Purple Rugs

A purple rug is one whose ground or principal motifs sit between red and blue, from pale lilac through plum to near-black aubergine. Anatolian dyers had no single purple plant: the color was built by dyeing wool in indigo and over-dyeing it with madder, or by shifting madder or cochineal toward plum with an iron mordant.

Purple is the least stable color in a room and the most rewarding when it is placed correctly. What follows is where the color comes from in a rug, how it behaves under a lamp against north daylight, and what it costs in fading and in patience.

Where purple in a rug comes from

It is nearly always a compound color rather than a single dye.

The red side of the Anatolian palette is madder (Rubia tinctorum), whose root gives everything from brick to rose depending on concentration, water and mordant. The blue is indigo, worked in a fermentation vat rather than a hot bath. A weaver who wanted plum dipped wool in the indigo vat first and then took it through madder, so that the two colors sat on the same fiber. Purples were also reached from the other direction, by mordanting madder or cochineal with iron, which darkens and cools a red toward aubergine — the same reaction that turns a red rug's outlines gray-brown where iron was used deliberately.

Because purple was two operations rather than one, it was expensive in labor and comparatively rare in village weaving. Where you do meet it in old Anatolian work it tends to be in small quantities — an inner border, a medallion field, the ground of a single motif — rather than across a whole rug. Modern purples are a different matter: acid dyes on wool and disperse dyes on synthetics reach violets that no plant reaches, which is why a saturated lilac shag and a plum hand-knotted rug are not the same kind of object at all. The distinction is set out in natural dyes against synthetic dyes.

What purple does under a lamp and under north daylight

No color shifts as far between light sources as purple does.

Purple is the sum of a red component and a blue one, and household lamplight at roughly 2700 K supplies plenty of red and almost no blue. Under a warm lamp a plum rug loses its blue half and slides toward maroon or brown; a lilac goes pink and slightly dusty; an aubergine can read simply as very dark brown. Warm light flatters purple's depth and takes away its identity.

North-facing daylight, near 6500 K and blue-weighted, does the reverse. Plum reads truly violet, aubergine holds its blue-black, and lilac — which needs warmth to stay a color at all — can collapse into gray. A north room is where a deep purple looks most like itself and a pale one looks least like itself. Two rugs that match in the shop will not necessarily match at home, which is the practical definition of metamerism and the reason to see purple in the room it is going into.

What a purple rug costs you

Three things, and only one of them is about cleaning.

• It fades unevenly. In a natural-dye purple the indigo is the more lightfast half and the madder the less, so a plum in a sunny room drifts toward blue-gray rather than simply getting paler. On synthetics, violets are generally among the shorter-lived dyes in strong light. Keep purple out of a full south window and rotate the rug twice a year.
• It sets the room. Purple is a dominant color and will not sit quietly behind a strong wall color or a patterned sofa. It works with cream, gray, anthracite and unfinished wood, and it works with yellow ochre as a deliberate contrast; against turquoise or a warm red it simply argues.
• Dark purple hides soil, pale purple does not. Aubergine and plum are among the better colors for concealing everyday dry soil. Lilac behaves like any pale tone and shows traffic lanes first.

Which purple, by weave and fiber

Tone	Typical construction	Under warm lamplight	Suits
Lilac	Machine-woven microfiber shag and soft synthetic pile	Turns pink and dusty	Children's and teenagers' rooms, bedrooms, low traffic
Plum	Hand-knotted wool and bamboo-viscose blends; loom-woven Oushak drawing	Reads maroon, loses the blue	Living rooms with cream or gray walls
Aubergine	Hand-knotted wool and silk; flat-woven kilim	Reads near-black brown	Formal rooms, dark floors, layering under furniture
Purple as an accent	Anatolian kilim, Oushak-drawn wool, patchwork	Recedes into the ground color	Rooms that want the color without the commitment

The purple pieces here span hand-knotted wool and silk, carved Oushak-pattern wool in the Safir Series, abstract bamboo-viscose in the Maison Series, a soft microfiber shag, and flat-woven handwoven kilims including old Anatolian Barak weaving.

Where a purple rug works

• A gray or cream living room. Plum against warm gray is the most reliable pairing purple offers, and it is worth reading what color rug suits a gray sofa before committing.
• A bedroom. Aubergine reads almost as a dark neutral once the lamps are on, which is why it survives in bedrooms where a brighter color would not.
• A child's or teenager's room. Lilac in a soft synthetic pile is the practical choice — see teen room rugs.
• A hallway. Deep purple hides soil well and gives a corridor an end point.
• Kitchens and entries. Only in a flat weave that can be lifted and shaken out.

Frequently asked questions

Was purple used in traditional Turkish rugs?

Yes, but sparingly. No single Anatolian dye plant gives purple, so the color was built by over-dyeing indigo with madder or by shifting madder and cochineal toward plum with an iron mordant, which made it costly in labor and usually confined it to borders and medallions.

What colors go with a purple rug?

Cream, warm gray, anthracite and bare wood let a purple rug lead without competition, and yellow ochre works as a deliberate contrast. Turquoise and warm red fight it. Silver and pewter accents suit aubergine particularly well.

Why does my purple rug look brown at night?

Household lamplight near 2700 K contains a great deal of red and very little blue, so it removes the blue half of a purple. Plum reads maroon and aubergine reads brown under a lamp, then returns to violet in daylight.

Do purple rugs fade faster than other colors?

Purple fades unevenly rather than quickly. In a natural-dye rug the indigo outlasts the madder, so plum drifts toward blue-gray, and violet dyes on synthetic fiber are generally among the shorter-lived in strong light. Keep the rug out of a full south window.

Does a purple rug show dirt?

Aubergine and plum are among the better colors for hiding everyday dry soil, since the tone is dark enough to absorb it visually. Lilac behaves like any pale color and shows traffic lanes first, particularly in a long pile.

Which room suits a purple rug best?

A living room or bedroom with cream or gray walls and reasonably steady light. Purple is a dominant color that sets the palette rather than following one, so it needs a room where nothing else is already competing for that role.

Related collections: burgundy rugs · gray rugs · colorful rugs · Oushak rugs