Emmett Eiland’s Oriental Rug Company

It’s been nearly a year since I stopped in to ask about repair of a silk carpet I’d purchased in Istanbul that had arrived with some kind of oily stain and a couple hundred staples securing the fringe (putting the delicate rug at risk). Darius was extremely helpful (despite my not having been their customer), and introduced me to Lew, who thoughtfully referred me to a very highly skilled artist/​carpet repair person in the South Bay (Sonny Zadeh, 408.244.6445) who completely rescued the carpet, repairing it beautifully and at a very reasonable price. I later returned to Emmett Eiland to buy pads & look at their beautiful carpets… I’ll be back!

I purchased a rug here over 20 years ago. It has survived through 2 children and a dog, and a commercial cleaning visit (not recommended).
I sent it in last month to be cleaned and it just came back, as beautiful as the day I bought it. What an amazing job. These people know what they are doing.
The staff advised me to wait til March to bring it in, because that’s when they have a sale on cleaning. Really nice.

I discovered this store when I stopped in to pick up a small rug that I had sent for cleaning. They have a beautiful selection of rugs with rich deep colors. I bought a beautiful Gabbeh rug here and the price was very reasonable considering the quality of the rug.

Top recommend for assortment and variety. We had great service from a man who cared and had PATIENCE with slow deciders. We found lots of different styles — especially the more modern Tibetan styles — that made the decisions more complicated. They advised and also disappeared to let us meander and take our time. They delivered promptly and have notified us of sales on a yearly basis which I appreciate.

Five stars for really great customer service. The staff is friendly, knowledgeable and straightforward. They have the best and largest selection of area rugs I have ever seen. They are very happy to take the time to help you find what you want. What a great resource! They help with advice about repairs, sizing and cleaning, too!
Amazing place!

We’ve spent weeks shopping for rugs at a long series of stores in the Bay area. After a lot of frustration and a lot of near misses, someone recommended Emmett Eiland’s, noting that they are «experts to the experts.» From the moment I walked in, I loved this store. Great selection of high quality rugs made from traditional designs in many sizes. The owner has a terrific ability to listen to what you like and help identify rugs to consider, and he was flexible about letting us take several rugs home to try. I particularly liked that he was honest and willing to point out potential flaws or concerns in the design of a given rug. He is also incredibly knowledgeable about the history and culture behind these rugs. Most importantly, the prices were much better than what we had seen in San Francisco. If you love caucasian designs but don’t want to consider only antiques, I highly recommend you go here.

— Some of the most beautiful rugs I have ever seen
–Huge selection (sizes, color schemes, styles)
— Very high quality
–Super friendly, helpful, and patient staff
Highly Recommended!

The people here are most knowledgeable and helpful. They are most courteous and give great service!

Summary based on several purchases over the years:
–great quality (I like Tibetan rugs. They have a good selection and can have custom rugs made, but you can imagine the wait time.)
–decent, fixed prices except for occasional sales
–friendly, patient help
–free parking
Generally one buys rugs, whether here or elsewhere, to enjoy as a rug, not as an investment. I was surprised to read the slam review that implied that the company should have taken the rug back on consignment. It’s not their business.

Af ter the Berkey Firestorm I treated myself to a beautiful Antique Sarouk rug from Emmett Eiland. I fell in love with it the instant Emmett rolled it out. It was expensive — more than my car — but it was something that I could look at every day and as Emmitt said, it would only appreciate in value.
Twenty years later I’m downsizing and I’d sure like to consign this rug back to Emmet. He’s not interested. Price wasn’t even discussed.
Not.
Interested.

This is another shop that used to be on or near Solano but has moved down to West Berkeley. It’s on 9^th Street just south of Gilman. It was a short drive from New Pieces. Nina has been buying rugs from Emmet Eiland for decades. She’s also brought rugs there for cleaning. We walked in and were greeted by a beautiful, friendly Bernese Mountain Dog and two young salesmen, Anthony and Jeff.
Nina had rolled up the rug from her bedroom so we could see it w/​the candidates for her wall. She spread it on the floor and Jeff and Anthony went to work showing us possibilities, first from a couple of piles of smaller rugs and then from a cabinet full of saddlebags and other interestingly shaped pieces. They must have put out two dozen different ones. There was absolutely no pressure. The store was empty and we felt as if we could take as much time as we needed. Several we liked were more than we could afford, but many were well w/​in our range. The shop is large and well lighted, the light showing off the rugs’ patterns and colors to good advantage. Nina decided on a lovely Pakistani rug w/​a blue fringe and a pattern whose elements echoed not only the rug from her bedroom but some from the rug in her study, which is adjacent to her bedroom. Jeff asked if we wanted to take several home to be sure and we burst out laughing, explaining the difficulty we had had w/​just that issue at New Pieces. Nina declined, saying she was certain this was the perfect rug and we bought it.

We bought a rug from this amazing shop. The staff was very knowledgeable and helpful. There was no pressure to buy. In fact we were tol to shop around to find out what we liked in terms of style and patterning. We were encouraged to ‘borrow’ the rug we liked for a week to see if it fitted into our space. The attendant suggested we take a few and see what worked. I have n complaints. Great shop, great service and if you check out the sale stuff, great value for money.

If you like «oriental» rugs, this is an excellent place to look, browse, learn and even buy. It’s a funny business, rugs, kind of like used cars and aluminum siding. You just don’t know if you’re getting your money’s worth.
Well, Emmet wrote an excellent book on rugs and what to look for (
), read it before you shop anywhere.
What I like about Emmet as opposed to some of his competition:
1) The bargain annex
2) Their excellent website that let’s you browse their inventory (
)
3) Their yearly sales
4) The free trial (take home a carpet and see how it looks in your house, repeat until you find the right one).