Navy Oushak-Pattern Machine-Woven Viscose Rug, Efsun Series

A deep navy ground covered end to end in a fine vegetal net: cream and gold blossoms, rosettes and curling stems that leave no empty space and form no center. From the Efsun series, machine-woven in Türkiye at a reed count of one hundred, in viscose and acrylic yarns, and made in three sizes. Oushak here names the pattern family, not the place the rug was made.

The border is layered rather than single — a wide cream band, a narrow red water line on each side of it, and a navy edge outside all of them, with cream fringes at both ends. The effect the rug produces does not come from the contrast between navy and cream; it comes from how densely the motifs are packed, and reed count is the number behind that. At a hundred reeds the blossoms in the ground are small enough to sit inside a centimeter and the points of the leaves survive, while the red water lines in the border, only a few threads wide, run unbroken instead of stuttering. A coarser weave would lose both.

Viscose gives the cream and gold a luster that shifts through the day while the navy stays matt, so the pattern separates itself from the ground by light as well as by color and the rug shows two different faces between morning and evening. A navy ground is the practical choice in a room that gets used, since footmarks and small marks are far less visible on it than on a pale field, and it is the wrong choice in a room that already has navy walls or navy upholstery, where the floor will merge into everything else. Viscose weakens when wet, so blot a spill with a dry cloth instead of pouring water on it. The fringes tangle over time and are combed out by hand.

Is an Oushak-pattern rug woven in Oushak?

Not necessarily. Oushak is a town in western Anatolia whose looms gave their name to a family of designs, built from large palmettes and rosettes joined by curling stems inside a layered border. This rug carries that drawing, but the product record lists it as machine-woven in Türkiye, so Oushak here describes the pattern rather than the origin.

What does a reed count of 100 tell you about this rug?

Reed count measures weaving density: the higher it is, the more threads are available to carry each motif. At a hundred reeds a rug can hold detail only a few threads wide, which is why the thin red lines in this border stay continuous and the small leaves in the field keep their points.

• Woven on a power loom in Türkiye from viscose and acrylic yarns; recorded at 100 reeds.
• Navy ground filled with a continuous vegetal net — no bare ground and no medallion.
• Layered border: wide cream band, fine red water lines, navy outer edge, cream fringes.
• Cream and gold in lustrous viscose against a matt navy field.
• Three sizes are made: 160 × 230 cm (5'3" × 7'7"), sitting in front of a three-seat sofa; 200 × 300 cm (6'7" × 9'10"), taking a corner unit; and 300 × 400 cm (9'10" × 13'1") beneath a large dining table.
• Navy hides footmarks, and disappears in a room already built on navy.
• Comb the fringes out by hand rather than pulling at them.
• The wash itself goes out of the house.

At the largest size, under a six-seat dining table, the chairs stay on the rug when they are pushed back.