The Karakul Collection

Karakul is our name for a small, closely selected group of new rugs hand-knotted in Afghanistan, where weaving is still very much a household craft rather than an industry.

What holds the collection together is not one pattern but one standard. Every piece is chosen by us individually, for its drawing, its colour and the evenness of its knotting, and every piece is one of a kind: the rug you see is the rug you receive. Browse the full Karakul collection.

Design

The field is organised around a long central axis. Two oval medallions, one above the other, are drawn in rings of fine beaded dots and filled with a scatter of tiny coral, saffron and indigo motifs; striped crescent scrolls in teal, saffron and indigo sweep around them like brackets. On either side, arched medallions with beaded outlines stand against the ground, and small ivory cartouches with navy figures, coral blossoms and diamond lozenges are spread between them.

The drawing is open and airy, with generous space around every element, so the ground itself carries the room. A border in soft grey-brown, drawn with fine scrolling sprigs and small rosettes, frames the field.

Colour

The ground is a clear, light aqua — closer to sea glass than to turquoise — with a gentle abrash that moves across it in soft horizontal bands, deepening here and there towards grey-brown. Against it the drawing brings accents of coral, saffron, teal-blue, indigo and ivory.

It is a palette that sits easily with pale oak, brass, linen and white or limewashed walls, and holds its own both in a period drawing room and in a contemporary open-plan space.

Material and Quality

The pile is 100 % wool, handspun and coloured with natural dyes, hand-knotted onto a cotton foundation. Handspun yarn takes dye unevenly by nature, and that is where the soft abrash across the aqua ground comes from — every band of colour is a trace of a separate dye lot.

At approximately 250,000 to 360,000 knots per square metre — roughly 160 to 230 kpsi — the drawing stays crisp right down to the small sprigs. The pile is kept short at 7 mm, so the geometry reads cleanly from any side of the room, and at around 27 kg the rug has the weight to lie flat and settled on the floor.

In the Room

At 269 x 366 cm (8 ft 10 in x 12 ft 0 in, 9.9 m² / 106 sq ft) this is the classic 9 x 12 ft room size:

• Sitting room or drawing room: takes a full sofa group with every front leg on the rug, in rooms from about 3.5 x 4.5 m (13 x 15 ft) upwards.
• Dining room: suits a table of up to about 250 cm (8 ft) seating eight, with the chairs still on the rug when pulled back.
• Kitchen-diner or open-plan living: anchors the seating area and gives a large, hard-floored space a warm centre.

In London, this is a rug for a light-filled room: a garden-facing sitting room in a Victorian terrace, or a mansion flat in Chelsea with tall sash windows, where the aqua ground picks up the daylight — and it reaches London within 2–7 working days.

Specifications

Responsible Origin · Label STEP

Djoharian is a Label STEP Fair Trade Partner. Label STEP is the international fair-trade organisation for hand-knotted rugs, standing for fair pay for the weavers and no child labour.

Djoharian — Since 1967

Our family business was founded in 1967, with roots in the Grand Carpet Bazaar of Tehran — five decades of trade and connoisseurship behind every piece we offer.

Delivery, Service and Care

Every piece is inspected in our atelier in Lohr am Main, Germany, before dispatch. Secure and fast worldwide shipping, fully insured. We offer personal consultation in our showroom or by video call. For expert washing and repair we run our own professional rug cleaning service.