Antique Restoration Shop in LIC: Costikyan Rugs Since 1886

Costikyan restores antique rugs in a warehouse at 37-11 48th Avenue in Long Island City, and it has been in the rug business since 1886. Its office runs Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM, and is closed on weekends. If you are looking for an antique restoration shop in New York that handles textiles rather than wood or porcelain, this is the specialist: the team reweaves worn pile, rebuilds fringe and binding, and repairs moth damage, and the first estimate is free.

The flagship is a working plant, not a showroom on a shopping street. It sits on 48th Avenue between 37th and 38th Streets, in the industrial blocks where Long Island City meets Sunnyside, about four blocks south of Queens Boulevard and the elevated 7 train at 33rd Street–Rawson Street. Costikyan opened this facility in 2018 and fitted it with modern washing and finishing equipment, so cleaning, repair and drying happen under one roof.

Most clients never carry a rug here themselves. Costikyan's restoration page describes white-glove pickup, transport and return, and the crew will move furniture to lift a rug, then put everything back after reinstallation. Rugs stay insured and bonded while they are in the building. If you would rather bring a small piece in person, phone first so a specialist can look at it with you instead of logging it as a simple drop.

The repair list on the official site is specific: fringe repair, edge stabilization, reweaving, color restoration, moth damage repair, binding replacement and structural restoration, for both antique and contemporary rugs. Reweaving is the headline skill. Restorers match wool and dye to the original, then knot new pile into areas that have worn down to the foundation, which is common in hallway runners and in front of sofas.

Color work is the second big job. Sun-faded corners and old water stains are treated so the field reads evenly again, and earlier amateur repairs, such as glued patches or painted-in pile, are found during inspection and planned around. Costikyan also sells FiberShield protection, premium padding and flameproofing, which are worth adding to a rug that is going back onto a busy floor rather than into storage.

One review on the company's own testimonial page gives a sense of scale: a client had three rugs cleaned and a tear repaired in an 18-foot rug, and named Tigran as the person who handled it. Large-format carpets, stair runners and wall-to-wall pieces are routine here, which is not true of most small repair counters in Manhattan.

The process has three published steps. First comes a thorough assessment in the facility, where specialists look at fiber, dyes, structure, worn areas, weak edges, fringe damage, color loss and any previous repairs. That inspection becomes a custom restoration plan, and this is the moment to ask what is essential and what is cosmetic, because the answer changes the bill.

Second is the repair itself: stabilizing edges, reconstructing fringe, reweaving thin pile and correcting faded areas using traditional techniques. Third is a final inspection, optional protective treatment and a secure delivery, with reinstallation if you need it. Costikyan says every rug gets a treatment plan based on its fibers, dyes, weave and condition, so a silk Hereke and a wool kilim will not go through the same wash.

The company history starts with S. Kent Costikyan, whose family emigrated from Constantinople, now Istanbul, with generations of rug-trade knowledge. While he was a student at Colgate University, a shipment of rugs arrived in New York without a buyer, and he sold them to his professors. That sale led him to found Costikyan Frères in Rochester, New York, in 1886.

The business later moved through Chicago and Manhattan and traded as the House of Kent-Costikyan before the restoration arm took the name Restoration by Costikyan. Five generations on, the client list includes the Chrysler, Ford, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt families, Yale University and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Trade press has covered its restoration of an antique Laver Kirman carpet from Hearst Castle, a job that took almost eight months.

This week is an unusual time to visit. To mark its 140th anniversary, Costikyan is holding its first warehouse sale in a decade in Long Island City, from October 22 to 25, 9 AM to 7 PM. The stock includes handmade rugs, antique and vintage pieces, designer broadloom and never-used inventory, and the antique rugs are only available in the sizes already in stock.

Registering on the sale page gets you the inventory list by email and $100 off a purchase during the event. Come with room measurements and a photo of the floor, because there is no custom sizing on the antique pieces. If you also have a damaged rug at home, the sale is a chance to talk to the restoration team in person and book a pickup on the same visit.

The clients named in Costikyan's own materials span designers, architects, collectors, historic estates and institutions, alongside ordinary homeowners. Reviews on its testimonial page come from people who sent in a single family rug as well as households with several pieces at once. If you are a designer working on a whole apartment, it is worth bundling cleaning, padding and installation into one order so a single truck handles the job.

Be honest about value before you approve a full reweave. Structural restoration on a mass-produced machine rug rarely pays for itself, and cleaning plus new edge binding is often the sensible stopping point. For small accidents, the Costikyan spot kit, sold through its online store, handles fresh spills at home, so the rug only goes to Queens when the damage is real.

After a drop-off, walk north to Queens Boulevard and head east under the 7 train into Sunnyside. The Sunnyside Gardens Historic District, a 1920s planned garden community with shared courtyards, sits a few blocks north of the boulevard, and its low brick rowhouses are a calm contrast to the warehouses on 48th Avenue. Skillman Avenue has small cafes and bakeries for a coffee stop.

Heading west instead, the 7 train runs a few stops to Court Square and Hunters Point, where MoMA PS1 occupies a former public school on Jackson Avenue. On a weekday afternoon you can hand over a rug in the morning, see a show at PS1 and be back in Manhattan before the evening rush.

Address: 37-11 48th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101. Office schedule: Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM; closed Saturday and Sunday. Estimates and in-home consultations are free, and pickup, delivery and reinstallation can be booked by phone. Costikyan also runs branches in Bogota, New Jersey, and Winchester, Massachusetts.

Take photos of the front, back and any damage before pickup, and note old repairs you know about, since that speeds up the assessment. Ask the Karpo APP to map a lunch stop in Sunnyside or a gallery near Court Square, so the trip to Queens turns into an afternoon out.