Large Cream Rug 200 x 300 cm: Ivory Wool, Knotted by Hand

None of these rugs is bright white, and that is deliberate. Wool is warm in tone: ivory, cream, soft off-white. A warm tone looks gentle next to white walls instead of competing with them, and it sits happily with both cool grey and warm beige furniture.

On a very pale floor, a plain cream rug can melt into the boards. Choose one with dark lines or diamonds, which give the edge an outline. On a darker floor, walnut, stained oak or slate, the contrast is already there, and an almost plain rug comes into its own.

The diamond lattice is the classic. Diagonals crossing a pale ground, never quite regular, give the room a drawing without taking it over. It is the pattern that modernist architects brought into European houses in the last century, and it still looks current.

A few single lines are quieter and more contemporary. Free signs, small figures and zigzags scattered across the field, are more personal: there you see most clearly that someone invented the rug while making it. The signs may be dark or coloured, in cobalt, ochre or wine red, and then the rug is all the colour a room needs.

A Beni Ourain has a long, soft pile and feels like a fleece underfoot. It is at its best in a living room or bedroom. An Azilal is usually a little thinner and lighter, with a paler ground and a finer drawing, and it copes well where people walk a great deal.

A Beni Mrirt is the densest and heaviest of the three. The pile stands close and springs back, and the rug lies flat under its own weight. All three are knotted by hand in wool. The difference shows most under bare feet, and in the way each takes the light: long pile gives deep shadows, dense pile a more even surface.

Twenty-nine rugs in ivory and cream. Fourteen are Beni Ourain: seven with a lattice, most often of diamonds, four with lines, two almost plain and one with signs. Thirteen are Azilal: seven with free signs, three with chevrons, triangles or a diamond lattice, two with lines and one with a graphic drawing. Two are Beni Mrirt, one plain and one graphic.

All measure between 195 and 220 cm in width and 290 to 320 cm in length, roughly 6 ft 5 in to 7 ft 3 in by 9 ft 6 in to 10 ft 6 in. Larger pale rugs are on the page for large cream rugs. The measured dimensions are given on every listing. Delivery is free worldwide, duties and taxes included.