Wool carpet is very beautiful, durable and luxurious. It also feels great underfoot. Wool yarn is the most expensive and chick fiber to produce carpets.

Wool carpets have lots of benefits but also some drawbacks, so let‘s become aware of them and choose the right carpets for our homes.

Carpet wool is the one shorn from sheep – it is then spun and woven or twisted into carpet. Fleece of New Zealand sheep is considered the most luxurious in wool carpet production. There are wool rug made from goats wool, llamas wool or alpaca wool, too. Wool fiber is durable and the carpets can last 60 years or more if properly cared for (remember the ancient Oriental wool carpets that last for 200 years or more?)

One of the main features of wool carpet (apart from being soft and pleasant underfoot) is the wide array of vivid colors they come in. Wool accepts a wider range of colored dyes better than any other material so wool carpets and rugs boast wonderful, subtle shades as yet unmatched in synthetic fibers.

Wool is an opaque fiber, so it hides stains better than synthetics and work well in high-traffic areas, but wool can absorb protein-based stains like meat juice and blood and it is sensitive to dyes tea, coffee and wine have.

Another benefit of wool rugs and carpets is their resistance to fire. While synthetic materials melt and burn, wool fiber chars but not burns (a quality to consider when choosing a carpet for smoking areas).

Being a natural fiber, wool has good insulating properties. It‘s greater absorbency makes wool carpet easy to clean with water and steam – moisture causes wool fibers to swell and release dirt.

The biggest drawbacks of wool carpets are with no doubt their price. Wool is almost always going to pricier than other fibers.

It also has low resistance to abrasion, so it is not the best choice for areas with heavy traffic (but suits well at home!). Being able to hold 10 times its weight in moisture, wool rug is susceptible to mildew and mold. It can develop an odor and shrink if it gets wet.

Wool fiber is more popular for rugs – to cover only a part of a room – than for large carpets. A wool carpet or rug gives luxury underfoot and provides a sense of elegance in home décor.