In spite of the availability of tens of thousands of hand-knotted rugs, designers and their clients sometimes require a custom designed rug. The reasons are varied. They might favor an area of color that is not big enough in any available rug. They might want to take advantage of a room's particular lighting by utilizing the special look and feel that silk imparts. Probably, they need to accommodate a room with an unsual shape or size.
Although the area of the floor is relative small compared with the walls and the ceiling, it's a room's most important surface.
On it rests the foundation of the room; a part of our brains scans it for safety; for security; for comfort. And for pleasure.
The floor also offers us lucky humans the opportunity to enjoy a floor for its beauty. It makes us at Addison/Dicus happy that we are in the rug business AND in the custom flooring business.
For thousands of years the peoples India and surrounding countries have produced the world's great textiles. They continue to do so today.
Pictures can really make things easier.
For three decades we have shown rugs in homes for designers and their clients. Now to make the interior designer's job a little easier, we will install rugs in pictures of rooms.
For about a year I've been fascinated by the sari rug. These are made from silk recovered from old saris. As you know saris are the beautiful and stunningly colorful gown-wraps worn by women in India. Certainly their appearance almost everywhere you turn there is a major source of the color explosion that India is famous for.
If you've not seen it happen, you've imagined it happening. You are sitting with good company enjoying a glass of delicious red wine. On the floor is a beautiful hand-dyed, hand-knotted wool rug. "I sure wouldn't want to spill wine on that rug," you say to yourself.
Then it happens.
Did you ever need to fold a rug for shipping?
Here's Mike Bailey of our Tampa office to show you how.
The Mahal style gets its name from a village in Western Iran. It's in the Arak district, famous for weaving rugs for centuries.
Although Mahal designs come in many different configurations, the most characteristic Mahal is probably going to have an all-over pattern in the rug's field. Medallions are rare.
Dogs and cats are beloved members of the household.
But what about accidents on your beloved rug?
Mamluk rugs are named for an elite military caste that started in the Middle East around the 9th Century. Recruits were bought as slaves by sultans when pre-pubescent young men and subjected to rigorous military training. Their ranks quickly became the elite of the sultan's armies.
In 1250 the Mamluks took over the Sultanate in Syria/Egypt and the following year defeated the Mongols. They were also instrumental in defeating the Crusaders.
The Mamluks ruled until over-run by the Ottaman Turks in 1517, but continued to be influential in Egypt.