Decorating with texture and patterns makes a room come alive.  When you contrast such elements as polished and muted, even and irregular, narrow and broad, you can increase the interest quotient and prevent a room from appearing staid.  Marrying rugs with exposed brick, leather with wicker, stripes with checkers creates dynamicism and energy in a room.

Combining surfaces, finishes, and periods is what it’s all about. Which leads me to my interest in flat woven-tapestry carpets known as kilim.  Recently, they have become a popular mainstay in Western households.  The word originates from the Persian gelim which translates “to spread roughly.”  These rugs are produced from the Balkans to Pakistan and can be decorative or function as prayer rugs.

With the popularity of polished and white-washed rooms and furniture, kilims add some depth to the clean backdrop of the unpigmented. They add some history and culture to the latter-day pickings and currently modish.  Texture is a lovely touch in a home, adds warmth where perhaps there was not, and kilims are a fantastic way to accomplish this goal.

“The past becomes a texture, an ambience to our present.”

-Paul Scott

Attribution to Aesthetica