Your Home - Stockade Imports: Stepping into a Turkish Bazaar

Oriental carpets of all shapes, sizes and colors sit in organized piles, surrounded by colorful artwork. Soft music plays through the 14-ft doors that were installed in 1883 when the building was first built as a firehouse. This has been the location of Stockade Imports since mid-2006.

Originally opened in 1983 in Schenectady, Stockade moved to 268 Broadway in Saratoga Springs in 1986. In 1995, owner Deborah Barthold sold Stockade Imports to Syracuse-based Jacobsen Oriental Rugs. After a nine-year break, Barthold reacquired the business in 2004.

Deborah Barthold has been in the oriental rug business since she was a little girl. Her father was president of Jacobsen Oriental Rugs in Syracuse. He wrote a book called “How to buy Oriental Rugs.” After her father retired in the late 1980s, he and Deborah traveled throughout the Middle East. They went to pre-revolution Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey and Northern India.

Deborah stresses Northern India because it is very close to Tibet which produces excellent quality wool for rugs. Through these travels and watching her father, she learned oriental rugs as an art, not just a business.

Walking around the old firehouse of a showroom, the colors of the rugs that are piled into aisles are the deepest reds, apple greens, royal blues and pastel pinks – among others. For an industry that many consider dark or expensive, Stockade carries a surprising number of contemporary rugs at reasonable prices. These carpets are simple but made with the best materials so that they’ll last. Deborah stresses that oriental rugs are an investment piece – something that should be chosen with great deliberation and loved for many years.

When choosing which rugs to carry for the upcoming seasons, Deborah follows fashion first and then the furniture industry but always concentrates on quality. For the upcoming year, the popular colors are earth tones, gold, tangerine, blue and chocolate. And if there is something that a client wants that is not in stock, Deborah is more then happy to find it for them.

Stockade Imports is a full service business that not only helps customers pick out carpets in store, they will also go to their houses to take measurements and then pick out as many as 30 different carpets and bring them to the house so customers can get a feel for what the carpet will look like in the space that is being decorated.

Rebecca Mahoney of Saratoga has worked with Stockade Imports for about 15 years. She considers herself Deborah’s “most annoying customer,” although Deborah disagrees. Rebecca had at least twenty-five different carpets brought to her house before she settled on the three she now owns. Rebecca also traded in a rug that she purchased when she wasn’t completely happy with it, which Stockade was more than willing to do.

Deborah calls herself an “Oriental rug decorator.” She tells clients that, when decorating a room it’s easier to choose the carpet first and then, using the colors of the rug, select draperies, artwork and fabrics that compliment the carpet. She considers Oriental rugs “art work that you walk on.” She also stresses that Oriental carpets are an investment and, when taken care of, can last well over 100 years.

Michelle Feinstein of Saratoga has been a customer for over fifteen years, following Stockade from its original home in Schenectady to its current space on Broadway. She considers Deborah to be a “double threat” because she’s very knowledgeable about Oriental rugs and she’s able to make customers feel like family. Michelle’s favorite part of shopping at Stockade Imports is the lack of pressure to buy.

The showroom itself is very welcoming, with those large firehouse doors propped open to the early afternoon sunlight. Deborah says that the showroom is a lovely place to work. It’s got a very open feeling and has been used for public events such as art shows. She estimates that she’s given more carpets to charity then she’s sold. She is part of the Etching Council.

Sitting in a plush leather chair surrounded by carpets, Deborah explains that there is a flood of ‘tufted’ carpets in the market. These are rugs that are made of cheaper materials and are a lower quality than the handmade carpets that Stockade carries. They are also “very bad for the earth,” Deborah says, because of the glue that is used on the back of the rugs. It’s not regulated by the FDA, so it may be made from harmful chemicals. These mock Oriental rugs are the ones that are sold at stores such as Wal-Mart or Target.

One way to distinguish the difference between tufted rugs and genuine Oriental carpets is to look at the back. A true oriental rug “…should look as beautiful on the back as it does on the front,” Barthold says. “They should sparkle in the sunlight, never just lay flat. Always ask to see a carpet in the sun.” This sheen that comes from using good quality materials is the difference between a rug that will be thrown away and one that will be treasured for years to come.

This is the type of knowledge that Deborah wants all her customers to have when choosing a carpet. She believes that it’s best for her business if customers make informed decisions.

Deborah herself is incredibly knowledgeable about Oriental rugs, explaining that in order to be considered high quality, a rug has to contain a certain amount of lanolin, which is best produced in cold weather – something that the average person might not know. Rebecca Mahoney says that once a customer visits Stockade, they become an Oriental rug connoisseur, simply by talking to Deborah for a short time.

Not only does Barthold order rugs from vendors in the Middle East, she also accepts private owner’s carpets on consignment, like a large 14x20 vintage rug that Barthold manages to unroll, with some difficulty. The beautiful wool is woven into tiny, detailed flowers in all shades of pinks, reds, greens and blues. “It’s like walking on a garden!” Deborah exclaims. Deborah herself has forty-nine rugs in her house. With a slight smile and a shrug she says, “I guess I’m a little passionate about my business.”

The Saratoga Consignment Studio is located at 20 Prospect Street, Ballston Spa, NY 12020.

For information pertaining to products, services, pricing, and/or questions, call 518-581-4331 or visit their website at http://scsdecor.com/.