Burgundy and Cream Geometric Handwoven Wool Rug, Mahal Series

Cream rectangles laid in courses like brickwork over a burgundy ground, inside a burgundy frame wide enough to be a wall: that is the Mahal Series geometric rug in cream and burgundy, 177 × 271 cm (5'10" × 8'11"), handwoven in Pakistan, wool over cotton. One piece. The courses are what make it work.

01What Wool does

Each cream form is separated from the next by a clean burgundy line, so the field has the regularity of masonry, and against that regularity the softness of the wool reads as a contradiction — geometric drawing, natural fiber, neither one winning.

02At the loom in in Pakistan

The burgundy has depth to it because the yarn was dyed with natural colorants and takes light unevenly; the cream stays level and stops the darker ground from sitting heavily on the room. Weavers in Pakistan knotted it entirely by hand using the double-knot technique that came from Anatolia.

03What the yarn is

Wool covers all of the surface, cotton makes the skeleton, and a few synthetic threads run through it so the rug does not pull out of square. Its body is medium and firm, which is the useful weight: it cleans easily and it holds the form it left the loom with.

04Color that shifts through the day

This rug will sit as comfortably in a modern room as in an old one, and the frame is broad enough that it does not need a border of bare floor around it. Handwoven in Pakistan, Anatolian double knot, wool pile on cotton. Cream rectangles laid in courses over a burgundy ground. Wide burgundy frame giving the rug a definite edge. Naturally dyed yarn, so the burgundy carries depth rather than a flat tone. A trace of synthetic yarn in the foundation for shape retention. 177 × 271 cm (5'10" × 8'11"), suited to a living room or an office. Professional washing when the time comes. One piece, not a repeatable design. Burgundy is the color rooms grow into, which is why it looks better in the fifth year than the first.