How Much Does a Custom Rug Cost in Saudi Arabia?

Most people asking this question have already been quoted something. Usually a total, with no breakdown, for a rug they cannot picture yet. So the number sounds either alarming or suspiciously cheap, and there is no way to tell which.

Custom rugs are priced by area, in square metres, and almost everything else follows from that. Here is the full picture, including the parts that are usually left out.

The base prices

These are our standing retail prices, all inclusive of design work and free shipping anywhere in the GCC.

Four things to notice before you multiply anything.

The origin gap is real, and it is about tolerance, not effort. Our Chinese ateliers hold tighter carving lines and more consistent pile height across a large field. On a 6 by 4 metre single-colour ground, that consistency is visible from the doorway. On a busy multi-colour design with a lot of pattern, it is much harder to see, and the Indian tier gives you almost the same rug for 200 SAR/m² less. We will tell you which situation you are in when we see the design.

Viscose and bamboo silk are motif materials, not field materials. They exist to catch light along a scroll or a leaf edge. A large silk field in a majlis will show every footprint and every water mark, permanently. We do not sell it that way, and anyone who does is not thinking about your floor in year three.

Hand-knotted is a different category, not an upgrade path. At 1,100 SAR/m² and up, an Afghan hand-knotted rug is a different object with a different lifespan and different tolerances. It is not a better version of the tufted rug.

The price includes the design. Visualisation, revisions before deposit, colour matching, the full spec sheet. We do not bill design separately and we do not charge for the visual you approve.

Worked examples

Real sizes from real rooms, not round numbers.

A standard Riyadh majlis, wall to wall

A typical formal majlis in a newer Riyadh villa runs about 8.5 by 5.2 metres. Wall-to-wall coverage, which is how a majlis rug should be specified, means the rug is cut to the room minus a marble reveal at the perimeter.

Room:              8.50 m × 5.20 m
Rug (with reveal): 8.20 m × 4.90 m  =  40.18 m²

NZ wool, India         40.18 × 500  =  20,090 SAR
NZ wool + viscose      40.18 × 600  =  24,108 SAR
NZ wool, China         40.18 × 700  =  28,126 SAR
NZ wool + bamboo silk  40.18 × 800  =  32,144 SAR

Deposit at 50% (India NZ wool)      =  10,045 SAR
Balance before shipping             =  10,045 SAR

A villa entrance hall

Rug: 4.00 m × 2.60 m  =  10.40 m²
NZ wool, China          10.40 × 700  =  7,280 SAR

Small rooms are where the China tier makes the most sense. The area is small enough that the price difference is modest and the finish carries the space.

A hotel suite living area, 40 keys

Rug: 3.20 m × 2.40 m  =  7.68 m² per key
40 keys                 =  307.20 m²
NZ wool, India   307.20 × 500  =  153,600 SAR

Contract projects at this volume are quoted individually. Pile weight, backing and testing documentation change the specification and therefore the price, usually upward.

What actually moves the price

Size, almost entirely. Doubling the area doubles the cost. There is no meaningful economy of scale on a single hand-made rug because the labour scales with the area.

Colour count, slightly. We work in solid colours, three to seven maximum, no gradients. Wool does not do gradients honestly, and attempts to force them produce a muddy field that ages badly.

Carving, not much. Our standard is 6 mm carved channels along design lines, deep enough to throw a real shadow. It is included. Very heavy relief work across an entire field is quoted separately.

Pile height and density, yes. Higher pile and heavier density mean more wool per square metre. Residential majlis rugs sit comfortably at our standard spec. Hotel corridors do not.

Irregular shapes, sometimes. Circles, ellipses and stepped outlines around a column or a fireplace are quoted on the enclosing rectangle, because that is the frame the rug is made on.

What is not in the price

• Shipping within the GCC is free. That covers freight, customs clearance and last-mile delivery to your door.
• Any VAT or duty payable in your own country at import is yours. For Saudi deliveries this is handled as part of our normal process and we will tell you the position before you pay a deposit.
• Installation is not included as a service, though a wall-to-wall rug arrives finished and cut to size and requires no fitting beyond laying it and letting it settle for a week.
• Underlay is not included and is rarely needed under a tufted rug with a latex backing on marble.

How payment works

Fifty percent on approval of the visual, fifty percent before shipping. The deposit is what releases the design into production, and it is the point at which the design freezes. Changes after that are limited and sometimes impossible, because the yarn has been dyed to your colours and the design has been drawn onto the frame.

We are direct about this because the most expensive mistake in a custom rug order is a colour change requested late in production.

The timeline you are buying

For a custom hand-tufted rug, 65 to 75 days from deposit to your door. It breaks down roughly like this:

• Days 1 to 7: final drawing to scale, yarn dyeing to your colours
• Days 8 to 45: tufting on frame, then carving and clipping
• Days 46 to 55: latex backing, binding, finishing, quality check and photography
• Days 56 to 75: consolidation, freight, customs clearance, delivery to your address

Afghan hand-knotted work is a different clock. A made-to-order Afghan piece runs three to four months, because knotting cannot be accelerated.

If your majlis is being handed over in six weeks, we will tell you honestly that a custom rug is the wrong instrument for that deadline, and point you at the Afghan or vintage stock instead, which ships in days.

Is a custom rug worth it against a ready-made one

Only if the room demands it. A rug bought off the floor in a standard 300 by 400 size in a room that is 5.2 metres wide will always look like a rug that was bought elsewhere and put there. That gap of a metre of exposed marble on each side is the single thing that separates a furnished majlis from a designed one in almost every Gulf home we photograph.

If your room is a standard size and your palette is flexible, buy something ready-made and spend the difference elsewhere. If your room is large, unusually proportioned, or you have a specific palette to hit, custom is not a luxury version of the same purchase. It is the only version that solves the problem.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum size you will make?
We produce from around 1.5 m² upward for hand-tufted work. Below that the setup cost outweighs the material and you are better served by an existing piece.

Can I get a sample before ordering?
Yes. We can send yarn colour samples for approval. A woven strike-off sample is available for hospitality and large residential projects and adds time to the programme.

Do you price in other currencies?
We quote in SAR and accept payment in the major GCC currencies. Prices for buyers in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman are converted at the prevailing rate.

Is the price different for a complicated design?
Within our design rules, only marginally. Three colours or seven, the labour is dominated by area. Where design genuinely changes cost is in heavy relief carving or unusually dense pile.

What happens if I do not like it when it arrives?
A made-to-order rug is not returnable, which is exactly why the visual and colour approval stages exist and why we do not rush them. In practice, disagreements happen at week two on a screen, not at month three on a floor.