3rd September '17: Rug beauty

Happy Sunday, dear friends.
When I was a child, my bedroom rug had patterns on it that I decided were land and the rest was water. At bedtime I’d jump from island to island to the safety of bed, narrowly avoiding having my ankles being snapped at by crocodiles.
I love rugs that have patterns you can get lost in, whether it’s because of colour, pattern or history. Boucherouite rugs have it all in spades. Rug supremo, interiors buyer and fellow colour enthusiast Bruce Lapere at Liberty @libertyorientalcarpets told me yesterday that these resplendent rugs were borne out of the need to find another revenue stream after drought and crop failure hit Morocco in the 1950s. Instead of using scarce wool, farmers in the Atlas Mountains began to use rags and old clothes instead (though still weaving them on a loom, unlike conventional rag rugs). The rugs were designed to be used face up (bottom right) or face down (left, top and bottom). Bottom right and bottom left are the same rug and are, I think, both equally beautiful. Face down was utilitarian for dusty daytime use and face up was for nighttime – a fluffy base layer to hunker down on for the night. Beautiful, useful, historical and utterly unique: it doesn’t get much better than that. Have a colour-filled day.
Martha, The Colour File x

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