Rugs in Overijse: buying, restoration, cleaning

Who lives here

Overijse counted 4,389 expatriates in 2023, close to one resident in six, with a large French-speaking and English-speaking minority. Unlike Rhode-Saint-Genèse, the municipality does not have language facilities: the administrative language is Dutch and Dutch only.

One resident in six is an expatriate, while the administration works in Dutch only. With us, a rug valuation is done in French, in Dutch or in English, whichever you prefer.

The rug market

For a century, from the end of the nineteenth century until after the Second World War, "thousands of greenhouses" growing table grapes shaped the landscape of Overijse, the heart of the Druivenstreek. The heritage inventory still records the villas of the greenhouse growers there, witnesses to the prosperity of this specialised farming. The Druivenfeesten commemorate that industry every August.

The greenhouse growers' villas of the years 1900-1950 are the local town houses, and many of them keep rugs bought two generations ago and never shown to anyone. We appraise them at your home, and we buy them if you wish.

The building stock

The municipality covers 4,443 hectares with a density of only 577 inhabitants/km², with 59.14% of undeveloped land against 27.17% built up. It is the least dense and the largest town in our area.

Large plots, large houses: XL formats, long runners, stair runners and several pieces to treat at the same time. We collect the lot in one go rather than one rug at a time.

The local setting

Jezus-Eik / Notre-Dame-au-Bois is wedged between the E411 Brussels–Namur motorway on one side and the forêt de Soignes on the other. Its baroque pilgrimage church was built by Jacques Francquart (choir 1650, nave 1667) around the legend of an oak struck by lightning; the hamlet lives today off its restaurants, including one with a star.

A hamlet of restaurants on the edge of the woods means trampled dining-room fitted carpet, saturated entrance rugs and permanent woodland damp. We work on site for the fitted carpet and at the workshop for the rugs.

Collection

19 km by road from the centre of Brussels, via the E411, which runs along the edge of the municipality at Jezus-Eik. The lac de Genval, at the other end of the municipality, is shared with Rixensart.

From the E411 the van comes off the Ring and arrives at your gate without crossing a single town centre: nineteen kilometres, one loading, and your rugs are at the workshop straight afterwards.

The household profile

Average net taxable income per tax return: €53,027 (2022 assessment year), a level comparable to that of Sint-Genesius-Rode (€53,592). The humanist Justus Lipsius was born in Overijse in the sixteenth century.

At this level of furnishing, the question is not to replace a worn rug but to keep it: repairing the fringes, refixing the selvedges, reweaving the eaten areas. We tell you what is worth restoring.