Zebra Rugs: The Truth in Black and White

If you've lived long enough, or just have a slightly underdeveloped sense of humor, you may be familiar with zebra jokes.

To wit: "What's black, and white, and red all over?"

Answer: "A sunburned zebra."

Here, for the purposes of this article, is a more updated version.

"What's black and white, and tread all over?" (Excuse my liberties with tense, but it works better than "trod".)

"A zebra rug."

Now that we have the zebra wisecracking out of the way, let's consider zebra rugs as highly noticeable home accessories. First, we'll address the most common zebra rug myth: all zebras, and the rugs produced from their hides, have similar stripes of black and white.

Well, no, not really.

Every zebra belongs to one of the three branches of the zebra species. The hide of the regally-named "imperial zebra" has about eighty narrow stripes; that of the mountain zebra has about fifty-five narrow vertical stripes and three wider horizontal bands along the outside of its hindquarters; and the most common hide of all, that of the Burchelli zebra, the huge herds of which are regularly culled by wildlife management, has twenty-six wide stripes, vertical along its shoulders and transitioning to horizontal along its ribcage and hindquarters. Most natural zebra rugs are made from the hides of Burchelli zebras.

As to coloration, truly back and white zebras do not exist. Dark zebra stripes range from a golden chestnut to a warm chocolate, while their light stripes are a white to creamy off-white.

And, while it's possible, it isn't likely that you'll find natural zebra rugs taken from zebras left unscarred by their life on plains of Africa. If you do, expect to pay a premium for them. Zebra rug vendors grade the zebra rugs they sell according to the number of blemishes and battle scars each one carries, with the least-damaged zebra rugs commanding the highest prices.

Natural zebra rugs, which are normally backed with heavy grade black felt, are truly eye-catching pieces of floor covering, and will be stunning additions to modern, African, or tropically-themed rooms.

If you love the look of natural zebra rugs, but are concerned about their expense or worried about maintaining the wild zebra population, you can still have the fun of decorating with synthetic, or faux, zebra rugs.

Synthetic zebra rugs are not limited to the hide shapes of their natural counterparts; you can find them in rectangles, and runners, of various sizes. Made of inexpensive washable carved propylene fibers, they offer the texture of genuine zebra rugs. And they will give you the true black-and-white color scheme that you can't find in natural zebra rugs.

Or, for those who are willing to pay a little more for zebra rugs which look like, without being, natural zebra hide, there are cowhide rugs with white to beige backgrounds which have been printed with a zebra-like pattern of black striping and cut to resemble natural zebra skin.

And for those who are just not into black and white, there are faux-fur throw rugs which have zebra stripes ranging in colors from pink and black to royal blue and white; while no one is going to confuse them with natural zebra rugs, they do offer a certain flexibility to decorating.

And there you have it--zebra rugs, in black and white. Or not.

Author: Matt Garrett

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