Multicolor Striped Handwoven Bamboo Viscose Rug, Festival Series

Of everything the house has carried, few rugs have drawn as little argument as this one: bands of color crossing the rug from side to side, handwoven in India in wool with bamboo viscose. It is woven at 170 × 240 cm, near enough 5'7" × 7'10", and at 200 × 300 cm, call it 6'7" × 9'10". There are more colors in it than a description can usefully list, and they are not arranged to a scheme — a green band sits against a rust one, a thin line of yellow parts two blues, and the sequence never quite comes back around.

From a doorway the effect is a wave rather than a set of stripes. It needs plain furniture around it. Set it against patterned upholstery and both of them lose. Wool gives the rug its body and bamboo viscose gives it the shine, and in the paler bands the two run side by side, so the color changes as light moves along the floor.

01Choosing the size

It is light for its size — a rug two people can spread in a minute and roll up as quickly. The bamboo viscose is the part to watch: soft under bare feet, and liable to crush where something heavy stands on it for months. Made in India, by hand, in wool with bamboo viscose. Two sizes, the larger covering six square meters. Bands of color across the width, in a sequence that does not repeat. Bamboo viscose carries the shine; wool carries the body. Light, and quick to lay out or roll. Crushes under weight left standing on it. Professional washing. In a room of white walls and plain wood it is the only thing that needs to say anything, and it says all of it at once.