Why You Shouldn’t Buy Tufting Equipment Straight Away

Thinking of buying a tufting gun and making rugs at home? Before spending around €500 on equipment, try tufting for yourself first.

Tufting is becoming an increasingly popular creative activity. You can design your own rugs, experiment with colours and shapes, create original interior accessories and, with enough experience, even explore selling your work.

But before buying equipment, it is worth asking yourself one important question:

What if you buy everything you need and then discover that tufting isn’t for you?

At my Let’s Make a Carpet tufting school in Brussels, you can try the process, make your own rug and decide whether you want to continue — without first investing hundreds of euros in equipment.

How Much Does It Cost to Start Tufting at Home?

Let’s look at an example of a beginner tufting kit listed on Amazon.

The stated price of the kit is €291.99. According to the product description, it includes:

• An AK-V tufting gun.
• A piece of primary tufting cloth and backing fabric, approximately 4 m² of each.
• Twelve skeins of acrylic yarn in different colours, weighing approximately 50–100 grams each.
• A carpet trimming machine for finishing the surface of the completed rug.

However, one important item is missing from the kit: the frame used to stretch the tufting fabric.

The same website lists a freestanding tufting frame with a maximum working size of approximately 135 × 135 cm for €199.99.

Let’s add up the costs:

Equipment	Approximate cost
Tufting kit	€291.99
Freestanding frame	€199.99
Total	€491.98

That means spending around €500 before making your very first rug.

This is an example calculation, not a guarantee of current prices or availability. Prices and kit contents may change.

As you gain experience and move on to larger or more complex projects, you may also need additional materials.

What If You Don’t Enjoy Tufting?

Imagine that you have bought the equipment, prepared your workspace and started your first project.

Perhaps you really enjoy the first few hours. You experiment with colours, make your first lines with the tufting gun and gradually see your design appear on the fabric.

But then you discover that the process is not quite what you expected.

Maybe you find the work too repetitive. Perhaps preparing the design, stretching the fabric, finishing the rug and cleaning up take more time than you thought. Or you simply realise that another hobby suits you better.

What happens next?

Your equipment may end up in a corner of the garage, a storage room or a cupboard. A few years later, you might try to sell the entire kit on a second-hand marketplace for only a fraction of what you originally paid.

Of course, this does not happen to everyone. Some people genuinely fall in love with tufting and continue making rugs for years.

But the point is simple: until you have tried tufting yourself, you cannot know how well it suits you.

So why invest around €500 straight away?

Your First Step: Just for Fun! Tufting Workshop in Brussels

At my Let’s Make a Carpet tufting school, you can start with the Just for Fun! workshop.

The workshop costs €100 and lasts four hours, with my personal guidance. All the materials you need are included.

During the session, you will make your own rug measuring approximately 40 × 50 cm and take it home. The rug you make is yours to keep.

You do not need to buy a tufting gun, build a frame or purchase yarn and fabric in advance. The equipment and materials are ready for you.

Most importantly, you will experience the real process of making a rug with guidance from a master who has spent more than 20 years working in professional tufting and rug production.

I will introduce you to the basic techniques, show you how to hold and guide the tufting gun correctly, and help you take your first steps towards creating your own rug.

You will not just watch a demonstration. You will do the tufting yourself.

For €100, you can find out whether you enjoy tufting and leave with a rug you have made with your own hands.

Book the Just for Fun! workshop

It’s Not Just About the Tufting Gun — Learn from a Professional Rug Maker

There is an important difference between knowing how to use a tufting gun and knowing how to make a quality rug.

My name is Fyodor Bartkovskyy. I have been working in professional rug production since 2003. Through Carpet Studio, I have worked with bespoke designs, exclusive hand-tufted rugs and professional surface-finishing techniques. Over the years, I have also trained more than 30 professional tufters.

This experience shapes my approach to teaching, even at beginner level.

During both Just for Fun! and Hobby Brussels, we use professionally designed metal frames, fabric specifically made for tufting and quality English wool yarn intended for rug making.

The tufting guns used in these workshops are beginner-level models. However, the working principles and techniques I teach are based on professional rug production.

I will show you how to hold and guide the gun, control the direction of your lines, work with the fabric and understand how pile density affects the result. You will also begin to see why your technique makes a difference to the quality of the finished rug.

These skills are useful whether you want to make a single rug for your home or develop your tufting skills further.

During your visit, you can also see examples of our finished rugs.

Explore finished rugs by Carpet Studio

What If You Discover That You Really Enjoy Tufting?

Then your first experience could be the beginning of something bigger.

At Let’s Make a Carpet, you can choose from different learning formats rather than treating your first workshop as a one-off experience with no clear next step.

Just for Fun! — Try Tufting

• Duration: approximately 4 hours.
• Price: €100.
• Rug size: approximately 40 × 50 cm.
• Previous experience: not required.
• Materials: included.

An introduction to tufting, a creative break and an opportunity to make your own rug.

View the Just for Fun! workshop and booking details

Hobby Brussels — Develop Your Skills

View the Hobby Brussels workshop and booking details

• Duration: approximately 8 hours.
• Price: €180.
• Rug size: approximately 70 × 80 cm.
• Previous experience: suitable for beginners who want to spend more time learning the process.
• Materials: included.

If you discover that tufting is something you enjoy, Hobby Brussels gives you more time to practise the techniques and create a larger rug. You can explore design preparation, stretching the fabric, guiding the lines, pile density and finishing the rug.

Individual Tufting Lessons

If you prefer personal instruction tailored to your own goals, individual lessons can be arranged in advance.

• Price: €30 per hour.

We can focus on your interests, a particular project and the skills you want to develop.

Professional Tufting Training

If your goal is to make rugs professionally, create textile art or develop your own rug-making business, a more advanced training level is planned.

Professional training will be individual and available strictly by prior arrangement. It will cover more advanced techniques and professional production methods.

You do not need to make that decision today. Start by discovering tufting for yourself.

A Professional Studio in Brussels

The workshops take place at the Let’s Make a Carpet studio at Tour & Taxis in Brussels. The space is equipped for practical tufting sessions.

During your visit, you can see the workspace, professional frames, rug-making materials and finished Carpet Studio pieces.

It is an opportunity to experience tufting in a real studio environment without having to set up your own workshop at home.

Find out more about the school and its location:

Where is the tufting school in Brussels, and who is it for?

Try It First. Decide Later.

Buying your own equipment can be a good investment once you know that tufting suits you and you want to continue making rugs at home.

But you do not have to start by buying everything.

For €100, you can spend four hours learning from an experienced master, try tufting with suitable equipment and materials, and create your own rug.

If you enjoy it, you can continue with Hobby Brussels, choose individual lessons and potentially progress towards professional training.

If you discover that tufting is not for you, you will still have a new experience and a rug made with your own hands — without spending around €500 on equipment you might never use again.

My advice is simple: don’t buy a tufting gun just yet. Try tufting first.

Ready to Make Your First Rug?

Discover the workshops at Let’s Make a Carpet — the tufting school in Brussels.

Start with Just for Fun!, choose the longer Hobby Brussels workshop or ask about individual lessons.

Explore tufting workshops and training in Brussels

Location:
Tour & Taxis, Sheds, Basement, Gate 39,
Havenlaan 86C, Brussels 1000, Belgium.

Come and try tufting. Your first rug could be the beginning of something much bigger.