Hatıl Series Kids' Room Rugs

The Hatıl Series is Halıcızade's rug line for children's and teenagers' rooms: five designs, each built on a single figure set in a wide cream field, loom-woven in Anatolia in natural wool or a Tencel, cotton and wool blend, and woven in one size, 170 × 240 cm (5'7" × 7'10").

Most rugs made for children fill the ground edge to edge with repeating figures. This series does the opposite, for reasons that are partly about design and partly about what a child's floor is actually used for. What follows is where the name comes from, what the five designs are, and what to check before buying any rug for a room a child plays in.

What a hatıl is

A hatıl is the horizontal wooden tie beam that Anatolian builders lay inside the thickness of a stone wall. It stays buried in the masonry, never seen from outside and never decorated. Its whole function is structural: without it, a stone wall works loose under its own weight and under the movement that time brings.

The series is named for it because the same idea holds for a child's room. The supports that matter are the ones that are not on display — a room, a color, a figure remembered years later. The designs were drawn for Halıcızade by Mehmethan Özer.

The five designs

Each rug carries one figure, placed off-center in an open cream ground.

• Butterfly — gold and honey wing tones with fine gray veining; the figure of change and of leaving.
• Deer — a red deer holding its footing on rock; the figure of staying balanced on difficult ground.
• Mushroom — the underground network that links a forest to itself; the figure of what feeds a thing without being seen.
• Telescope — tripod planted in the ground, eye on the sky; the figure of curiosity.
• World — ray forms opening from one corner across the field; the figure of finding a direction and holding to it.

Why the ground is left empty

Because the floor of a child's room is a working surface, not a display.

A rug covered corner to corner in figures competes with whatever is put on top of it — the track, the blocks, the drawing, the child. A wide cream field with one figure at the edge does not. The second reason is time: a rug tied to a cartoon character is dated within a few years, while a deer, a butterfly and a telescope are not tied to anything that expires. The furniture in the room changes, the posters change, and the rug can stay.

How to choose a rug for a child's room

Four things decide it, and pattern is the last of them.

What to check	What to look for	Why
Yarn	Natural fibers — wool, cotton, Tencel	Wool holds less static charge than synthetic pile and stays warmer underfoot; it also springs back rather than keeping the mark of a chair leg
Size	Large enough to start at the foot of the bed and cover the middle of the room	The rug's job is to define the play area; a small rug pushed to one side does not do it
Pile height	Medium — neither shaggy nor flat	A deep pile topples toy cars and towers; a very short pile is hard to sit on for long
Pattern	Figures drawn from nature rather than from a license	Character rugs age out with the character; the room outgrows them before the wool does

For the wider range by age, see baby and kids' room rugs and teen room rugs.

Wool or Tencel: which model is which

The series does not use one recipe. The Deer, Mushroom, Telescope and World designs are woven in natural wool, which gives a matte, firm and warm surface. The Butterfly design uses Tencel together with cotton and wool, and the Tencel adds a cool, silk-like sheen that shifts as the light moves across it.

Tencel is a regenerated fiber spun from wood cellulose in a closed-loop solvent process; it is a brand name, and the generic term is lyocell. Its one real limitation belongs in a child's room more than anywhere else: Tencel weakens when wet, so a spill should be lifted straight away rather than left. Which yarn is in which rug is written into the product name, so there is nothing to guess. Compare wool rugs and Tencel rugs.

How it is woven, and in what size

On the kara tezgah, the traditional upright loom of Anatolia: the structure of the rug is set on the loom by machine knot, and the surface work and finishing are completed by hand. That combination gives the surface of hand work with the dimensional consistency of a loom. The same weave underlies the Zade, Zima and Günyolu series, which differ in pattern and in who they were drawn for rather than in structure.

Every rug in the series is woven at 170 × 240 cm (5'7" × 7'10"). That size begins at the foot of a single bed and reaches comfortably across the middle of an average child's room, which leaves a wide clear area to sit and play on.

Care, and what is normal

Regular vacuuming is most of it, run in the direction of the pile rather than against it. Lift a spill by pressing a dry cloth into it — rubbing drives the liquid down into the fiber. Natural-fiber rugs are not suited to wet washing at home, so anything beyond blotting belongs with a professional rug washer. Turning the rug once a year spreads the wear that otherwise concentrates beside the bed.

A few things are properties of the weave rather than faults. Because the finishing is done by hand, the edges may not be exactly parallel and one end can be a couple of centimeters wider than the other; a row of pattern may shift slightly. A new rug sheds loose pile for the first few weeks, which vacuuming removes and which stops on its own. On the Tencel model the sheen changes with the angle of light, so the ground darkens and lightens as the rug is turned.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Hatıl Series?

The Hatıl Series is Halıcızade's rug line for children's and teenagers' rooms. It has five designs, each built on a single figure in a wide cream field, loom-woven in Anatolia in natural wool or a Tencel, cotton and wool blend, and produced in one size, 170 × 240 cm.

What does the word hatıl mean?

A hatıl is the horizontal wooden tie beam laid inside the thickness of a stone wall in Anatolian building. It is invisible from outside and never decorated, and its only purpose is to hold the wall together against its own weight and against movement over time.

What size are Hatıl Series rugs?

All of them are woven at 170 × 240 cm, or 5 feet 7 inches by 7 feet 10 inches. That size starts at the foot of a single bed and covers the middle of an average child's room, leaving a clear area large enough to sit and play on.

Which Hatıl rugs are wool and which contain Tencel?

The Deer, Mushroom, Telescope and World designs are woven in natural wool, which is matte, firm and warm underfoot. The Butterfly design combines Tencel with cotton and wool, giving a cooler surface and a silk-like sheen that shifts with the light.

What should you look for in a rug for a child's room?

Four things: natural yarn rather than synthetic, a size large enough to define the play area, a medium pile height that neither topples toys nor feels hard to sit on, and a pattern drawn from nature rather than from a character that will date.

Is the Hatıl Series suitable for a nursery?

Yes. The figures are drawn simply enough to suit a baby's room and a fifteen-year-old's room alike, and the cream ground with a single figure means the rug does not have to be replaced as the room changes around it.

How is a natural-fiber children's rug cleaned?

Vacuum regularly in the direction of the pile, and lift spills by pressing a dry cloth into them rather than rubbing. Wet washing at home is not suitable for natural fibers, so a deeper clean should be left to a professional rug washer.

Related collections: baby and kids' room rugs · teen room rugs · Günyolu Series · loom-woven rugs