It’s an expression rich in meaning, for it speaks of quality and fashion, but it also speaks of the growing consumer trend to seek out products which are good for the home environment and the greater natural environment, the health of which is now in our hands.

One of those products is wool. For as long as we can remember, wool carpet and area rugs have been loved for their natural beauty and for filling our lives with comfort and warmth. It seems that wool has always been a fiber of tradition and one for the future.

Wool’s naturalness and soft feel allow us to surround ourselves with affordable luxury, all the while knowing this is a home-loving and renewable resource that’s been environmentally friendly for thousands of years. (As a natural fiber, it’s becoming even more important as we become more conscious of the Earth and its limitations.)

Designers love wool because it readily accepts color. As a natural fiber, wool is protein-based, and protein-based fibers have the ability to absorb and react positively to acid-based and dispersed dyes, which accounts for the beautiful, vibrant colors that are seen in wool carpets and why those colors seem to look so intense for so long.

Designers also love wool because it maintains its good looks (in clothing, flooring and household fabric) for decades – more than one generation if well cared for. Wool may be precisely the reason grandma’s rugs are still great-looking, hard-wearing heirlooms!

A very important characteristic of wool carpet is wool’s ability to keep its resiliency and elastic quality. Since synthetic fibers do not have a natural twist (which determines the carpet’s resiliency and ability to respond to foot traffic), that twist must be added to the manufacturing process via heat-set to lock it in. Wool has a natural, coiled, springy structure which produces a natural kink in the fiber. This kink or ‘corkscrew’-like pattern is what gives wool carpet and rugs their own natural resiliency.

Wool doesn’t readily conduct heat. Thus, it provides natural insulation between floors helping to keep our bodies – and our homes – at an even temperature, warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

It’s also got other hidden qualities. Wool is able to absorb a third of its weight in moisture (compared to synthetic fibers which can only absorb 2–3%) before beginning to feel saturated, and that means wool can act as a natural humidifier for your home as it holds or releases moisture into your home’s atmosphere, depending on conditions.