Lilac & Purple Rugs: How to Choose One and What to Put With It

We make 29 rugs where lilac & purple carries the design. This is what that colour does in a room, and how to place it.

What lilac & purple does to a room

Purple is the rarest colour in rugs and the most interesting for it. Muted lilac and heather read almost as a neutral in low light and only declare themselves in daylight.

What to put with it

Lilac with grey, cream and pale wood. Plum with brass, charcoal and deep green.

Where it goes wrong

Saturated purple is genuinely difficult. Everything we make in this family is knocked back with grey, which is what makes it wearable.

Which rooms

Bedrooms first, then living rooms in a scheme that is already cool-toned.

A note on how we classify colour

We file a rug under the colour it reads as from across a room, not the colour covering the most surface area. An ivory rug with a strong blue motif is listed under blue, because that is how anyone standing in the doorway would describe it. It means the lilac & purple collection looks like lilac & purple rather than like a list of rugs that happen to contain some lilac & purple.

The practical part

Every one of these is chenille polyester on a woven cotton backing with a non-slip finish, in all ten sizes — eight rectangles from 60 × 100 cm to 200 × 300 cm, plus 160 cm and 200 cm rounds — £50–£185 with delivery to the UK and Europe included. They wash at 30°C in a domestic machine up to 120 × 180 cm.