Oriental Stair Treads

Oriental Stair Treads are simply beautiful and I love the style. They work well in many areas, whether you have an Oriental design or feel or not.

My mother had simply stunning Oriental Stair Treads and other Oriental rugs in the house we grew up in, and they complemented the décor extremely well.

So, what exactly are they? Originally they referred to Oriental rugs on the stairs placed over the wooden weight supporting structural stair treads. Today, this refers to both authentic Oriental rugs and Oriental style rugs. Most commonly, they are shaped as a “runner” which simply means a long and thin rug, ideal for both stairs and halls. Stairs really are halls with a bit of vertical thrown in after all. I love them especially when used on hardwood stairs as they allow the gorgeous hardwood to show through on the sides, with the hopefully alluring rug in the middle.

Authentic Oriental rugs have several characteristics, the first being that they are made in the Orient. They are usually described by where they came from, so the following could all be considered Oriental rugs: Persian rugs, Pakistani rugs, Azerbaijani rugs, Arab rugs, Anatolian rugs, Kasmir rugs, Kurdish rugs, Caucasian rugs, Central Asian rugs, Turkestanian rugs, Chinese rugs, Tibetan rugs, Indian rugs and many more.

The term Orient comes from Latin and simply means “East.” As the European people learned of countries further east, it continually shifted to include countries further to the East, now used to mean all the way to the Far East, or the part of Asia bounded by the Pacific Ocean. Generally when applied to rugs, it means from Turkey in the East all the way to China, Vietnam, and other Asian countries that border the Pacific.
Besides coming from the correct geographical area, they also must be handmade, and most experts agree either hand knotted with pile or woven. Hand tufted rugs, much cheaper to make and not nearly as durable, are not consider to be authentic nor are any rugs made by machine or produced anywhere else.

There are however a lot of “Oriental Style” rugs for sale, and although perhaps beautiful, they are usually not nearly as durable but are far faster and cheaper to produce. This makes them far more affordable. Authentic Oriental rugs, whether used on stairs or not, are expensive and last a long time. Some of them may be passed down from generation to generation! They can also be stunningly expensive. An absolutely gorgeous one I saw in a Newburyport, Massachusetts store cost $20,000 and would not even cover my entire stair case! The Oriental style ones look very similar to the untrained eye and are often great deals.

They will obviously need to be attached to the stairs somehow and traditionally this was done with stair rods. Today, if stair rods are used they are mainly decorative and the rug will be attached to the stairs in a more secure way, for example with tackless strips. In general this is a job best left to professionals, although it can be a “do it yourself” project if you have some basic skills.

So quite simply, Oriental Stair Treads are Oriental rugs used on a staircase. Authentic ones are expensive, beautiful, and extremely durable – if you can afford them. Oriental style ones are cheaper and not as durable, but look pretty good especially to the untrained eye. Often they are great deals.