This mid-century moderne room of colorful flat-weave rugs laid end-to-end breaks from the usual restraint of moderne decor. Patterns of rugs create a space that is welcoming, cosy, colorful, and mutes the difference between seat and floor, no matter where you are…giving modern more earthy, random feel…
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Rugs-on-rugs used to be an earmark of seventies hippy-ish bohemian homes…
They emulate nomadic Arabic tradition, where rugs are used to create spaces to gather upon, and even the walls of shelters…
The images of those chic modern homes jarred our recent memory of photos we had seen while looking at recent “virtual tours” of the many refugee camps that dot the Middle East and now Europe. In so many of them, in the most terrible conditions, rugs had been laid down to create a semblance of home and rest.
At the amazing site Refugee Republic, you can walk the vast camp, which is like a small city and literally look around…
The New York Times’ virtual travels with displaced people are a revelation and not to be missed.
Rugs give comfort, warmth, cohesion…
When we pad across our kilim rugs made in the 1940’s by unknown women and feel their wool and texture, we think of their long path to us, of all the people who took comfort on them before us, and now, of the people carrying their precious rugs with them to make a semblance of home wherever they may find themselves.
top photo via SF Girl By Bay viaSophie Munro Photography
Simply put. simply stunning. Such rugs can mean safety, home, comfort. Anywhere, any way. Cosy (!) indeed.
Some of the photos remind me of The Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. It is an icon of mid-century modern residential architecture/landscape design/interior design–very far from nomads, hippies, and refugee camps. But the use of carpets (and other textiles) bring an astounding warmth to the space. I’d never heard of it, but it is worth a trip. The video doesn’t do it justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onCH5foRkHo