Green Rug: Sage, Olive and Forest Green in Hand-Knotted Wool

Wood is the first ally. Oak, walnut and smoked oak all look warmer and fuller next to green, because brown and green belong together outdoors. For upholstery, cream, greige and natural linen work, and tan leather on an olive rug is a combination that is hard to get wrong. Brass and matt black draw fine lines around it all.

For an accent, look across the colour wheel: rust, terracotta and dusty pink make green glow. A cushion or a vase is enough. The one thing to watch is a second green. An olive rug with a bottle-green armchair rarely looks intended, since two greens that almost agree tend to argue.

A plain green wool rug is never truly plain. In the dense pile of a Beni Mrirt, lighter and darker passages come and go, depending on how the yarn was spun and where the light falls. That keeps a large green field calm without letting it go dead.

For something a little more broken, there are pieces with cream lines or stripes across the green. More assertive are the graphic rugs, where olive and charcoal meet in irregular fields. An emerald Azilal with a diamond lattice has a lower pile and a livelier drawing, and it is the one to choose when the rug is meant to be the centre of the room.

In a living room, a large green rug carries the whole scheme as long as walls and sofa stay light. In rooms that face north, where daylight is bluish, olive is more comfortable than sage, which can turn grey there. Facing south, you can go cooler and darker.

In a bedroom, sage is among the calmest colours there are, especially with white or undyed bedding. Under a dining table, dark green has a practical side: crumbs and small spills show far less than on cream, and pale chairs stand out cleanly against it. Only in a small, dim room is caution needed, where forest green can take the last of the light.

A large green rug is the rare case where a strong colour is easier in a big size than in a small one. Spread over eighty or a hundred square feet, forest green or olive stops being an accent and becomes the ground of the room, the way a lawn is the ground of a garden. It needs two things: daylight, and furniture that is lighter than the rug. A cream or oatmeal sofa, pale oak, linen curtains, and the green does the rest.

Every green rug we have is living-room size or larger. Two are about 6 ft 7 in × 9 ft 10 in. Four sit just above 8 × 10 ft, at 8 ft 6 in to 8 ft 10 in wide and 10 ft 2 in to 10 ft 6 in long, which suits a sectional or a sofa with two chairs. Three are very large, from 9 ft 10 in × 13 ft 1 in to 10 ft 2 in × 14 ft 1 in, for an open-plan room. In a dim room choose sage, or a piece with cream lines, over the darkest forest green.

It is a small group, and nearly all of it is large: from about 6 ft 6 in × 10 ft to roughly 10 × 14 ft. Almost every piece is a Beni Mrirt with a deep, heavy pile, some nearly plain with a tone-on-tone drawing, others with fine lines, diamonds or a graphic drawing in cream. A rug leaves the page when it is sold.

Measured sizes are given with every rug, since hand-knotted pieces never fall exactly on a standard. Delivery is free worldwide, duties and taxes included.