Red Wine on Your Oriental Rug: What to Do

One of the worst things that can spill on your rug is red wine. Red wine is known to contain ingredients that can stain a rug. Oriental rugs require an extreme amount of care and cleaning that shouldn’t be done with other types of rugs and carpets. When you have red wine on your oriental rug, It is important to clean it up right away. This provides you the best chance at getting it up thoroughly and not leaving a stain on the rug. If you are too scared to clean it yourself, your best bet it to hire a professional oriental rug specialist to handle it for you.

For your cleaning solution, you want to create a mixture. You will use Dawn dishing detergent along with hydrogen peroxide. The combination of these two items is what helps get the stain out of the rug without leaving any marks. The amount will be determined by how big the stain is. You will use 1 part detergent to 1 part hydrogen peroxide. In order to avoid discoloration, you want to test a small area in the corner or somewhere that won’t be noticed.

Step 1:

You want to slowly pour the cleaning solution on the stain. You want to avoid scrubbing the rug as this can agitate the fibers and cause it to get damaged. Instead, you want to blot up the stain using a dry, white towel. If you use another color towel, you could end up discoloring the rug from the dye on the towel. Continue to blot up the stain until you see no more red wine coming off onto the towel.

Step 2:

You will continue putting the cleaning solution on the stain and blotting it up with a towel until the stain is gone.

Step 3:

You want to add a rinsing solution to the stain. This solution can be made by adding 2 to 6 drops of the Dawn dish detergent along with a cup of water. Again, you want to blot it up using a dry, white towel until it is almost dry.

Step 4:

Spray the stain with fresh water. It is best to use a spray bottle instead of pouring the water on the rug. Too much water can cause damage to the rug. Continue to blot up the water with a dry, white towel.

Step 5:

Place a towel over the stain and apply pressure to it. You want to leave this on the stain for several hours to ensure it is absorbing any moisture. Afterwards, take it all off and let it air dry.

Step 6:

Once the area is completely dry, you want to vacuum it up. This allows any excess debris to be picked up and helps maneuver the fibers back into shape.

If you still manage to see the stain or an outline of where the wine was, you want to call the oriental rug specialists.