particular location. Does he have a reputation within the community? Will he stand by the product if something goes wrong, or will you even be able to find him again? If you get a negative answer to any of these questions, be wary. Contact the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Better Business Bureau or the Oriental Rug Retailers Association of America to determine whether the dealer has a history of consumer complaints.

The dealer should have a decent selection - between 500 and 700 rugs to choose from, says Rustigian.

Beware of auctions, where a dealer might plant ``shills'' in the audience to call out phony bids in order to jack up the price. Avoid ``airport sales,'' in which a seller will be in one area for a few days before moving to another city or state. Also beware of ``going-out-ousiness sales'' promising huge discounts. There are laws governing how long any establishment can be ``going out of business,'' but you may see the same store on the same corner for more than a year.

``Those sales allow them to have big advertising: `50 percent off, 70 percent off, 90 percent off!' '' Jarvis said. ``The real question of the consumer is `off of what?' The person selling it will still make a nice profit.''

Rugs should be displayed with labels that clearly list the item's size, country of origin and price. Haggling may be encouraged in other countries, but be wary if a dealer immediately starts negotiating. A rug either has a value or it doesn't. If there appears to be wide variation in price, consider it a red flag.

A potential purchaser should be permitted to get a rug appraised, but not by the dealer who is selling it. Reputable rug dealers also should allow customers to try out the rug in their home with a 24-hour penalty-free return policy.

< The rug.

Oriental rugs often have a strong pattern configuration. Oriental doesn't necessarily mean an item crafted in China or Japan. The term refers to rugs from the Middle and Far East, including Pakistan, Turkey, Nepal, Tibet, Rumania, India, Iran and Egypt.

A quality Oriental rug is crafted by hand, sometimes by a single weaver, more often by two or more, even an entire family working side by side sometimes for more than a year. Wool and silk are the most common materials in an Oriental rug, although cotton and camel hair are used as well.

``The most important thing about Oriental rugs is to realize that they are handmade, the humanity factor,'' says Jarvis.

``They take a long time to make, and in many regions, it's a second industry only to farming. They'll go in and get their wool, get it measured and dyed and take it back to their homes, which may be hundreds of miles away, to make their rugs. So their living rooms are their looms generally.''

Rugs made in America, European countries or in the South Seas are typically machine made, says Jarvis. You can tell a machine made rug if the fringe is sewn on around the rug's edges. On a hand-knotted rug, the fringe is created when the rug's foundation is cut from the loom.

The country of origin is a factor, but so is the wool. Australian or New Zealand wool is considered the finest in the industry. Rugs made with cheaper wool will be fuzzy with rough textures and shorter fibers.

The average consumer won't be able to spot the difference between real and artificial silk. If you ask, Rustigian says, a merchant should tell you the only way of knowing for sure is by watching a fiber burn. Some will allow you a test, she says.

Although less expensive to use, chromium dyes used on wool are better at holding color than vegetable dyes. Typically, the more colors used, the more difficult a rug was to make. It is appropriate, Rustigian says, to ask a dealer for assurance a rug will hold its color, even potentially to test the rug using a damp white handkerchief.

``I would think fairly highly of that person, much more so than the one who comes swaggering into the store asking about knot counts,'' says Rustigian.

Ah yes, the knot count. The old adage that the higher the knot count, the better the quality of the rug is true. But again, watch out. Inferior-quality rugs use a jufti knot, in which a wool fiber is double wrapped around a strand of cotton to give the appearance of a stronger knot.

``The consumer wouldn't know it by looking at it. I wouldn't know it by looking at it,'' says Jarvis. ``I have to know who I'm dealing with.''

Turn the rug completely over in order to inspect the material in the middle of the rug as well as on the ends and corners to make sure the tightness of the weave is consistent. Avoid rugs in which the underside is covered by a backing. Often a backing means something about the rug is being concealed.

CUSHIONING EVERY STEP YOU TAKE

It's used to improve your rug's appearance, yet you don't see it.

So, do you actually need rug pads? The experts say yes.

``For an extra $100 to $150, we feel it adds an extra cushion to the rug,'' says Kathy Jarvis, design director at Glabman's Furniture and Interior Design. ``It adds a bounce and a thickness and makes the rug lie a little flatter and a little straighter.''

The padding should be dense, not soft, to support a rug's foundation. High-quality rubber or synthetic, non-skid pads can keep rugs from slipping or people from skidding.

Padding is also effective in keeping rugs placed on top of wall-to-wall carpeting from moving or - as they say in the rug business - ``traveling.''

- Evan Henerson

SUCK IT UP FOR CLEAN RUG

In a word: vacuum, vacuum and vacuum.

That's the most effective way of keeping an Oriental rug clean. You'll get your best results by vacuuming side to side, parallel to the fringe end. Once a year, turn the rug over and vacuum the underside.

Treat spills and stains promptly. Common spills like coffee and milk will come up easily. First blot the excess moisture. Then apply a mixture of one capful of shampoo and lukewarm dishwater to the stain. Lather, then blot again. Rinse until the suds are gone, then blot again. Prop up the affected area so that air reaches both sides for quick drying. Use straight ammonia instead of shampoo mixture to clean up urine stains, says Roz Rustigian, president of the Oriental Rug Retailers of America.

Always test solutions on a corner or hidden area of the rug before applying to a wide area. If the color starts to bleed or fade, stop immediately and consult a professional rug cleaner.

Be careful of steam cleaning, Rustigian warns. High temperatures can melt the lanolin that protects a wool rug against soil.

Special professional Oriental rug cleaners can immerse the rug in a combination of chemicals and soap before cleaning it. The process usually takes about two weeks.

- Evan Henerson

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Don't get the rug pulled out from under you

(2) Kathy Jarvis, rug expert and design director at Glabman's Furniture, shows the differences in several types of rugs.

(3) Rugs can add life to a room, but it's wise to know your merchant before you buy.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) Cushioning every step you take (See text)

(2) Suck it up for clean rug (See text)