Rug buying in Ixelles

The building stock

More than half of the housing stock of Ixelles predates 1919. The Tenbosch–Châtelain district was built for the most part between 1875 and 1905 to a very consistent standard plan: a single-family middle-class house between party walls, a raised basement, two or three reception rooms in enfilade on the first floor (drawing room, dining room, veranda) and a staircase set in the corridor. That is the geometry that made the fortune of the long, narrow rug — and the dread of every collection, because the stairwell turns tight.

It is in that building stock that the rugs we buy lie sleeping: interwar attics, reception rooms, landing cupboards.

Damp and water

The storm basin under the place Flagey — 33,000 m³, and up to 40,000 m³ when the car park is brought in — came into service in 2008. The square stands on the site of the former Grand Étang d'Ixelles, in the Maelbeek valley; before the works, it was regularly under water. The whole of lower Ixelles is still a valley bottom: cool basements, walls that draw damp upwards, rugs that go mouldy in cellars.

A rug that has sat in a damp cellar is not a rug without value. Do not throw it out before showing it to us: we also buy as it stands.

Collection

Ixelles is the only town in the Region that does not form a single block: in 1864 the City of Brussels annexed the avenue Louise and the bois de la Cambre, cutting the municipality into two non-contiguous parts. The result is still visible today: an address on the avenue Louise is in 1000, while the street at right angles to it is in 1050. That changes the parking regime from one pavement to the other.

Buying a rug is not only a valuation: it is also thirty kilos of rug to be carried out of your home. We settle that point before we come.