Multicolor Anatolian Hand-Knotted Wool Yörük Rug

Cut from the same star-shaped mold, three medallions stack on a cream ground: navy at top and bottom, burgundy in the middle. Pointed arms reach from their edges, and each has a mustard square at its center, holding a lilac flower in the navy ones and a black flower in the burgundy one. With a ground this pale the medallions seem to float, and the navy and burgundy read sharply against the cream. The border is warm and full: a mustard band lined with alternating burgundy and sage-green cross-shaped motifs, a fine guard stripe of burgundy and cream triangles inside it, black and mustard teeth along the outside. Yörük is the name given to the nomadic and semi-nomadic Turkmen communities of Anatolia, and Yörük rugs take their name from the people who wove them.

01Coming off the loom

The word names the weavers' tradition. A second-hand rug: used, then back on the market. Hand-knotted in Türkiye, wool throughout. In the photographs the pile is even and the colors are clear. 126 × 202 cm (4'2" × 6'8"), about 2.5 square meters (27 square feet): crosswise at the foot of a bed, or lengthwise in an entryway.

02Which tone on the ground

The cream ground continues into light wood and linen. Repeat the navy of the medallions in a cushion or a dark blue nightstand and the rug ties into the room; the mustard border finds its answer in a brass mirror frame or a honey-colored chair. Small lilac diamonds mark the tips of the navy medallions; on the burgundy one they are orange.