Summer and Stripes

Is it reasonable to think that summer rugs should be seasonal and that stripes convey the message?

It’s hot and humid outside and my beloved Oriental carpets are feeling a little heavy. I do have a lot of them — the joke around here is that we live at “rug mart.” So I appear to be developing a taste for summer rugs. That no doubt explains why striped, flat-woven dhurries have been looking so cool and attractive to me.

This latest syndrome began the other day in our guest room where I parked the indestructible fuchsia Chinese Deco carpet purchased for my single-girl bedroom 25 years ago. Our extra bedroom is small and would look lighter and fresher with striped cotton rugs on the floor. Back in the 19th century – when people could afford two whole-house looks per year — staff would have rolled up the wool rugs in May and put the cotton floor coverings in place until the end of September. What a lovely fantasy. Meanwhile, I went to see what would be manageable in a strictly DIY digital-century home.

It’s common to see striped cotton rugs set over sisal to introduce pattern, since the natural fiber helps keep the lighter weight textile in place. A black-and-white striped rug looks terrific in the great hall of this rural Alabama plantation house [top] where designer Betsy Brown used this favorite high contrast combo to tweak up a super-neutral space.

In sharp contrast, an orange and white striped dining room rug was cleverly married into a fun, paintbox-color scheme by New York designer Todd Klein. It took a minute to focus on something other than the rug of the star pendant light but when I did I thought “how smart to work the stripes into a genuine play of color that bounces between the rug and the blue, green, red and yellow textiles used for chair and sofa cushions.

It’s difficult to discuss flat-woven rugs without mentioning Annie Selke, the reigning home textile force behind Dash & Albert and Pine Cone Hill. The Dash rugs are becoming iconic American decorating pieces and not just because they’re affordable and available.

The rug below design editor Newell Turner’s dining room table looks like a dead ringer for D&A’s two-tone, indoor-outdoor (and very practical polypropylene) Side Bar rug.

Another Selke woven appears in a mixed blue room that combines turquoise and royal shades opposite classic brown. With so many possibilities, perhaps it isn’t far-fetched to think about a future approach to more seasonal decorating.

(Source: House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens)

Atticmag co-founder and rug maven Jane T also has written authoritatively on 3 Things to Know About Dhurries,  Striped Area Rugs, Black and White Dhurrie Rugs and Cotton Summer Rugs.

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