Multicolor Anatolian Handwoven Wool Kilim Runner

An Anatolian kilim runner handwoven in wool in Türkiye, 88 × 336 cm (2'11" × 11'0"), which is a corridor length rather than a room size, and multicolored across the whole of it. A kilim has no pile: the weave is the pattern, and both faces of it work. Three and a third meters is long enough that the drawing has to repeat, and Anatolian kilim drawing is built for exactly that — a unit of motif, then the same unit again, with the color changing between repeats so the eye keeps finding new work to do.

01Where it is laid

Laid down a hallway it does what a runner is for: it gives the walk a rhythm and stops a long narrow space from reading only as a passage. At 88 cm wide it leaves floor showing on both sides in most halls, which is how a runner should sit. It was woven by hand on a Turkish loom, and a piece this long tests a weaver more than a wide one does — the tension has to hold for three meters and the beat has to stay even, or the width wanders.

Look along the edge and you can see whether it did. Kilims are thin and finished on both sides, so this one can be turned end for end when the door end begins to look worn. Professional washing when the time comes, which for a hall runner arrives sooner than it does for a sitting-room rug. Handwoven wool kilim, made in Türkiye, flat and pileless. 88 × 336 cm (2'11" × 11'0") — a hall, a landing, or a long kitchen. Multicolored, with the Anatolian motif unit repeating along the length. Reversible, and light enough to lift and turn end for end. Thin, so it passes under a door without anything being planed. Professional washing. The only piece at this length. Hall runners wear at one end first, and this one can simply be turned round and given a second life as long as the first.