The West Elm Vines Wool Rug caught our attention in photos but when we went to check it out in the store we were quite a bit less enthused about it. Nevertheless, we brought it home as it met the specs of what we were looking for regarding style, color (we chose the neutral), and size, and with West Elm’s return policy we figured we didn’t have much to lose.
Wool knotted rugs can go pretty wrong pretty fast with weave and fiber coming loose or a stain set in deep. Shedding can be obnoxious on a rug like this and West Elm has a shedding warning on their site for this one.
That being said, we’ve run into very few of the traditional wool rug problems. Stains are not particularly easy to clean but we’ve seen way worse. We’ve seen almost no shedding around the edges.
However, the one major (and unforgivable issue) we’ve run into is after just a few months this rug has pulled and pulled and pulled. Regular vacuums, robot vacuums, pets, and then seemingly nothing at all will all pull the weave up and it is irreparable. A few pulls are easily solved with scissors or fabric shavers, but after a while it starts to look like Edward Scissorhands has been crawling around on the rug and the only option left is to get rid of it.
We think the rug looks great on the floor and had it not been for the pulling issue we would have been very pleased with it. It’s pretty soft on the feet as well and doesn’t really need a rug pad if comfort is a concern.
At the end of the day, we really wanted to love this and came so close, but no rug should be out of commission after just a few months and for that we recommend you avoid this if at all costs if you plan on putting it in a room you also want to spend time in.
