EXPERIENCE MATTERS

Emporium offers outstanding selection of rugs and services

BY DAVID MUNK | PHOTOGRAPHY BY HOLGER OBENAUS

Behnam Rugs has been a go-to design resource since 1978. Over the last four decades, proprietor Ben Tavakolian’s pioneering family business has become well known for its dynamic, ever-expanding inventory. It offers a broad but highly curated selection of exquisite rugs, including traditional, transitional and modern styles, along with several designer lines and antique rugs.

To perceptive customers, the aesthetic experience begins in the parking lot. The commanding Mediterranean-style building is notable both for its large scale and its distinctive architectural design elements; its outward presence confers credibility, importance and grandeur. Inside, it houses an expansive showroom as well as an elaborate workshop for rug repair, cleaning and restoration work.

Bolstering its reputation for excellence and appreciation among designers is Behnam’s custom work, most notably its ability to manufacture rugs to nearly any customer specification— modifying a rug’s type, style, color or size—with an exceedingly fast turnaround, delivering the one-of-a-kind finished product to the client within weeks.

What differentiates Behnam Rugs from its peers, elevating the brand from boutique status to that of a true emporium, is a remarkably comprehensive portfolio of rug-related services: cleaning, repair, restoration, installation and appraisals.

The list of repair and restoration work available includes flood damage restoration, fringe repair, mold and moth damage repair, patching, reweaving and color run repair. The gentle cleaning process Tavakolian uses is a Persian tradition, carefully performed by hand using homemade, 100 percent organic shampoos and conditioners that ensure no toxic residues or by-products. An additional enzyme wash removes any particularly strong odors and stains from wool, silk, cotton, and other natural and man-made fibers. Each rug is washed one at a time on a flat surface and dried that way, too. These age-old methods preserve the beauty, luster and integrity of a fine rug.

As some pieces need to be refreshed, so too some customers sometimes request that a newly acquired rug be aged, giving it an antiqued or distressed look and feel or tempering the intensity of color. By employing different combinations of organic herbs, the Behnam team is able to manipulate existing colors to impart just the right amount of distress and character.

The business’ ability to endure for over 40 years is in BEHNAM RUGS 18000 Preston Road Dallas, TX 75252 972-733-0400 behnamrugs.com great part due to Tavakolian’s knowing eye, keen business sense, ability to anticipate shifts in the industry and grow along with the times. Tavakolian is immensely personable as well as an inventive business owner and a natural teacher. Indeed, the breadth of his institutional knowledge is staggering. “Educating customers is very important,” he says. “It’s one of the great rewards.”

After emigrating from Iran in 1970 to study, Tavakolian stayed in the United States and, in 1978, opened his first shop, which imported rugs from Iran. Later, India, China, Pakistan and Romania were listed among his sources and manufacturing was added to his business as well. In 1999, Tavakolian moved his showroom to its present North Dallas location, designing the huge space to support the business as its services diversified and grew.

Because of the brand’s trusted name, streamlined in-house design capabilities and diversified service portfolio, Behnam Rugs is well positioned as it celebrates its 40th anniversary and looks ahead to the future.

David Munk, a recent transplant from New York City, is a content creator and storyteller. His blog is stargayzing.com.

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