Rugs in Grez-Doiceau: buying, restoration, cleaning

The building stock

Grez-Doiceau covers 5,544 hectares for only 14,064 residents, with 79.21% of land undeveloped against 12.48% built up. It is by far the most rural and the least dense of the towns we cover, described locally as the "Brabant Ardennes".

A house set back from the road, a long drive, a gate: we come right up to the door, gates included. You do not carry the rug out to the road — we roll it, load it and wash it at the workshop.

Who lives here

Average income per resident: €25,070 (2021 tax year), fourth in Walloon Brabant, just behind Rixensart (€25,335) and Waterloo (€25,911), and well above the Walloon average (€19,192).

Many fine pieces are sleeping here without ever having been valued, for want of a workshop nearby. We travel out: valuation at home, and cash purchase if you decide to sell.

The local setting

The municipality is watered by three watercourses — the Dyle, the Train (a tributary of the Dyle) and the Nethen — and part of its territory is classified Natura 2000 for its biological value.

A valley bottom, an unventilated farm cellar: that is where wool goes mouldy on the back and picks up a musty smell. Flat washing and drying under tension at the workshop put both right.

What the buildings tell us

The municipality is made up of twelve villages and hamlets — Archennes and Florival, Biez, Bossut, Cocrou, Doiceau, Gastuche, Gottechain, Grez-centre, Hèze, Morsaint-Royenne, Nethen, Pécrot — whose heritage includes "numerous châteaux, chapels and farms". Among the listed buildings are the château de Florival and its grounds, the former château de la Motte, the church of Saint-Georges with its organ and its forecourt, and the presbytery.

Châteaux and large farms: stone floors, terracotta tiles, and very large-format rugs that pass through the generations. These are pieces that are restored — fringes, selvedges, reweaving — rather than replaced, and they often come through an estate.

Round about

At least six equestrian centres are recorded on the territory of Grez-Doiceau.

Horses and dogs coming in from the fields: dried mud, hair worked into the pile, animal smell settled in the wool. We remove the stains and treat the smell in the wash, not with an air freshener.

Collection

38 km by road from the centre of Brussels, making it the most distant town from our workshop (about 38 minutes). Access is by the E411 then the N25 Leuven–Nivelles, which crosses the municipality at Gastuche under the name chaussée de Wavre.

Thirty-eight kilometres from Brussels by the E411 then the N25: we group the town's collections on a single day rather than making the round trip for one rug. Tell us what you have and we will give you the next time we are passing.