Beni Ourain Rug: Ivory Wool and Dark Lines from the Middle Atlas

The three are often confused. A Beni Mrirt rug comes from the same mountains and is denser and heavier, with a very plain design: a few lines, or none at all. If you want the ivory look under a dining table or a desk, a Beni Mrirt is usually the more practical choice.

An Azilal rug comes from the High Atlas and is lighter, with coloured signs and diamonds. Where a Beni Ourain is calm, an Azilal is lively. The names describe traditions and not fixed recipes, so the borders between them are soft, and one rug can share the traits of two.

Almost anywhere you sit or walk barefoot. In a living room it brings light to the floor and lets furniture of any colour stand out. In a bedroom it is the first thing your feet touch in the morning. It suits pared-back rooms, and it also calms rooms with a lot going on.

Be realistic about ivory. It shows spills sooner than a dark or patterned rug. A lattice of dark lines hides more than a plain field does, but a Beni Ourain under a dining table in a house with small children is asking a lot of it. Vacuum with suction only, and blot spills at once with cold water.

Turn the rug over. On a hand-knotted rug the pattern shows on the back, knot by knot and slightly uneven. A tufted rug has a cloth backing glued on. A machine-woven rug has a perfectly regular back and a fringe that is sewn on and is not part of the structure.

Then look at the front. Hand-knotted lines waver, the two halves of the rug do not mirror each other, and the measurements are odd figures such as 205 by 300 cm. None of these is a defect. A rug made of polypropylene or polyester is a style copy. There is nothing wrong with buying one, as long as you know what it is.

Twenty-two rugs. Seventeen have an ivory or cream ground, two are sand or taupe, and there is one each in terracotta, straw and faded vintage tones. More than half carry diamonds or a lattice, from the classic charcoal on ivory to two drawn tone on tone, which show only when light crosses the pile. Two have their pattern carved into the pile in relief, with no second colour at all, and one is a plain cream field.

Sixteen measure between 6 ft 5 in and 7 ft 3 in wide and 9 ft 6 in to 10 ft 6 in long. Five are long and narrow, from 5 ft 5 in to 6 ft 3 in wide and about 12 feet long, and one is smaller, at 4 ft 9 in by 8 ft 2 in. Each rug is one of a kind, with its exact measurements on its own page. Delivery is free worldwide, duties and taxes included.