Cream Geometric Hand-Knotted Wool and Viscose Rug

Thin ruled lines and square forms on a pale cream ground: a hand-knotted rug, 199 × 301 cm (6'6" × 9'11"), knotted in India in wool alongside cotton, bamboo viscose and viscose. The geometry is drawn small and the ground is left to do most of the work.

01How many centimeters, which room

This size exists as one piece. The drawing is restrained to the point of being architectural — squares set out at intervals, lines ruled between them, nothing curved and nothing repeated closely enough to become a texture.

02The tone of the ground

What changes is the cream. Under daylight it throws off ivory; under a warm bulb it drops to beige, and the geometric figures, which are only a shade or two away, come and go with it. A pattern that appears and recedes with the hour is more interesting to live with than one that holds still, and it is why a rug this plain does not get boring. Master weavers in India knotted it by hand.

03From ground to pile

The plant-based yarns in it — cotton, bamboo viscose and viscose — are what make the surface soft to the touch; the wool is what keeps the rug's shape and its pile standing after a few years of furniture on it.

04Where it sits in the house

Pile height is conventional, so it settles into a room without altering the level of the floor. The kitchen is the one room the house tells you not to put it in, and the reason for that is the pale ground rather than the fiber. Hand-knotted by master weavers in India. Wool holds the structure; cotton, bamboo viscose and viscose account for how soft it feels. Fine ruled lines and small square forms on a pale cream ground. Reads ivory by daylight and beige beneath a warm bulb. A living room, a bedroom or a wide landing: 199 × 301 cm (6'6" × 9'11"). Conventional pile height; comfortable barefoot. Suitable everywhere in the house except the kitchen. Professional cleaning.

05Which tone on the ground

A single rug at this size. A room with a lot of hard edges in it — glass, metal, stone — is where this one stops looking plain and starts looking deliberate.