My mother has an area rug that has been around since the 60s and still looks great.

Depends on the quality of the rug. A hand tied wool or silk rug should last a lifetime. If it's a synthetic inexpensive rug, then 10 years is pretty good in a high traffic area. Although I have a ton of inexpensive cotton dhurrie rugs that still look great.

I agree with PPS. My parents had the same rugs for decades and they looked great. I actually like the look of old and slightly worn oriental rugs better than when they are new and spiffy. The acrylic (?) plush rug we had in our kids' playroom looked like new for about ten years, whereas the (higher quality, higher priced) chenille braided rug in my son's room looks washed out after four years...maybe because it gets cleaned more due to our aging dog :(

I have three wool area rugs that I've had for 30 years. All were bought at discount places, but I think are pretty good rugs. Two of the three look great (altho' I probably should have them cleaned, as they've NEVER been cleaned). Fringe on the other one is starting to fray at one corner.

We're still using an Oriental that my grandfather had in his office in the 1920s. It's still got alot of life left amd it's in our guest room.

I bought a synthetic rug about 10 years ago, and it still looks good. It was in my former LR and now it's in our BR in this house. I just had it cleaned by Stanley Steemer about 2 months ago, and they guy was surprised it was that old. OTOH, the synthetic that was here in the LR really looked worn after about 8 years. We now have a wool contemporary in the LR.

But good quality Persian or other Oriental rugs can last decades easily!

Mine is synthetic from Home Depot so no heirloom here. I do like the look of the worn rugs but like others mentioned synthetic just looks, well, not great. Who knows, maybe they still carry the same one.

Cookie, I think the LR rug we had was from HD. the one in the BR is from JCP.

I came here looking for info on how long wool area rugs typically last. I bought hand-tufted wool rugs for my house six years ago. The smaller rug, in a lower traffic area, still looks beautiful, but for the last year, the big one has been looking shabby and threadbare in places. I can't speak to the quality, but the bigger one (9 x 13) cost @ $700 from large online e-tailer. I know rugs can cost thousands of dollars, but does that really convey greater ability to withstand wear and tear? I have 2 kids, 3 dogs, and a busy household. The idea of a wool rug lasting a lifetime seems entirely improbable. (Ever see a huge dog come to a grinding halt when they hit the rug? It seems to be "home base" when the dogs start running around the house.) By comparison, the synthetic w/w carpeting in the upstairs of my house is holding up beautifully, but I really don't want w/w carpet in family room, foyer, etc.

Correct, for a long lasting rug you want wool and hand-knotted.

What I have found is that my tastes have changed and I don't love the very traditional hand-knotted wool rugs we bought years ago, which have plenty of life left in them.