New
Carprugs · An introduction
TheLivingLoom
A house for rugs made by hand — told from a single thread to the finished floor.
Scroll to beginFrom a thread to a motif
It begins with a single thread.
Warp, weft and knot — row by row.
Until a pattern appears.
Carprugs
A design house whose medium is rugs — shaped by Indian craft, material and time.
We start from the room: how light falls, how furniture gathers, how a floor can be made warmer and quieter. Then we work back to the rug, and to the loom.
We are new, and we say so. We describe construction plainly, treat handmade variation as character and keep history to what the sources support.
- designs in the launch catalogue
- 80designs in the launch catalogue
- collections
- 14collections
- source-linked facts
- 568source-linked facts
Unfurl
A rug is revealed slowly
Keep scrolling — the rug unrolls with you.
Darbar Crimson
Hand Knotted · Wool
Fibre, up close
Look closer, and a rug is a landscape of fibre.
Close-up · Saanjh Rust01
Wool
Wool is the foundation of the handmade rug. Its natural crimp lets the pile recover from footsteps, its lanolin helps it resist soiling, and it takes dye deeply, ageing to a soft sheen with use.
- Resilient
- Naturally soil-resistant
- Ages gracefully
Best for: Living rooms, bedrooms, hallways and most everyday spaces
Wool rugs →
Close-up · Zarin Silk02
Silk
Silk allows the finest yarn and the most precise drawing, and it reflects light with a lustre no other fibre matches. It is more delicate in use and should always be cleaned professionally.
- Luminous
- Fine detail
- Delicate
Best for: Bedrooms, studies and low-traffic rooms
Silk rugs →
Close-up · Aabir Earth03
Jute
Jute is a strong plant fibre with a natural golden tone and an organic, textural surface. It is less soft than wool and sensitive to moisture, so it is best kept away from damp and spills.
- Textural
- Natural golden tone
- Calm and understated
Best for: Light-traffic living spaces and layering
Jute rugs →
Close-up · Noor Sand04
Cotton
Cotton forms the strong, stable foundation of most hand-knotted rugs and is the traditional fibre of the dhurrie. As a flatweave it is light, cool and easy to lift and clean.
- Light
- Cool underfoot
- Easy to move
Best for: Dhurries, dining rooms, kitchens and warm climates
Cotton rugs →
Close-up · Leher Mist05
Bamboo silk
Bamboo silk is a regenerated cellulose fibre, a form of viscose made from plant material, with a silk-like sheen. It is weaker when wet and can crush more readily than wool, so it suits quieter rooms and professional cleaning.
- Silk-like sheen
- Soft handle
- Rich colour
Best for: Bedrooms and low-traffic rooms
Bamboo silk rugs →
Close-ups of pieces from the collection.
The making
Nine stages between an idea and your floor
Every rug passes through many hands — designers, dyers, weavers, washers and finishers. Rather than publish borrowed stories, we will introduce the people we work with as each partnership is documented, with their consent and in their own words.
Design
Every rug begins as a drawing, painting or digital composition, refined for scale, proportion and colour. The designer also decides how the design will translate into knots or wefts, since not every line on paper belongs in wool.
Yarn
Wool, and sometimes silk, cotton or jute, is cleaned, carded and spun by hand or by machine. Hand-spun yarn carries natural irregularities that give a rug texture and character.
Dye
The yarn is dyed in batches to the colours of the design, using natural or synthetic dyes. No two batches are identical, which is the origin of the gentle tonal variation known as abrash.
Loom
The loom is dressed with warps, parallel threads stretched under even tension from top to bottom. Their number and spacing set the width of the rug and the fineness of its weave.
Knot and weave
Following a graph, or in Kashmir the colour-coded talim, the weaver ties each knot by hand and beats down wefts to lock every row. Row by row, over weeks or months, the design rises from the bottom of the loom.
Wash
Cut from the loom, the rug is washed thoroughly to remove dust, settle the knots and bring out colour and lustre. It is then dried, often stretched, so that it lies flat.
Finish
The pile is clipped to an even height, and sometimes carved around motifs to create relief. Edges are secured and the warp ends are finished as a fringe.
Inspect
The rug is checked for structure, edges, ends, colour and dimensions, and any small repairs are made. Natural character, such as abrash and slight dimensional variance, is recorded rather than corrected.
Home
The rug is rolled, wrapped and sent to its room. There it begins the part of its life that matters most: being walked on, lived with and, in time, handed on.
Pattern
Twelve families of pattern. One hand at a time.
Choose a pattern family to see the pieces in the collection woven in it — from above, and in a room.
From the record
History, with its sources showing.
Carpet history is full of confident claims. We keep ours short, and link every one to where it comes from.
Mughal period
Britannica notes that fine Mughal carpets often have warps in bands of contrasting colours and a pile of wool so fine it is sometimes mistaken for silk, with some of the tightest knotting among antique Oriental carpets.
Mughal-Period Carpets · Northern India
Source: Mughal carpet | Indian, Persian, Wool | Britannica (opens in a new tab)Mid-19th–early 20th century
From the mid-19th century, Indian carpet production revived largely as a commercial activity centred on jail workshops, with Agra, Lahore, Yerawada and Montgomery among the notable prison centres.
Indian Carpet History · British India
Source: The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London, 1886 – nwtiques (opens in a new tab)16th–17th century
Under the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal dynasties, carpet weaving shifted from a village craft based on inherited patterns to a state-supported industry whose designs were created in court workshops.
Documented Periods
Source: Carpets from the Islamic World, 1600–1800 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art (opens in a new tab)
Another, at random
Featured collection
The Heritage Archive
Classical compositions, drawn again with a lighter hand.
Medallions, spandrels and rosette borders from the classical carpet vocabulary, re-scaled and re-coloured for rooms that live today.
Explore The Heritage Archive
New
The room, transformed
Every room. One decision.
A rug gathers furniture into a composition, softens sound and warms the light.
Ziya Indigo
Hand Knotted · Wool
Zarin Silk
Hand Knotted · Pure Silk
Aabir Earth
Hand Woven · Jute
Deodar Green
Hand Knotted · Wool
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Begin
Find the rug that belongs to your room
Letters from the loom
New pieces, stories and the occasional fact. A few letters a month.