In our recent uploader — which attracted 349 photos of readers’ living rooms — someone kinda apologized for having an oriental area rug in the room. No apologies required! I actually LOVE oriental rugs in midcentury living rooms. Above: Mystery reader wrote:
“My favorite room in my apartment! The couch is a reproduction by LA-based designer Steven Anthony (I got it for a steal on Craigslist). The coffee table was handed down to me by my mother, who thrifted it a few years back. It’s Danish and has a wicker rack for books and leaves that come out at either end with a Formica top to rest your drink on. All other pieces are vintage and have been found at garage sales and local thrift shops.”
Nicely done room! I can see why it’s your favorite. And what a keen shopper you are! Yay for craigslist!
Why do I love oriental rugs?
- These rugs are timeless. And I think that’s for very good reasons, which I will try to analyze:
- They tend to feature designs with low-contrast — there is typically not a loud pattern that steals an excess of attention away from the other decor.
- They often feature quite a few colors. In my go-to formula, every room “needs” a pattern that ties all the colors in a room together. As the pattern-holder, an oriental rug typically gives you lots of colors to play with. In fact, many professional decorators say that the rug is the first thing they choose because it’s easier to pull room colors from a rug you already have than to put colors on all your stuff then try to find a rug that includes them all.
- The pattern in an oriental rug is generally pretty intricate, but because it’s low-contrast (therefore, not “loud”) the whole effect is actually calming to the eye. I know this sounds counter-intuitive. I think it’s a “scale” thing: The patterns minimize the scale… and the smaller scale — being at ground level — and the colors — being low-contrast — together work to make the rug recede from view. For me, this is good, because I don’t usually want my rug to scream — there are other things to look at — I want my eye to dance around the room. (That said: Others my choose to have a more pronounced rug design that itself is a focal point; it’s a personal choice.)
- I see them all the time at estate sales — nice ones in all sorts of sizes and colors — they were so common. They do not seem to be “trendy” right now. So I see them — really nice rugs — going for song!
- Timeless also because these things have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. If well made, they get passed down generation-to-generation. And because they work so well with so many types of decor, well, there you go: Timeless design.
Let’s look at a few more examples from our uploader:
Above, another beautiful rug that has colors that coordinate with the upholstered furniture. Mystery uploader wrote,
“Casual Modern living in Austin.”
Gorgeous rug and cozy dappling light room! Is that rug a kilim, I’m not sure – ?
Above, another mystery reader does a nice room:
“We adore the morning light in the living room of our modest 1950 ranch in Petoskey, MI! We love the clean, modern lines of midcentury style, but we also love mixing periods and styles, so our home is more eclectic than strictly midcentury. This room is home to some of our favorite finds, including the very non-mid century Persian deer rug and a Curtis Jere deer wall sculpture.”
Yes, another vote for lovely light streaming into a room! We have awesome afternoon light in our living room, too — I go in there sometimes at the bewitching hour and just mesmerize out. So calming!
Above, yes, another mystery reader:
“The living room in our 1959 Yellow Ranch House. All furniture was thrifted locally.”
Another smart shopper.
Above MR:
“Former living room: The building is c. 1838, but the furniture is mostly mid century.”
Gorgeous — and in its way I’d say this rug — given its timelessness — pulls all the different ereas of furniture together beautifully!
Above, mystery reader:
“We actually just moved the furniture into this room two days ago and I’m excited to share it on here! The rug and pillows are new but the couch, end tables, lamp and curtains are all vintage. The awesome couch and tables were brought in the late seventies and were just passed down to us from a grandmother. We love them!”
We love them, too! I’ll add that I also love the new orientals that are being sold today that are washed out to look very old and faded. I like ’em a lot!
Thanks to all the mystery readers for sharing photos of their living rooms — I bet they didn’t think they’d make it onto a standalone followup story because of their oriental rugs!
And thanks to Kate for going through the uploader and finding all these photos for me once I decided to cover the topic! You are The Best, doodle!
Jay says
The MCM living room photos with the oriental rugs were my favorite of the bunch. Growing up in the the Phila. area, they were a staple of the department stores, USA Karastan $$$ and moderately priced Belgium imports; all power loomed production. We had them growing up – one in a formal dining room and one in a MCM living room. Because they were identical and the same size, they were switched between the two rooms every year because they would last longer owing to different traffic patterns.
Megan Feeley says
What a lovely surprise to click through for my daily visit to Retro Renovation and find my very own living room (#3)! Thanks, Pam & Kate for including it in this roundup of great looking rooms. I love how the rooms all have a similar feel from being grounded by oriental rugs, but are still so unique based on the other elements in each one.
When I clicked through the uploader gallery of everyone’s living rooms that weekend, I thought we might end up with a roundup of Curtis Jere wall sculptures (hint hint!), but didn’t anticipate this fun rug roundup. Yay!
pam kueber says
Hint heard. Thanks, Megan, for coming out to play with us!
Barbara says
I like the rug in the photo of Pam’s living room from the Yankee Magazine article and how the room balances the warm and cool colors.
pam kueber says
Thank you! What a memory you have! I have two Oriental rugs in my living room — one is a circa 1992 Karastan, machine made; the other is vintage picked up cheap at a nearby estate sale. I love them both!
pam kueber says
Hey, I see the article is still online! If the scene you’re talking about is the one shown in the story online (orange chairs on blue rug) that’s the vintage rug. The orange chairs came from the same sale — http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/home-3/1950s-home-decor#_
The loveseat is vintage Baker that I reupholstered (only because the original PINK! upholstery was falling apart). I actually have two of the loveseats, bought vintage. The liquor table is also Baker, from my mother-in-law. Everything else you see is purchased vintage — or found dumpster-diving — that is, sitting at the edge of someone’s driveway waiting for the garbage collection!
Barbara says
It is lovely! Just dressed up enough for a party but cozy enough to hunker down with a book or take a nap.
maria says
They had traditional furniture and rugs during the MCM period too.
I still have the image of the living room oriental rug burned in my little kid mind, when at my friend’s MCM house we watched the tv bulletin (April 4, 1968) that MLK had been killed.
Both her parents were college professors and their house was decorated as such: traditional with a touch of Harry Potter. 🙂
Judy H. says
These roms rock anchored by their fabulous oriental rugs. I have an oriental rug in my mid-century living room and up until now, never realized it might be something that would be considered by some to be a decorating no-no. I had a huge oriental rug that had some colors in the furniture, so I just put it on the floor. I love it! My daughter, an interior designer, turned up her nose a bit, but I think that was because the rug wasn’t “brand new”. That is another great thing about oriental rugs, the older they get, the better they look, unless if course the center of the rug has gone thread bare! Picture #5 is my fave!
Alicia Damron says
The last photo with the orange couch is me! I’m honored to be included in this post 🙂 I especially love the Kilim looking rug…gorgeous, muted colors!
pam kueber says
Yay, Alicia! What a great room!
Paul - CT says
Let none of us forget, that accent rugs and even oriental rugs can be placed over wall to wall carpet! When I redid my mid century split level, the living room and family room were done in plush wall to wall carpeting and I used wool accent rugs (Overstock is a great place to get wool accent rugs and oriental rugs at bargain prices) to define my space.
I thought I had uploaded a photo with this set-up but the photo I uploaded was before I added the accent rug. Agggggh! Maybe Pam can post it or replace it.
Sarah Nyenhuis says
Charles and Ray Eames had oriental rugs in their own home.
http://insideinside.org/eames-house-case-study-house-no-8-los-angeles-california-usa/
pam kueber says
THANK YOU! I was thinking I had seen that somewhere before! Yay!
Jay says
Their house was just featured on PBS – 10 Houses That Changed America.
Roseana Auten says
I was going to mention this as well!
Sally Cote says
Interesting post and I also enjoy the reader’s comments. My favorite comment is the one giving “permission” to do what you want. Guidelines in interior design are just that; a guide rather than rules.
pam kueber says
Thanks! I like knowing “the rules” or maybe “suggested best practices” or “sure-fire formulas” but YES, once ya know ’em, the real fun comes in breaking them and putting together your own unique look!
Cyndi says
Do you have any advice on companies selling good quality non-wool oriental rugs?
pam kueber says
Hi Cyndi, no, I have not ever researched that….
Kathy says
I recently bought some machine-made rugs imported from Turkey from esalerugs.com. Lots of patterns, both traditional and contemporary, nice subtle colorways, decent quality so far. The pile isn’t real thick, but I like that so furniture doesn’t create big dents. The photos appear to be very accurate colorwise, and from a lot of angles. Rugs USA, Overstock, and Wayfair have some nice selections too.
I have been looking for a Craftsman inspired large rug in golds and greens for ages and got a 12.5′ x 16.5′ rug for less than $500. I had a friend whose husband flew to Turkey often and he often came back with a nice rug, often machine made. Turkish handmade rugs are beautiful of course, but their machine-made textiles are great too.
Mary Elizabeth says
Yes, you can get non-wool rugs. Mohawk rugs, made in the USA, come in different patterns and materials other than wool, such as nylon. Surprisingly, J. C. Penny and Kohl’s carry them–the greatest selection is on line. Some are very modern looking and some are oriental style. I have a beautiful paisley one in my living room that I bought on sale as a stop-gap, along with a sofa and loveseat from a local store, when I moved into my home in a hurry and was going to have surgery ten days later. Yet it is beautiful after 5 years and I ended up later finding valances to go with it on sale at Country Curtains.