House of Rugs floors patrons with selection

At House of Rugs, 8000 W. Sahara Ave. (363-4115), there is no shortage of imported carpets from which to choose.

The shop is jam-packed with rug after rug -- approximately 1,200 -- with more sitting in a warehouse. They come in all colors, are as small as 2-foot by 3-foot and go up 12-foot by 18-foot. For those with an over-sized house, Zoheir Sedehi, owner, can special order even larger rugs.

Not all the area rugs he has for sale are brand new. In fact, one of the more valuable ones is decades old and has had more than one owner.

The 80-year-old rug was hand-crafted by a master weaver who created it with roughly 50 colors and 1,500 knots per square inch. The rug took eight years to complete and features a mixture of geometric, floral design and medallion designs.

Though it had a number of owners throughout the years, no one has ever used the rug. It's been locked in a warehouse all these years. The rug sells for $50,000 but doesn't have to be treated with kid gloves.

"This can handle a high-traffic area of a house," Sedehi said. "It's more durable than you'd think. You could drive a truck on it and nothing would happen."

That is the kind of quality he looks for in a rug when he buys for the shop. Most of those he sells range from $50 to $20,000.

The high-end rugs are hand-made and, depending on the pattern, take anywhere from a few months to two years to craft. They come from exotic places like Pakistan, India and China.

About 75 percent of Sedehi's stock consists of hand-made rugs.

The machine-made and hand-tufted rugs he carries are from Romania, Bulgaria, Nepal, Turkey, Afghanistan and Italy.

When it comes to selecting one for a home, Sedehi, who says a rug is the foundation of a room, recommends selecting one for its color.

"You've got to like the rug," he said. "If it's not in the colors you need for your decor -- what's the point?"

Second most important is quality. He suggested placing the rug on the floor, eyeing it to see if the borders are straight, not canted. The pattern should be centered and flow out from there.

Inconsistencies in color are not a concern if the rug was hand-dyed. Hand-dyed rugs are colored with vegetable dyes. On any given day, saturation and dye strength vary. Sedehi explained the beauty of such rugs is, in part, the irregularity of their colors. Rather than being looked down upon, hand-dyed rugs are held in high esteem.

When Mory Sheikhan of Summerlin needed an area rug, a friend suggested House of Rugs. He bought a 9-foot by 12-foot beige piece that complemented his mostly-white decor.

"His rugs are really good, really beautiful," Sheikhan said. "He came out to my house and measured it and designed it just for me. I would recommend him to anyone."

For Sedehi, 25, selling imported rugs was a natural choice. His family has been in the business for years. As a teen, he learned the business first-hand from his father and got to travel extensively. Sedehi said his father taught him a lot of things, but most important was to be up front in business dealings "even if being honest costs you a sale." People respect an honest person, he said, and will come back to do business with you later.

Sedehi was born in Iran but grew up in Canada and the United States. He studied management information systems and holds a business degree from California State University, Northridge. Fed up with freeway traffic, he left sunny California and landed in Las Vegas, where his sister already lived. That was in the summer of 2001. By Thanksgiving he opened his 1,100-square-foot shop.

Sedehi has plans to open a second location by the end of the year in the Green Valley area.


<<--[back]