Rugs by colour
Colour is the first thing a rug says to a room, and usually the reason people stop on one photograph rather than another. It is also the thing hardest to judge on a screen, so there is a note about that at the end of this page.
The colour families
- Red and madder — the classical Persian ground, from soft coral through terracotta to deep oxblood. Dominant in Kashan, Sarouk, Heriz and tribal weaving.
- Blue and indigo — from dusty denim to near-black navy. The signature of Bidjar and much of Tabriz.
- Beige, ivory and cream — undyed wool and soft grounds. Beni Ourain, Ziegler and Chobi, and Perfect Plains.
- Grey and charcoal — largely a modern palette: contemporary designer rugs and muted vintage pieces.
- Green and sage — uncommon in antique Persian weaving, where green was traditionally used sparingly, and readily available in commissioned work.
- Multicoloured — Qashqai, Bakhtiari and Moroccan Azilal, where several strong colours share one field.
How the colours were made
Worth understanding, because it explains what you see. Antique and tribal rugs were dyed with plant and mineral sources — madder root for red, indigo for blue, walnut husk and pomegranate rind for browns and yellows. These dyes were mixed in small batches, so tone varies from batch to batch, and they mellow with light rather than simply fading.
Those horizontal bands of slightly different tone across a field, called abrash, are the direct evidence of it. They are a mark of hand work, not a flaw. Modern production uses both natural and high-quality synthetic dyes depending on the workshop and the colour required, and we state which where it is known.
Custom colour
For a commission, our Tibetan programme works from around 1,200 wool dye recipes, and we produce a hand-painted strike-off for approval before weaving begins. If you need a rug to sit against a specific fabric, stone or paint, send us the sample and we will match to the physical reference rather than to a screen. Made-to-measure rugs.
An honest note about colour on screen
A monitor emits light; a rug reflects it. The same piece looks warmer under a tungsten lamp than under a north-facing window, and a photograph cannot resolve that for you. Two practical consequences: judge any colour against the room it is going into, at the time of day the room is used; and before ordering, ask us for an additional photograph in daylight or a live video call on WhatsApp where we can hold the rug next to a colour reference. It takes ten minutes and it prevents most returns.
One further point: strong colours and pale plain grounds both show uneven fading soonest. Turning the rug once a year is what keeps daylight falling evenly across it.
Also browse
Rugs by size · Rugs by room · Rugs by style · Persian rugs
Djoharian Collection — since 1967. Five decades of family expertise in Oriental textile art, with roots in the Grand Carpet Bazaar of Tehran. Label STEP Fair Trade: fair wages • no child labour • monitored working conditions.
