A made-to-measure rug is a small number of decisions, and only one of them is the pattern.

Work through them in this order. Each one narrows the next, and the last two are the ones that decide how the rug ages.

Fibre first, and be honest about the room

Wool is the benchmark. It recovers from compression, resists soiling because of the natural lanolin in the fibre, and takes dye with a depth synthetics do not reach. It is the right answer wherever the rug is meant to be noticed.

Solution-dyed polypropylene is genuinely stain-resistant — the colour is in the fibre, not on it — and it does not fade in sunlight. It is flatter and less pleasant underfoot, and it is the correct specification for a holiday let, a children’s room or a conservatory. Cotton sits between the two: light, washable, cool, and best in flatweaves.

Then construction, which is mostly about thickness

Hand-tufted has a pile and a canvas backing, and is the standard for a bespoke design. A flatweave has no pile at all — a few millimetres deep, reversible, and the only answer when a door has to clear the rug or dining chairs have to slide.

Printed and machine-woven is where photographic artwork or a repeat order of twenty identical rugs takes you.

Pile density is the specification nobody asks about

Two rugs of the same height and fibre can differ enormously in how much yarn is packed into them, and that is what decides whether a traffic lane crushes flat in two years.

For a hallway, a doorway or under a dining table, ask for a low, dense pile. For a bedroom or a reading corner, a longer looser pile is more comfortable and the traffic will never test it. A supplier who cannot tell you the density is selling you a picture.

The edge decides how it ages

A bound edge wraps woven tape around the rug and stitches through — clean, quick, and available in any width or contrasting colour. A serged edge wraps yarn by hand with no tape at all, for a denser, more tailored finish.

What to avoid is a glued or heat-sealed edge, which will peel within a couple of years and take a strip of pile with it. If a quote does not name the edge treatment, ask.

Size it to the furniture, not to the floor

In a sitting room, get at least the front legs of every seat onto the rug. A rug floating in the middle of a seating group makes the whole room read smaller and looks like an afterthought.

Under a dining table, add 60cm beyond the table edge on every side, so a chair pulled out stays on the rug rather than catching on the edge. In a hall, run the runner to the actual length rather than stopping short.

What to send when you ask for a quote

Dimensions, a rough sketch with anything the rug has to work around, your fibre and construction preference if you have one, and a physical colour reference in the post. That is enough for a scaled drawing and a real quote the same day.