Houseproud

When I was younger I used to enjoy home decorating - I loved to read magazines and loved thinking about every detail of my home's decor. In reent years, though, I've gotten a little lazy and complacent. Living in a house with an active kid and dog often makes aspiring home decorator snap back to reality fast, too.

Still, one of the things I always have though make a house a home is a beautiful area rug. As a young single woman I had an inexpensive smallish wool carpet in a Persian pattern - it was by no means a real Persian rug, but it was pretty and I liked it. I forget what happened to it - it probably endured much wear and staining before being hopelessly discarded.

We've often thought about getting a rug - but last weekend we finally found the rug we couldn't resist. There's a local seller of antique and imported rugs here in Topanga, and when we visited, we found our rug.

It's a flat-weave rug, or kilim; tightly woven wool yarns that produce a flat surface without a fluffy pile. The technique for using colors results in a very sharp, defined design, as there is no blurring of two colors of yarn - each strand is woven back into the color block instead of interweaving. Finely made kilims have actual small breaks in the fabric at color changes - you can see it when you hold it up to light.

Ours dates from the 1930s and was made in the Turkish village of Konya. Konya rugs are known for their striking geometric designs in brilliant, bold colors.

I love the colors of this one, which have taken on a softness from age. A warm terra-cotta-like red, soft gold, pale aqua and punched up with bold black. The intricacy of the design, with colors ever shifting, keeps it always catching my eye. 

I stood on it last night with bare feet, and it felt just warm. Jack likes to lie on it, too. It will be a household treasure for our family.

What's your most treasured feature of your home? Share.