Rug Touch Up Dying.

When it works

Touch-up dying is for areas where the wool is still intact but the color has faded — typically from direct sunlight, harsh cleaning, or accidental bleach. The wool itself takes the dye and looks original.

How we match

Dyes are mixed by hand to match the surrounding pile. Test patches first, then full application — fiber by fiber so the result blends rather than overlays. The corrected area is indistinguishable from the original under normal light.

When it does not work

If the wool itself is damaged or missing, dying alone will not bring it back. Those cases need reweaving or patching. We will tell you which is appropriate.

Schedule a Pick-Up

Rug colors fade, run, and bleach over time from sun exposure, water damage, prior improper cleaning, and pet damage. Hand-dyed touch-up restoration can bring damaged areas back to match the rug's surrounding pile — but only when done by someone who understands aged-color matching. Off-the-shelf rug dyes typically produce colors that match the rug's original appearance, not its current aged appearance. The result is an obvious mismatch that often looks worse than the original damage.

Our process uses small batches of hand-dyed wool matched to the rug's existing aged color, not the original-as-woven color. We test colors against the actual rug under multiple light conditions before committing to a treatment area. For difficult matches — especially aged Persian and Caucasian natural-dye colors — we may produce three or four test samples before finding the right tone.

Color restoration is most successful on small to medium areas: sun-faded zones near windows, water-damage spots, pet urine discoloration, and areas where prior cleaning caused dye loss. Larger areas (more than 10% of a rug's surface) are usually better addressed through reweaving rather than color touch-up.

Pricing depends on size and color complexity. Most touch-up projects run $150–$600. We always provide a written estimate after seeing the rug. For high-value pieces, we recommend pairing color work with documented before-and-after photography for insurance and resale records.

Touch-up dyeing corrects color that has been lost or altered — sun-faded stripes along an exposed edge, the pale tide line left by an old water stain, or worn spots where foot traffic has thinned the color out of the pile.

We work by hand with textile dyes chosen for the rug's fiber, applying color in thin, buildable layers and testing on a small area first. The aim is to bring the affected area back into balance with the rest of the rug, never to repaint it. On wool and silk the dye is set so it stays put through future cleaning.

• Sun-faded and light-bleached areas brought back toward the original tone
• Tide lines and pale rings from old water stains evened out
• Dye chosen to suit the fiber — wool, silk, or cotton foundation
• A test area is always done first, and color is built up gradually