Cream Deer-Pattern Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Hatıl Series

A hatıl is the wooden tie-beam laid inside the stone walls of an Anatolian house to stop them spreading; nobody sees it and nothing stands without it. The series takes its name from that, and this piece is a cream loom-woven wool rug, 170 × 240 cm (5'7" × 7'10"), with a red deer standing in one corner.

The animal is a Kızıl Geyik, the Anatolian red deer that crosses ledges a few centimeters wide as though they were roads, and it is drawn alert rather than picturesque — head up, weight forward. It sits low in one corner of an otherwise open cream field, which leaves most of the surface empty and gives a child a floor to work on. Cream is a calm ground for a room that is going to be loud. The deer is the only figure anywhere on it and needs no help.

Wool on a cotton foundation, made on Anatolian looms by women weavers: the loom does the repetition, a weaver does the judgment. Wool is the right fiber for a floor that gets sat on for hours at a time — warm to the touch, and it recovers from being crushed in a way nothing spun from cellulose quite manages. The low pile keeps small toys from disappearing into it. One caution: a cream rug in a child's room is a cream rug in a child's room, and this will want cleaning more often than a dark one would. Professional washing, and nothing harsher than a vacuum in between.

• Loom-woven in Anatolia: wool pile on a cotton foundation, finished by women weavers.
• A red deer in one corner of an open cream field — the only figure on the rug.
• 170 × 240 cm (5'7" × 7'10") — enough floor for a bed and a play area.
• Hatıl is the hidden wooden beam that holds an Anatolian stone wall together.
• Wool recovers from being crushed, which matters on a floor that gets sat on.
• Low pile, low shedding.
• A pale ground: expect to have it cleaned more often than a dark rug.
• Professional washing.

Children outgrow the deer long before the rug wears out, and by then the deer is the reason it stays.