8'10" x 12'1" Serapi Oriental Rug | Rustic Red & Navy Medallion | New, Made in India

This 8'10" x 12'1" rug is a new, hand-knotted Serapi design piece made in India, woven knot by knot in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that already feels dense underfoot. It reads as a classic room-size Oriental rug: a rustic red field, a large stepped medallion, ivory corner spandrels and a deep navy main border, all drawn in the straight-line geometric vocabulary that the Serapi name stands for. The proportions are the workhorse of American homes, which is why buyers looking at 9x12 area rugs keep coming back to this drawing. The rug is in perfect, never used condition and ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted piece.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a layered 8 point medallion: a small navy core filled with a tiny stepped lattice, ringed by a camel and salmon star, then by a larger stepped outline that throws serrated hooks out toward all 4 corners. Above and below it sit twin anchor pendants drawn as spiky cypress-like forms. The open red field is not empty anywhere, but it is never crowded either: single serrated leaves, sky blue fan palmettes, small angular blossoms and hooked vine scrolls are scattered with air between them, which is exactly how this design is supposed to breathe. The ivory spandrels carry curling vines and angular animal and bird silhouettes, and the corners of the field step rather than curve. The navy main border runs a turtle palmette and vine chain in ivory, salmon and sage, flanked by narrow ivory guard stripes with a running rosette meander. Buyers who shop geometric rugs will recognize the discipline here: every curve is resolved into a straight line or a step.

The Rustic Red, Ivory and Navy Palette

The field is a rustic red with a brick and terracotta cast rather than a bright fire red, and it shifts slightly with the nap, warmer where the pile lies away from you and deeper where it lies toward you. Against it the border is a saturated midnight navy, dark enough to frame the whole rug like a picture mount and to keep the red from spreading visually into the room. The spandrels and guard stripes are a soft ivory with a cream, almost oatmeal warmth, and they lift the corners so the medallion sits centered rather than heavy. Inside the medallion the palette opens up: camel and light gold, dusty salmon and apricot, and a clear sky blue that also repeats in the field palmettes and gives the rug its cool counterpoint. Sage and olive green appear in the leaves and in the border vine, along with touches of chocolate brown and a few small black outlines that sharpen the drawing. It is a warm, high-contrast color story that sits comfortably with wood floors, leather, brass and cream walls.

Woven in India: Serapi Weaving and Quality

India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, and we say that with confidence: the best Indian workshops spin their own wool, dye in small lots and hold a weaving standard that used to belong only to a handful of older centers. This piece was knotted by hand on a cotton warp and weft, row by row, with every knot tied and cut individually, then washed, clipped to a 3/8" pile and finished with hand-overcast edges and hand-knotted fringe. The wool has a healthy lanolin sheen and enough body that the pile stands up rather than lying flat, which is what makes a Serapi drawing read cleanly from across a room. At 8'10" x 12'1" it covers a full seating group with all legs on, and because the knotting is genuine hand work rather than tufting there is no latex backing to break down, no shedding glue and nothing to stop this rug from being cleaned, rotated and used for decades.