Espresso and Madder Red Scrolled Medallion, Hand-Knotted Wool Rug

100% wool pile, hand-knotted, with a natural fringe at both ends. Wool is resilient and forgiving underfoot, which makes this a practical choice for a corridor that gets real use.

A dark aubergine ground is among the most forgiving colours a rug can have and hides everyday marks well. The exceptions are lint and pale fibres, which show on dark wool more than on any other, and the cream medallions — they are the palest thing on the rug and they sit directly on the centre line, which on a runner is exactly where the traffic goes.

The medallions alternate down the length, and at a glance the alternation looks like a single thing: cream ground, red ground, cream, red. Look at what sits inside them and a second alternation is running in step with the first. On every medallion with a cream ground, gold fills the central lozenge and green is pushed out to the surround. On every medallion with a red ground that is reversed — green takes the centre and the gold is reduced to a band across the foot. The two colours trade places each time the ground changes.

What makes it worth noticing is that nothing else changes at all. Trace the outline of any two neighbouring medallions and they are identical: the same stepped edge, the same chain of scrolled hooks running right round the perimeter, the same small cream square at the very centre. All the variation in the field is carried by where the colours are placed rather than by anything drawn differently. It is a way of getting a strong sense of movement down three metres of runner out of one medallion and two dye lots, which is a very economical piece of design.