Oriental Rug in Contemporary Interiors

I am absolutely falling in love with oriental carpets.  I constantly look for them in the houses, books, magazines. Even I have noticed the following symptoms of my beginning carpetomania:

a) me reading at the moment 3 books about oriental rugs

b) visiting all the shops in Baku searching for the carpet to buy

c) planning trips to several carpet routes, among them Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and forcing my husband to join me (we have already bought a trip to Georgia departing this Saturday where we definitely will visit a local carpet factory).

d) writing my own book about oriental rugs where I want to describe all my observations during the trips mentioned in point C.

After visiting several shops in Baku my husband and I decided to order a hand-made carpet in one of mountain villages in Azerbaijan. One medium carpet is made during four-five months so I hope by the end of winter it will be ready. Thinking about how much time it takes to make a carpet makes me understand what a difficult and hard job it is. How much patience one needs to sit the whole day with bowed head and hunched back doing this monotonous work!

I am amazed by art skills of local carpet makers. Without any artistic education, they skilfully combine different colours and create complicated patterns making the rug look harmonious and so much beautiful.

An oriental handmade carpet is something which you definitely can leave as a heritage to your children. It never loses its attractiveness and it never becomes out of fashion. There is another thing about oriental carpets: it can be incorporated in any interior. It doesn’t have to be an oriental style space, indeed it can look great in contemporary or country style interiors.

Adding an oriental carpet to a room decor is the same as hanging a big painting on a wall: it creates a BIG statement. If your interior is done mainly in neutrals you can add a splash of colour by placing an oriental rug: the room will immediately look bright and cozy.

The only oriental rugs which I don’t like are those which are made by machine. Uhhhggghhh! They remind me on those typical ugly fat and heavy rugs which our parents used to hang on the walls during Soviet times: 80% of people in former Soviet Union used them as a wall decoration. This mass market production has nothing to do with authentic handmade carpet. In handmade carpet you can notice some imperfections: irregular pattern, uneven pile or noticeable knots, but at the same time you can feel the warmth of the person who made it, understand his dreams and thoughts.

I hope you can get some inspiration from these images of different spaces featuring oriental rugs which I have collected from own of my favorite Interior Design magazines – 25 Beautiful Homes.

Caution! Carpetomania is a fast-spreading disease…