Yellow Bordered Vintage Hand-Knotted Wool Rug

The yellow here is nearer to earth than to lemon — ochre with a good deal of brown behind it — carried on a hand-knotted Anatolian wool rug of 165 × 271 cm (5'5" × 8'11"), sheared thin, re-colored and finished with its old border still in place.

01How it is protected

A single piece. That shift toward the earth range is what makes the rug usable in rooms where a clean yellow would be impossible. Against oak and walnut it behaves like a warm neutral; against white it becomes the only warm thing in sight and holds the whole room together.

02How it feels underfoot

The border repeats a simple element the full way around, and because it is a shade deeper than the field it does the work a frame does on a picture — it stops the color at the edge instead of letting it run out. Wool makes the pile, cotton the warp and weft. The shearing leaves the surface thin and the rug light, and the short pile is the reason a spill sits on top long enough to be dealt with.

03Comes from from Anatolia

It came out of a household in Anatolia before it came here, which accounts for the faint variation in the field that no new rug has. Washing is for professionals. Hand-knotted in Anatolia years ago, then sheared, dyed again and dried. Wool pile with cotton warp and weft. An ochre-leaning yellow that reads as a warm neutral beside oak and walnut. The original border kept, a shade deeper than the field. 165 × 271 cm (5'5" × 8'11") — a living room or a large bedroom. Faint variation across the field, left from its first working life. It goes to a professional to be washed. One rug only. Warm neutrals are what people ask for after they have owned one gray rug.