These days many homeowners include Middle East design elements in their homes. Among the most popular choices are Persian rugs. Being beautiful and durable is just one of the reasons people to use them so often when decorating. Persian rugs are also part part of the rich culture and traditions of the Persian. Unfortunately, like any popular product on the market, there are a lot of charlatans making cheap frauds. So, if you have saved money for an original Persian rug, you should be careful to avoid fake items. Continue reading to find useful tips and ideas which will help you to make the difference between a real Persian rug and the imitation.

One of the simplest things you can do is to ask the salesperson from where the rug was imported. Here the answer you want to hear is one- Iran. If he/she tells you any other country, you can be 100% sure that the floor covering you are planning to buy is anything, but not a real Persian rug. Of course, there is always one little detail- whether the shop-assistant is telling the truth.

The next thing you can do is to measure the number of knots per square inch or also known as KPSI. You will need tape measure for this purpose. What you have to do is to multiply the number of knots on one side of a square inch on the front of the rug by the number of knots which are on a side that is perpendicular to the first one. Carpet cleaning specialists in Esher claim that a good quality Persian rug will have a much higher number of knots compared to a machine-made rug. The number may vary between 150 and 250, but remember that this is only one of the steps of the process of determining whether the piece is genuine and of good quality.

Next task is to inspect the placement of knots on the top of the rug. Take into account that a handmade rug can be recognized by the strong design connection between knots. If the piece is real you will not see single knots which stand alone between other colours. On the other hand, for rugs made by machines, single knots are normal as they shade from one colour into another.

Another thing you can do is to simply fold the rug you are planning to buy in half. At this point, if it flops like a blanket this means that most likely the floor covering is hand-made.

Here is one last suggestion- check out the angles of the corners and compare the width of the knots. If you are dealing with a handmade item some of the corners will be not quite square. When it comes to the size of the knots take into consideration that they may vary slightly for handmade rugs.

So, now with all this information I believe that you will not fall into the trap of frauds and you will take the right decision.