*image from Decorno

A great way to go green, without spending a lot of money, is in your rugs and floorcoverings.  Sisal, seagrass, jute, and other natural fiber rugs have been popular for a while now because of their unique look and low price point, but they are an eco-friendly choice in floorcoverings.

What makes these types of floorcoverings “green” is because they are naturally renewable plant-based materials.  Like cotton or linen, they are made from plant fibers.  Each material is made from a different fiber, like sisal, which is made from the fibers of the agave plant.  Seagrass is more of a reed, and abaca is made from a Philippine banana-like plant.  There is also coir, coco matting, hemp, nettle, bamboo, mountain grass, cotton and linen.  All of these are used to make rugs or floorcoverings from plant fibers.

I have 4 sisal rugs in my house, have had jute and seagrass rugs, and I think what makes these rugs great are the natural look they bring to a space.  They sort of “ground” it.  They can be used in more formal spaces to more casual spaces, they just go with everything.  Many designers use them under antique rugs to unify a sitting area, and recently the designer Roger Thomas used a jaquard-woven abaca as a wall-covering in the new Wynn Las Vegas.

So here are some examples of the different types:

Seagrass

*image from Cote de Texas

Sisal (which can be dyed to a variety of colors)

*image from Domino

Mountain grass (also a reed, like seagrass)

And here are a couple more room pictures.

A jute rug from Ballard Designs:

And the abaca wallcovering at the Wynn:

My favorite??  I prefer sisal.  It’s softer than seagrass, but more stain-resistant than jute.  Jute, while softer, is also more porous and therefore, more prone to stains (and no, you can’t truly “deep clean” them like you would a broadloom).   If you do need something that can truly be “deep cleaned”, try a wool-sisal.  They are wool carpets that are flat-woven to imitate the look of a natural carpet:

There’s something for everyone!