12' x 15' Serapi Rug | Navy Blue & Coral Red Star Medallion | Hand-Knotted New Wool

This is a brand new hand-knotted Serapi in a true room size, 12' x 15', with a deep navy field, a coral red star medallion and wide ivory corners that keep the drawing from feeling heavy. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, cut low enough that every outline stays crisp and heavy enough to take traffic for decades. At 180 square feet it belongs with the oversize rugs that anchor a full seating group or a long dining table with all chairs pulled out. It has never been used, the ends and sides are original and tight, and it ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuinely hand-knotted.

Design and Motifs

The Serapi layout is one of the great geometric rug designs: a large 8 point star medallion set on a stepped navy field, with straight lines, angular leaf forms and no fussy curvature. Here the medallion is built in layers, a small navy cartouche at the dead center holding a single rosette, ringed by a gold sunburst, then a turquoise blue star, then a coral red 8 point frame, with 4 gold panels at the diagonals each carrying a stylized palmette cluster. Pendants drop north and south into the navy ground, and the field around the medallion is filled with big serrated leaves, rosettes and vine work in ivory, green, rose and gold. The 4 corner spandrels are ivory, drawn with coral and turquoise palmettes and curling cloud bands, which is what gives the rug its light. The main border runs rust red with alternating ivory and navy rosette cartouches joined by leafy vines, framed by narrow gold guard stripes and a barber pole minor stripe.

A Study in Navy, Coral and Ivory

The field is a deep, slightly inky navy blue that photographs almost black in the corners and opens up to a clear midnight tone under lamplight. Against it the medallion reads coral red, a soft terracotta rather than a fire engine red, and that coral is repeated in the wide main border so the eye travels from center to edge. The second blue is the important one: a bright turquoise inside the star and scattered through the corner drawing, which lifts the whole palette and keeps the navy from going flat. Old gold fills the 4 medallion panels and the guard stripes, ivory carries the spandrels and the leaf outlines, and small touches of sage and olive green appear in the field vines and the border rosettes. The wool takes dye with a gentle abrash across the navy, visible in the angled photos, which is exactly what you want from hand-knotted wool and what separates it from a printed or machine made floor covering.

Made in India, Woven in the Serapi Tradition

Serapi names a style of large scale geometric medallion weaving, and this example was hand-knotted in India, where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work is now produced. The weavers there took over the tradition seriously: good handspun wool, natural looking dye tones, and drawing discipline on a piece this wide, where a medallion 8 feet across has to stay symmetrical over 15 feet of length. The back photo shows the knotting clearly, an even row structure on a cotton foundation with the design legible knot for knot, which is the honest test of any Oriental rug. The 3/8" pile height is a working height, dense underfoot, easy to vacuum, and heavy enough that the rug lies dead flat without curling at the corners. Oversize pieces like this normally attract a freight surcharge; here it ships free to all 50 states.