Rose Red and Gold Banded Kilim, Hand-Woven Wool

Material: 100 percent hand-spun wool, flat-woven with soumak embroidered banding. No pile.

Care instructions

• Always use a rug pad underneath — a flatweave slips easily without one.
• Vacuum gently with the beater bar off, working along the bands rather than across them.
• Turn the kilim over every year — it is reversible and wears evenly if used both sides.
• Blot spills immediately, working from the outside in.
• Have the kilim professionally cleaned when needed — never machine wash.

Count the colours in the banding and you will find magenta, orange, violet, turquoise, gold, green and ivory, all worked into a ground of rose red. That is a far wider palette than most Afghan flatweaves attempt, and it is held together by the structure rather than by restraint: every colour appears in a band of its own, framed by the ones on either side, so nothing bleeds into anything else. The broad gold zigzag around the outer border is the boldest stroke on the rug and the thing that stops all that colour from floating. It is a piece for someone who wants the room to notice the floor.