Cream Oushak-Pattern Hand-Knotted Wool Rug, Sultanahmet Series

It is the border that decides this one: a band of cinnamon closing a cream field on all four sides, firm enough to hold together 237 × 308 cm (7'9" × 10'1") of floor. Cream Oushak-Pattern Hand-Knotted Wool Rug of the Sultanahmet Series, worked by hand in India in cotton, wool and bamboo viscose. A single rug. Inside the border the Oushak motifs are drawn as though they had been worn down and gone soft, spread across the cream at a scale that suits the length of the piece.

01Up close to the pattern

Cinnamon against cream is an old Anatolian pairing and a forgiving one, warm without being red, and it gives the eye a place to stop where an unbordered field would let it wander off the edge.

02The Wool on the surface

The bamboo viscose worked through the drawing puts a low shine on the motifs that comes and goes with the angle you stand at, while the wool holds the field flat and matt. Wool gives the pile its weight, bamboo viscose gives the pattern its light, and cotton in the foundation is what stops three meters of rug from waving along its length.

03Knot by knot, by hand

Tens of thousands of knots were tied into it by hand over a production that ran for months. At this length it belongs under a long dining table, in front of a large seating group, or down the middle of a wide bedroom; below about four meters of clear floor it will simply run under the furniture.

04From ground to pile

Wipe and vacuum for ordinary care, and let a professional do the washing. Knotted entirely by hand in India, over a production lasting months. Wool pile, cotton foundation, bamboo viscose through the motifs. Cream field with softened Oushak drawing inside a cinnamon border. Tens of thousands of individual knots, all tied by hand. 237 × 308 cm (7'9" × 10'1") — a long dining table or a large seating group. It needs the floor to take it; in a small room it disappears under the furniture. Professional washing; wiping and vacuuming in between. Borders age better than fields do, and the cinnamon will still be drawing the outline of this rug when the cream has gone quiet.