Aja Rugs owner Adi Pourfard opened his third La Jolla store at 1020 Prospect Ave., selling antique carpets, tapestries and other high-end floor coverings. Pourfard started a tradition he pulled from the depths of childhood memories “” customizing patrons’ carpeting, from concept to conclusion.
“Where I come from when I was growing up, if you wanted to build a house, you would have a rug designer,” Pourfard said, adding that the customer would make the rugs to suit the space.
Pourfard began sculpting his niche 23 years ago, when he opened his first La Jolla store on Girard Avenue, selling antique Persian, Tibetan and other rugs and tapestries.
Now, in addition to supplying stores around the country with rugs, Pourfard said about 15 percent of his business comes from customized carpets and rugs, which begin in-house and then are sent to Iran for completion.
According to Pourfard, although Americans are accustomed to waiting months for a designer to deliver their custom couch, customers rarely consider a similar timeline for flooring acceptable. Pourfard’s designer chooses simple, geometric designs to minimize the time element, he said. But Pourfard sends the work to Iran, creating an unknown factor.
Usually, custom work will take about four months, he added.
Though the company fills custom and wall-to-wall orders, Aja Rugs shoppers don’t need a new home to visit the showroom. The newest store on Prospect shows antique, semi-antique and reproductions of area rugs, while Aja Rugs’ warehouse holds more than 30,000 rugs.
Many issues factor into a rug’s price, from its age and the weaver’s status to the number of colors used, Pourfard said.
An antique rug “” mainly from Iran and Nepal “” is more than 100 years old, and a semi-antique is 60 to 80 years old. While an average artist weaves about five colors into a rug, Aja Rugs displays a Tibetan rug with 115 intricately interwoven colors, creating a pattern of butterflies and flowers, which increases the price tag, according to Pourfard’s designer, Fernanda.
Other factors considered when appraising a rug include the area where it comes from and presence of a signature.
Although a rug’s signature can increase value, it’s not a rule of thumb, Fernanda said. Because weavers became popular, counterfeit signatures began to pop up on rugs. But Pourfard said a false carpet signature is easier to spot than a false signature on a painting.
Other pieces in Aja Rugs’ collection include a green-hued 17th-century French tapestry that originated from a castle. The owner had all the documents, according to Pourfard.
“We also have silk rugs from Iran, some old pieces from Russia and the Caucasus and [from the] China and Japanese dynasty,” Pourfard said. “They run anywhere from $1,500 to half a million.”
For more information, call (858) 459-8720.