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Remove New Rug Wrinkles Fast!

Your new area rug is in place and you love it, but it looks wavy. How-to fix those new rug wrinkles and creases fast!

Don’t want to wait for those wrinkles and creases in your new area rug to settle overtime? 

Or maybe you got a new rug, before entertaining some guests, and want it to look perfect now!

I put my Textile college degree to work to come up with a solution.

Here’s a quick fix to smooth out the wrinkles safely, quickly, and easily. VIDEO TUTORIAL.

Why New Rugs are Wrinkled and Creased

Your new area rugged has been rolled up, in a truck, and a warehouse for who knows how long and likely at high temperatures.

All that heat “presses” the folds and wrinkles into place.

The way it’s rolled is always with the “face” or tufted side of the rug to the inside.

By the time it shows up at your home and you unroll it, it can look pretty awful and not lay flat…especially the new synthetic thinner indoor/outdoor types of rugs.

Here is what my new kitchen rug looked like right after I unrolled it.

wrinkled-creased-area-rug

Contains hand selected products, with affiliate marketing links where I may make a small commission if a purchase is made. {full disclosure here}

It’s not TOO terrible, but this is a main walking path and the center of my home!

I wasn’t willing to wait for the wrinkles to settle over time and honestly it was a tripping hazard I wanted to eliminate.

My college degree is a B.S. Textile Chemistry and Manufacturing, from Clemson University, and I’ve actually been in a tufting plant to see how rugs are produced!

when it comes to removing rug wrinkles What I know is this:

A combination of heat and moisture will remove wrinkles and creases from all textiles natural or man made.

Basically, we are reversing the process that put the folds, wrinkles, and creases into the rug in the first place.

Simple right?

Pin It for Later!

How-to-get-wrinkles-out-of-new-area-rug-before-after

How-to Remove Wrinkles, Waves, and Creases from an Area Rug

First the disclaimer…the MOST important part of this tutorial is that you must NEVER place an iron directly on a rug or carpet…EVER.

If the rug contains any synthetic material it will melt and permanently mark the rug.

Even if it is a natural rug like sea grass or wool an iron may scorch the rug.

ALWAYS use a white towel to prevent dye transfer during the ironing process. 

Fastest Way to Remove New Rug Wrinkles and Creases

How-to-get-wrinkles-out-of-new-area-rug

Using heat and steam safely remove creases, wrinkles and folds from a new area rug.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Active Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Estimated Cost Free

Materials

  • New Area Rug
  • White Towel

Tools

  • Iron
  • Extention Cord
  • Vacuum

Instructions

  1. Fill iron with water. Pre-heat to highest setting with steam on high.
  2. Place white towel onto rug, while applying pressure, iron directly over towel. Iron the full area of the rug. woman-ironing-rug-to-remove-wrinkles
  3. For more stubborn creases and wrinkles, apply additional pressure, and hold iron over those areas for up to 10 seconds along each section.
  4. Once all wrinkles and creases are removed, vacuum the rug to fluff up the pile if it is tufted. after-ironing-rug-to-remove-wrinkles-vacuum

Notes

  • Use a WHITE TOWEL to avoid any dye transfer through the heat and steam process.
  • NEVER iron the rug without a towel in place.
  • For stubborn wrinkles, dampen the towel slightly. I didn't do this to protect my hardwood floor.

Did you make this project?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Now doesn’t that look easy? It really did only take 10 minutes and it was totally worth the effort.

I’m loving the new rug and it looks so smooth and pretty in the newly remodeled kitchen.

You may enjoy seeing the before and after of the kitchen: 

Kitchen Remodel Facelift REVEAL!

after-removing-wrinkles-new-area-rug-blue-white-kitchen
Shop the Look

You may LOVE this review of my FAVORITE POTTERY BARN RUG!

Finn Rug Review After 4 Years!

For more ways to update your kitchen, check out these posts:

  1. How-to Add Soft Close to Any Cabinet
  2. Simple Ideas to Organize Spices
  3. Replace Worn Stove Labels and Refresh Knobs
  4. Organize Cabinets with Pull-Out Drawers

Please consider following me on Pinterest and Instagram for daily inspiration.

Here’s to smoother rugs ahead 🙂 Now if only getting rid of the wrinkles on my face was this easy.

Until next time…

Porch Daydreamer

Tracey

14 Comments

  1. James Bent says:

    Can I use this method on a braided polypropylene rug?

  2. I actually flipped the wrinkled rug over and used my steam mop on the backside of the rug, worked great!

  3. Jillinda Janeway says:

    I’m so glad I found this post. I just received my new 9×12 area rug and it was folded!! Looks like i have a big ironing project ahead of me.

  4. I have an extremely long runner in my hallway that, somehow, became curved over time. Any suggestions on how to get the curve out so it’ll lay straight again?

    1. Sorry, I only address wrinkles and not stretching. You probably need a professional rug repair person to repair a curve.

  5. Can I use a floor steamer or clothing steamer to achieve the same thing if I don’t have an iron handy?

  6. Tracey, is this still safe to use with a rug pad already underneath?

  7. My question about a braided rug using this method was deleted and classified as spam. I don’t understand why.

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