Our story
Forty-seven years. Two workshops. One standard.
ABC Decorative Rugs began on a small bench in 1978, in a family workshop in northern India, hand-washing rugs the same way their weavers made them. In 2000 we opened our first shop in the San Francisco Bay Area. Same bench. Same people. Same standard. Just closer to home.
How we got here
A craft that traveled.
Our founder began apprenticing in 1978 in the rug districts of northern India — the same neighborhoods where Persian, Kashmiri and Mughal weaving traditions had been practiced for five centuries. He learned at the feet of master weavers who taught him two things: a rug is a living object, and the people who washed it badly outnumbered the people who washed it well.
By his twenties he was the washer those weavers trusted with the rugs they couldn’t afford to lose — antique Isfahans, silk Qums, tribal Afghans that had traveled through three generations before reaching his bench. The protocol he developed then — cold water, pH-neutral soap, hand-agitation, flat drying — is still the protocol we use today.
In 2000 the family emigrated to the Bay Area and opened the first American workshop in a rented bay in Oakland. The first customer was a Pacific Heights collector who had just paid a national franchise $1,400 to ruin a Tabriz. The second, third, and tenth customers were her designer, her insurance adjuster, and seven of her friends. The shop has grown every year since, entirely by referral.
In 2012 we moved to our current atelier at Newpark Mall in Newark — forty minutes from San Francisco, thirty from Palo Alto, twenty from Oakland and Fremont. It was the closest thing in the Bay Area to the old workshop: one large room, one skylight, water everywhere, rugs everywhere, no carpets to compete with rugs for attention.
Today the second generation runs the bench. The third generation is apprenticing. And the standard that started with one washer in 1978 still sits quietly at the heart of every rug we accept.
The craft
Why we still do it by hand.
A hand-knotted rug is not a carpet. It is a structure of wool or silk bound on a cotton foundation, held together entirely by the tension between its knots. The machines used by national franchises flex that tension until it fails. We use our hands, the way the weavers did, because that is the only way a good rug lasts a century.
Cold water only
Hot water opens wool fibers and releases dyes — which is how rugs come back with the red run into the cream field. We stay below 65°F. Colors stay where the weaver put them.
pH-neutral, lanolin-safe
The lanolin in the wool is what makes a rug feel alive underfoot and shrug off spills. Alkaline detergents strip it out in a single wash. We use a pH-neutral soap designed for wool. The rug comes back with its lustre intact.
Hand-agitated, not machined
Every inch is worked by a washer with a soft brush, at the pressure and angle the weave will tolerate. No spinning drums. No rotary extractors. Nothing that would open a seam or pull a knot loose.
Air-dried flat
We dry every rug flat on screens in climate-controlled space. Hung rugs distort. Heated rugs shrink. Seven to ten days of patient air is what returns a rug to square, to true, and to your floor.
Milestones
Forty-seven years, written in rugs.
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1978
The bench begins
Our founder apprentices in the rug districts of northern India. The protocol we still follow — cold water, pH-neutral soap, hand-agitation, flat drying — is codified this year.
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1985–99
The weavers’ washer
Master weavers across northern India start sending their antique and collector-grade work specifically to our bench — Isfahans, silk Qums, Afghan tribal, Kashmiri. Reputation built rug by rug.
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2000
First Bay Area shop
We emigrate and open a rented workshop in Oakland. The first customer is a Pacific Heights collector whose Tabriz had been bleed-damaged by a national franchise. We fix it. The word travels.
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2006
Insurance adjusters call
Two major Bay Area property-insurance firms begin citing us by name in water-damage claims. Written scope letters and photographic documentation become a standard deliverable with every estimate.
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2012
The Newark atelier
We move to our current bench at Newpark Mall — centrally located to SF, Peninsula, East Bay, and South Bay, which keeps pickup within forty minutes of any client’s door.
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2018
Third generation on the bench
The founder’s grandchildren start apprenticing. Same rope-and-brush fundamentals. Same standard. Continuity is the only moat in this craft.
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2026
Today
Free pickup across 90+ Bay Area cities. Over 1,100 Google reviews. The same protocol that started in 1978 is still what every rug receives when it reaches our bench.
What we do differently
Three promises, practiced daily.
01
The rug is inspected before work begins.
Every rug receives a dye-fugitivity test, a fiber check, a foundation check and a written scope. No work starts without the owner’s approval of the estimate. Nothing is ever a surprise.
02
We say no when a rug shouldn’t be washed.
Some rugs — certain Afghans, dry-rotted foundations, fugitive-dye Kashmiris — are better served by dry cleaning or conservation. We tell you, and we refer you out if we can’t do the right job. Restraint is the most expensive thing we sell.
03
Insurance-ready paperwork by default.
Water-damage claims, moving-damage claims, trust-and-estate work: we generate photographs, written scope letters, and itemized invoices so adjusters approve promptly. Two major Bay Area carriers cite us by name.
Our customers
The people who send us their rugs.
Most of what comes through our doors arrives by referral. These are the four communities we serve most.
Private collectors
Antique Persian, Turkish, Caucasian and silk heirlooms. Family rugs that traveled across three generations before reaching a Bay Area home.
Interior designers
Atherton, Woodside, Presidio, Pacific Heights, Los Altos. New installs that shipped dusty, trade sourcing from London and Istanbul, client-provided rugs that need a pre-install wash.
Insurance adjusters & attorneys
Water-damage, pet-damage, moving-damage, fire-and-smoke, and probate / estate work that requires valuation letters and before/after photographs.
Bay Area families
Wool rugs under dining tables. Shag rugs in nurseries. The daily rugs that live hard and get cleaned every eighteen months. Free pickup across SF, Peninsula, East Bay and South Bay.
Benchmarks
Independent standards, independently measured.
Institute of Inspection, Cleaning & Restoration Certification
Approved service provider, wool-safe methods and chemistry
Better Business Bureau, accredited since 2003
Across 1,100+ verified Google reviews
Come see the bench
Our shop.
Walk-ins welcome Monday through Friday. The door opens onto the main wash floor, so you’ll see exactly how your rug would be handled.
Newark, CA 94560
The next step is the easy one
Bring in your heirloom.
Free pickup and delivery across SF, Peninsula, East Bay, and South Bay. Free written estimate. We respond to every request within 24 hours.