Blue and Gray Oushak-Pattern Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Tempus Series

The border is the argument here: a wide dark navy band around the field, backed by a narrow inner border that repeats the same floral run, so the rug is framed twice. Inside it, blue, red, cream and orange flowers and rosettes are spread over a gray ground in a classic Oushak drawing.

01The Wool on the surface

Woven in the Aegean from wool and cotton, in nine sizes — 160 × 230 cm (5'3" × 7'7") is the common one, and there is an 80 × 500 cm (2'7" × 16'5") runner at the far end of the range. Double framing is what gives a large rug its composure — the eye is stopped twice before it leaves the field, and the pattern reads as deliberate rather than sprawling.

02The origin of the pattern

Gray keeps the whole thing cool underneath the warm colors in the flowers. Beside silver or chrome fittings and pale gray walls the rug turns modern; hang burgundy curtains and put red objects in the room and the same rug turns classical and the reds in the pattern step forward.

03The mark of slow weaving

Little else in a large sitting room will change character that far without being replaced. Woven on a hand-guided loom rather than knotted row by row, which is why the surface is regular where a village rug would wander.

04How it feels underfoot

Wool and cotton yarns, in a region that has been weaving for centuries and now does it with mechanical help. The rug has the look and the weight of a hand-knotted piece; it is not one, and the difference is in how the structure was laid down rather than in how it feels underfoot.

05Which tone on the ground

Medium thickness, densely packed, low enough that dust finds nowhere much to sit. Loom-woven in the Aegean region of Anatolia from wool and cotton. A classic Oushak field in blue, red, cream and orange over gray. Wide navy border with a fine inner border repeating the same floral run. Medium thickness and a dense weave; straightforward daily use. Nine sizes, 80 × 150 cm up to 300 × 400 cm, with 80 cm runners at 200, 300, 400 and 500 cm. Also made in other sizes, patterns and colors within the Tempus series. Professional washing — at the largest size it is a two-person job to move. Given a room of six meters or more it will hold the floor without any help from the furniture.