we recently picked up this amazing custom beni ourain style rug from our friends over at
decorative carpets and had it installed into a client's living room. gorj, right?
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| so soft & fluffy in person, we wish you could touch it! |
our rug was custom made to fit the exact size our
floor plan told us we needed to make our client's living room sing- it is shaggy, and fabulous, and with the mid-century pieces we also picked out, it makes for a fabulous mix. the rug was actually a bit of a splurge for our budget, so we saved some bucks elsewhere by buying a chic secondhand danish modern credenza on craigslist to serve as a media cabinet (i'm crafty like that); we also picked up an inexpensive reproduction knoll-esque sofa that we had reupholstered in a fabulous indoor-outdoor basketweave linen look-alike from
kravet, so it didn't seem so retail-y. both look *amazing* on our rug.
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| m21 floor plan- remember, it starts with a plan... (rug .jpg provided by decorative carpets so we could see exactly what our finished rug would look like in the size we needed, then i plugged it into the plan. perfect!). |
though our rug was made in tibet, it is based on a centuries old tradition of rugs made by the nomadic beni ourain tribes of the atlas mountains in morocco. beni ourain rugs are wooly and shaggy, made of undyed sheep's wool with black/brown decoration added in, and undoubtedly kept the tribespeople's tents warm and cozy at night, but because they
were made for tents, authentic beni ourain rugs tend to come in funky sizes, usually long and narrow, another reason we had ours custom made in the perfect square our floor plan called for.
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| a traditional beni ourain pattern |
in our opinion, beni ourain rugs are one of the versatile styles of traditional rugs, as they compliment such a wide variety of looks. they lend a funky, ethnic edge to soften modern furnishings, and even though they've been around for centuries, they actually tend to
modernize more traditional furnishings and antiques, because of the rugs' graphic patterns and deep pile. this makes them ideal for decorators like moi who like to mix styles and periods. we also love beni ourains because though they read white, the undyed fibers from the sheep used to make them are a variegated mix of beiges, tans, off-whites and grays, so they are actually pretty darn kid & pet friendly- you'd be surprised at how well they hold up! i wish i had a photo of the rug installed in my client's home to show y'all, as putting a bigass 10' x 10' rug into a small room was super effective for making the small room seem larger (and more cohesive), but alas, the room is only about 1/2 finished with just the rug, sofa and credenza installed. normally, we'd wait until it was finished, then (show and) tell all about it, but with my clients away on location, followed by the arrival of their first little bundle of joy (yay!), who knows when- or if- the room will be finished. sometimes life interferes with decorating, but in this case that's a
good thing...
so until i can show you the room in it's finished state, let me dazzle you with a selection of images featuring beni ourain rugs i've gathered one of my pinterest boards, cleverly titled
"beni ourain" (love that pinterest for organizing images! how did i ever live without it?)
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| palmer-weiss |
