What are Tea Washed Rugs?

Tea washed rugs are very common nowadays. “Tea washing” gives rugs an antique sepia toned effect, where they have been over-dyed with a brown or golden dye or treated with a chemical to darken the rug and make it look older. This treatment can also be referred to as “henna washed” or “antiqued”.

Traditionally this effect was achieved by packing rugs and tea leaves together, but today it’s almost always done with chemical treatments or dyes but these treatments can come with their own issues.

Three Problems with these Treatments:

• 1. The chemicals used to tea wash the rugs can stink. This isn’t always the case, and higher quality tea wash rugs should have no odour at all. But, sometimes lower quality tea washed rugs can smell pretty bad.
• 2. Some people find they are sensitive to the chemicals used to create the tea washed effect. This problem seems to occur more frequently with lower rugs, but if you or someone in your family is chemically sensitive this is something to keep in mind.
• 3. The tea wash treatment is not permanent, meaning it will wear off and wash off over time, and when it does the treatment will come off unevenly.