Moroccan Rug: What It Is, the Main Types and How to Choose One

Rugs are named after the tribe or the town they come from. Beni Ourain rugs come from the Middle Atlas and are among the best known abroad: ivory wool, dark lines, diamonds. Beni Mrirt rugs come from the same mountains and are denser and heavier, often in a single colour or with very simple line drawing.

Azilal rugs come from the High Atlas. They are lighter, with coloured signs and diamonds. Beni Mguild rugs are known for deep colour, and Boujaad rugs, from the plains, for pinks, oranges and reds. Each name describes a tradition, not a factory standard, and two rugs of the same type can look quite different.

The vocabulary is small: diamonds, zigzags, chevrons, crosses, lines and combs, now and then a figure. In much that is written on the subject each sign is given a meaning, such as protection or fertility. We do not repeat those lists as fact. What a sign meant depended on the weaver and her village, and most of it was never written down.

What you can read from a rug is its hand. Lines that change direction, a border on one side only, a motif that appears once and never again: these are decisions made at the loom. If a rug sold as Moroccan is perfectly symmetrical and identical to the one beside it, it was made by a machine or from a template.

Start with size, because it is the one thing you cannot adjust later. In a living room the front legs of the sofa and chairs should stand on the rug. For most rooms that means about 8x10, and smaller rooms take 5x8 or 6x9. Hand-knotted rugs do not come in exact standard sizes, so read the measured dimensions and compare them with your floor.

Then decide how much the rug should say. An ivory rug with sparse lines is a background that suits almost any furniture. A multicoloured rug is the main event and wants plainer surroundings. Dense rugs suit dining rooms and busy areas, and a deeper pile belongs where you sit or walk barefoot.

We hold 275 rugs, every one hand-knotted and different. One hundred and twenty are Azilal and 119 are Beni Mrirt, with twenty-two Beni Ourain, eleven Beni Mguild, two Boujaad and one vintage piece. Seventy-eight are multicoloured, seventy-one have an ivory or cream ground and thirty-seven are sand or taupe. The rest include camel, terracotta, gold, teal and charcoal.

By size, 128 measure around 6 ft 7 in by 9 ft 10 in and fifty-six are larger. There are thirty-seven mid-sized rugs, thirty-one runners and twenty-three small rugs. If none fits, our bespoke studio makes a rug to your measurements. Each rug is one of a kind, with its exact measurements on its own page. Delivery is free worldwide, duties and taxes included.