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This red/blue Oriental illustrates letting the Oriental rug be the focal point.

Oriental rugs, symmetrically knotted pile weavings covered with iconographic images, have been documented since  15th and 16th century AD Egypt. We use the word “weaving” to cover a variety of rug styles from China in the East to pre-conquest South America in the West. The areas we are most familiar with come from Eastern Europe around the Balkans and from Europe. Each developed its own weaving traditions that evolved from merchants and trade with the Near East and Middle East. The craft developed in these areas because they provided the necessary raw materials – wool and silk – in abundance. Wool came from sheep or goats that grazed on uplands with a chilly climate; silk from the silk worm. Additionally, the land had to have nearby fast flowing water which was needed for dyeing the yarn. In the past, all Oriental rugs were woven on looms by hand, in patterns that were traditional and unique to each area. Today, machine-made rugs are available in a wide range of patterns and colors. Whether you chose hand-woven or machine-made, the same rules apply for using them in a room. To begin, I am often asked whether you should select your Oriental carpet first or your fabrics and color scheme first, when you are designing a room. Both methods are fine and can result in a well designed room. However, I prefer to select the rug first for a number or reasons. First, doing so gives you flexibility on the colors, pattern and scale you select in your room. For example, if your rug has warm reds and blues on a neutral background, then you can decide whether to limit the red to the rug, for a more subtle approach, or to include red in the fabrics or wall color, for a more dramatic result. If you like bold, colorful fabrics, then an Oriental with minimal pattern, such as a tone-on-tone, would be a good choice to show them off. However, if most of your fabrics are solid and small prints, then your room would benefit by having an Oriental with pronounced colors and a strong pattern. And if you want to feature your artwork, then select a subtle Oriental rug and solid or small scale fabrics.

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This beige colored Oriental rug illustrates having the fabrics and artwork as the focal point.

One of my relocation clients needed Oriental rugs for several rooms. But because their fabrics and wall paint were primarily turquoise, there were almost no choices featuring turquoise. Most have more traditional light and pale blue shades. A solution for them would be to repaint the walls and let the turquoise remain as an accent color in their furnishings. A second key consideration is a rug’s size in relation to a room. If a room is longer than it is wide, then select a rectangular rug. If a room is square, the solution would not be an Oriental, but a bound area rug. The most common mistake I see is having a rug that is too small for the room. Generally I recommend that an Oriental rug cover about three-quarters of the floor. It looks best if the edges extend under the main seating areas, even if it is only by a few inches. Teal Michel ASID, is a licensed full-service interior design firm specializing in residential interior design and renovation-remodeling design throughout the Carolinas. Teal has won awards from ASID for interior spaces and furniture design and from the Home Builder’s Association of Charlotte Excellence in Remodeling for remodel design and interior renovation. She has participated in HGTV’s “Designer’s Challenge” and her work has been featured in several books. www.tealmichelasid.com ^[3].