12' x 15'9" Oversize Indian Rug | Mahal All Over Floral Design | Ivory Field, Brand New

This is a big, calm, ivory-ground room rug, hand-knotted in India in the Mahal manner and never laid in a home. At 12' x 15'9" it covers a full formal living room or a long dining room with the table and all chairs pulled out, which is exactly the job oversize 12x16 area rugs are woven to do. The wool pile is thick and springy, the handle is heavy, and the reverse shows a clean, regular knot line across a cotton foundation with hand-tied ivory fringe at both ends. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted, its materials, size and origin.

Design and Motifs

The field is an all over floral design with no central medallion, built from big round palmettes, open rosettes, curling acanthus leaves and long serrated leaves that swing off a thin vine network. The drawing repeats in mirrored pairs up the length of the rug, so the eye reads rhythm rather than a single focal point, and furniture can sit anywhere on it without cutting the composition. Framing the field is a three part border system: a wide ivory main border carrying alternating fan-shaped palmettes and rounded blossoms on a leafy vine, and on either side of it a narrow olive and brown guard band stamped with small cruciform rosettes and upright flowering sprigs. A single fine outline stripe in terracotta separates the bands and keeps the whole frame crisp. Small white and red flecks are dropped into the leaves throughout, a detail that only reads up close and gives the surface life at floor level.

Ivory Ground with Olive Green and Warm Brown

The ground is a soft ivory, closer to unbleached cream than to bright white, and it shifts a shade lighter or warmer as the pile lies one way or the other. Against it the ornament works in two families: a muted olive green that carries the leaves and the guard bands, and a range of browns running from pale camel through cocoa in the palmette centers. Between them sit the warm accents, terracotta and rust in the vine lines, old gold in the leaf tips, and tiny points of deep red and ivory that punctuate the border blossoms. There is no harsh contrast anywhere in the palette, which is why the rug reads as quiet from standing height and detailed from a chair. It sits easily with cream and oatmeal upholstery, walnut and oak furniture, brass and bronze metals, and it will hold its own against a dark hardwood floor rather than fight it.

Woven in India: Quality and Construction

India is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now done, and this piece is a good example of why: consistent wool, disciplined drawing over a very large loom, and a knot count high enough to hold curved vine work without the outlines going ragged. A rug this size takes a wide loom, several weavers working side by side for many months, and a designer who can keep the repeat true across almost 16 feet of length. The wool is dense and lightly lustrous, spun for durability rather than for a soft short-lived surface, and the pile height gives it the weight you want underfoot in a main room. If you are weighing this against other traditional pieces, our guide on what separates an Oriental rug from other handmade categories is worth reading before you buy. Oversize rugs like this one ship free to all 50 states, with no freight surcharge.