I thought hook and loop was Velcro. Confused...

The only rugs I know that could be reversed are Kilims and rag rugs.

Casey

Maybe the OP means it's a hooked rug with the loops intact instead of cut to make pile?

I don't see why you couldn't flip it over.

Donna

I think it's called latch hook. Looks to me like it would work....but the higher pile that will now be on the bottom might make the rug slide. Try it before you reverse the binding.

Oh you have a lovely hooked rug, and in looks in wonderful condition. My daughter has done a rug like this and if you remove the binding all the frayed ends may come loose. All the weaving can come loose. But you might consider cleaning the rug they clean very nicely.

Hmmmm... The pile, or loops, are identical on each side. The only difference between sides is that one is much brighter, but has that burlap binding.

I would rather spend the money to have it professionally laundered than to risk taking the binding off. If it unravels it will pretty much be ruined.

Casey

That kind of rug won't ravel....and usually the loops on one side is higher than the other. It's made on a canvas by punching yarn or fabric strips into the backing. It will come undone if you catch a loop and pull, but won't ravel at the edges like crochet, weaving or knitting will.

Looks like the "loops" on the top side have been flattened from use and therefore resemble the base or underneath "loops". Wonder if a strong vacuuming (perhaps with a vacuum beater bar) might bring up the top side loops???

No No NO....do not vacuum a hooked rug with a vacuum with a rotary brush and a beater bar.....will tear it up!

You could leave burlap and cover with fabric and call it a border.

Just carefully take the burlap off and sew it back on the way it needs to be to reverse it. It won't fall apart while you do that. If it would have, it would never have made it into a rug in the first place. My question might be how will you get it sewn back on? Is the base fabric thin enough that you can do it on your home sewing machine? You will want to machine stitch it to the base fabric and hand sew it after the burlap edging is turned.

This is a machine made hooked rug.

Because these were made from cotton yarns they tend to fade over time.

Flipping it over shows the brighter original colors.

I am eager to know how you solved this problem. We have a very similar rug and situation in our family home and my aunt and I have flipped the rug and are now pondering what to do about the burlap band. An artist friend has suggest coloring the band with a fabric dye marker, either the same as the background color of the rug or one of the accent colors. We are perplexed bc the background color is a hard to match shade of periwinkle blue. Not sure what medium to use for this project: Dye, Paint, Sharpie? The rug is enormous, too huge to re-stitch burlap on other side by hand and not worth it to have it cleaned. What did you end up doing?

YES..I just spent an hour searching how to rejuvenate vintage looped carpets and someone said "Flip it over"...I thought (like 2 other rugs they had canvas backing-NOT) and the other side is bright and much fresher...so now I'm looking up (like you)..Can I reverse the narrow strip of edging to other side? The 5 area rugs are hand made handmade -3 with canvas backing -2 with narrow strips on back edge ...The edging looks hand stitched...so I will figure it out!!!

If you can’t easily move the edging to the other side, consider colouring it with a fabric dye pen. If you choose a contrasting/complementary colour rather than try to match the main colour of the rug’s background, it becomes a design feature 😁

Thanks..The 2 shown are in bad lighting=not "much" difference but still brighter and less flat on back side..A 6tfh one , a very small one thrown in the washer by spouse ripped end so will deal with that later..That is the one with solid burlap backing..You are the only one's who have responded to such a concern. As far as cleaning...everyone has an idea...I may simply use one of my steam cleaners..Anyway, my biggest concern was fluffing up the loops. I will unstitch a few hand sewn stitches (as did on that small rug) that seem 1/2 inch+ apart..and see what happens..Thanks so much..BTW..As far as rejuvenation? snow, irons, shaving cream, ice cubes seems ???