Color restoration — hand-applied light-fast dyes for faded, sun-damaged, and dye-bleed rugs.
Color restoration is one of the hardest crafts in fine-rug care. After a calibrated wash to lift surface oxidation, the master artisan selectively re-tints with light-fast dyes that match the rug's original palette — not a flood-dye that flattens the piece. For more than a decade, hand-done in the Cohen atelier. We restore depth without erasing the rug's age. Pickup across Manhattan, the Hamptons, Westchester, Greenwich, and Stamford.
Sun-fade, dye-bleed, oxidation — everything we restore.
Each colour issue has its own diagnosis, its own dye chemistry, its own hand. We restore each one without erasing the age of the rug.
Sun-fade
UV bleaches the red and blue dyes first. Selective re-tinting brings back the original depth without flattening the field.
Dye-bleed
Water migrates one color into another. Calibrated stabilization, then hand-tinting restores the boundary between motifs.
Water-damage discoloration
Spotting, ring marks, and tide lines from floods or leaks. Lifted by hand-wash, then re-tinted area by area.
Surface oxidation
Aged wool yellows as natural oils oxidize. A calibrated wash lifts the haze before any color is touched.
Pet-stain remediation
Urine stripes leave a bleached path of altered dye. Treated, neutralized, then selectively re-tinted to match the field.
Moth-bleach spots
Where larvae fed, the wool comes back lighter. Hand-tinting blends the rebuilt pile into the surrounding palette.
Heat damage
Sun-through-glass and fireplace exposure scorches dye. Restored fiber by fiber with light-fast pigments.
Aging patina rebalance
Sometimes the rug has aged unevenly. A light, selective re-tint brings the field back into harmony without erasing age.
Dye-lot mismatch repair
When a prior repair was done with a wrong lot, the patch is re-tinted to disappear into the original drawing.
Antique-rug colour-rescue
Vegetable-dyed antiques that have lost their depth get a conservation-grade re-tint, calibrated to age and fiber.
How a faded rug comes back to itself.
Three to five weeks, calibrated to the scope of restoration and the dye chemistry of your rug.
Calibrated wash.
We start by lifting surface oxidation gently — never harsh chemicals. The original palette is revealed before any new dye is applied.
Master dye-stock matching.
Light-fast dyes selected per area, per fiber, per age. The master artisan reads the original palette and matches by hand from our dye stocks.
Selective hand re-tinting.
Brush by brush, never flood-dye. The rug is restored, not flattened. Patina is preserved. Depth comes back without erasing age.
Why we never flood-dye a faded rug.
Color restoration is a hand-craft, not a chemistry experiment. Household dye floods the field at one concentration, on every fiber, in every direction — the rug ends up uniformly tinted, the depth flattened, the patina destroyed. Light-fast restoration dyes are different: fiber-specific, formulated for fine wool and silk, applied at calibrated concentrations to the areas that need it.
The master artisan reads the original palette from the surviving sections — the field, the borders, the back of the pile — and matches each shade by hand. Then the re-tint is applied with a brush, area by area, fiber by fiber. The rug's depth comes back; its age stays. Done by hand, restoration is invisible. Done by flood-dye, it cannot be undone.
Where the palette is rebuilt.
The dye-master station holds dye stocks from every weaving tradition we work on. Each colour is matched first, then selectively re-tinted by hand — not a single flood-dye, not a chemical bath. The original palette is restored. The rug's age is kept.
Us versus a standard cleaner.
Where the two paths diverge. Eight choices that separate an atelier from a cleaning service.
Cleaning Method
Horizon
Hand-washed by master artisans
Standard Cleaner
Rotary machine, generic chemicals
Pickup & Delivery
Horizon
Complimentary — by our team, in our truck
Standard Cleaner
Third-party courier (or your problem)
Antique & Silk Color Restoration
Horizon
Conservation-grade, by hand
Standard Cleaner
Same process as everything else
Process Time
Horizon
7–14 days, properly done
Standard Cleaner
1–2 day machine ‘express’
Dye Stability Testing
Horizon
Tested before every wash
Standard Cleaner
Not tested — rugs lose color
Where Your Rug Is Cleaned
Horizon
Our family atelier, supervised
Standard Cleaner
Third-party wash plant
Restoration & Reweaving
Horizon
In-house, by hand
Standard Cleaner
Outsourced or refused
Inspection
Horizon
By hand, before any work begins
Standard Cleaner
Visual only, if at all
Ready to have your rug's colour restored by our atelier?
Where we pick up your rug for colour restoration.
Letters from across the Northeast.
A few of the rugs we've cared for — and the families who trusted us with them.
“They returned an heirloom Tabriz — the colors look exactly as my grandmother described them.”
“A 1920s Heriz I thought was beyond saving came back better than the day my parents bought it.”
“Our clients trust us with eight-figure homes. Horizon is the only atelier I send their rugs to.”
Questions, honestly answered.
What clients ask us before they hand over a rug — and how we answer.
What is color restoration?
Will the restored colour fade again?
How long does color restoration take?
Can you match the original palette?
Is a sun-faded rug saveable?
Can you fix dye-bleed from water?
Can you fix moth-bleach spots?
Do you pick up rugs for color restoration across the tri-state?
Is color restoration done in-house?
How is color restoration priced?
What is color restoration?
Will the restored colour fade again?
How long does color restoration take?
Can you match the original palette?
Do you pick up rugs for color restoration across the tri-state?
Is color restoration done in-house?
Is a sun-faded rug saveable?
Can you fix dye-bleed from water?
Can you fix moth-bleach spots?
How is color restoration priced?
More from Horizon.
Other ateliers, every service we offer, and the rest of our story — a few directions to explore.
Bring us the rug.
Sun-fade, dye-bleed, oxidation, moth-bleach, pet stains, water damage — whichever colour issue your rug has, we restore by hand with light-fast dyes. Complimentary pickup from Manhattan, the Hamptons, Westchester County, Greenwich, and Stamford.
By hand · By the Cohen family · By appointment