multi colored rug care

November 4, 2011 7:35 AM

I got a rug for my bathroom from Pier 1 Imports which is off white with colored stripes. I havent washed it yet, but it got wet, and the red bled into the off white a bit making it faintly pink in a small area. Can you tell me how to 1. eliminate the pink without harming the adjacent red or other colors, and 2. treat the other colors so that bleeding does not occur again, and I can wash it?

Thank you Metafilter!

posted by hollyanderbody to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Is it sold as a rug for your bathroom? If so, and it's new, and bled when it got wet, you should take it back immediately.
posted by mkultra at 7:45 AM on November 4, 2011

Yeah if it was marketed as a bathroom rug I would return it as well.

Quick search for "setting dye" led me to this, which says vinegar (what I would have originally suggested) is not failsafe.
posted by like_neon at 7:49 AM on November 4, 2011

There are products sold as color fixatives, like Retayne "for commercially dyed cotton linen and rayon fabrics that bleed", but they probably won't help with the pink part. You say that area is small, though, so I'd be tempted to give it a try if you don't want to or can't return it.
posted by soelo at 8:32 AM on November 4, 2011