Kelim rugs by ferm LIVING: how the flatweave works on your floor
Kelim is a knot-free flatweave, so ferm LIVING's Kelim rugs are light and flat: good by a bed, sofa or hallway, but the Medium is too small for dining.
Short answer: A kelim is a flatweave: the pattern is made by coloured weft yarns packed tight over a warp, with no knots and no pile. That makes ferm LIVING's Kelim rugs light, flat and easy to move, so they suit a hallway, a bedside or the space in front of a sofa, but the 140 x 200 cm Medium is too small to sit under a dining table with chairs.
What makes a kelim a kelim
Rugs fall into two families. Pile rugs are knotted: short lengths of yarn are tied round the warp threads and trimmed into a soft surface. Flatweaves have no knots. In a kelim the coloured weft yarns pass over and under the warp and are beaten down so densely that the warp disappears. What you see on the surface is only weft, so the technique is described as weft-faced tapestry weaving, and the design is built row by row, one block of colour at a time.
The word reaches English through Turkish kilim, from the Persian gelim, and the technique has been used for centuries across a wide band from the Balkans and Anatolia through the Caucasus and Persia to Central Asia. Where two colours meet along a vertical line, the wefts turn back round their own warp threads and a small slit opens between them. That is why traditional kelims favour stepped edges, diagonals and lozenges, and why the patterns look graphic rather than painted.
Because the weft forms both faces, a kelim generally shows its pattern on the back as well as the front. That is useful: a rug can be turned over or end to end to spread wear and fading.
The Punja loom and hand-dyed wool
ferm LIVING weaves its Kelim pieces by hand on a traditional Punja loom. In Indian flatweave, the punja is the heavy, comb-like tool the weaver uses to beat each row of weft down tight; it is what gives this kind of rug its dense, firm hand. The result here is a coarse, textured surface you can feel.
The yarn is hand-dyed before weaving, and dye batches never match exactly. Expect a slight shift of shade across one rug and between two rugs of the same design. ferm LIVING presents this as part of each piece's character, and in kelim weaving it always has been.
The fibre differs by line. The Kelim Rug Small and Kelim Rug Medium – Squares are 80% wool and 20% cotton. The Calm Kelim runner is pure wool. The Kelim Cushion is 80% New Zealand wool and 20% cotton on the face, with a cotton canvas back and a feather and down filling.
Light enough to lift: the range by weight
A flatweave weighs little for its size. Dividing each rug's weight by its area gives a simple measure of how dense the cloth is, and how easy it is to pick up, shake out and carry.
| Piece | Size | Weight | Weight per m² | Where we would put it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kelim Rug Small (Squares or Merge) | 80 x 140 cm | 1.7 kg | about 1.5 kg | Beside a bed, in front of a chest of drawers, an entrance |
| Kelim Rug Medium, Squares | 140 x 200 cm | 4.1 kg | about 1.5 kg | In front of a sofa up to 200 cm, under a coffee table |
| Calm Kelim Runner | 80 x 200 cm | 2.1 kg | about 1.3 kg | A hallway at least 100 cm wide |
| Kelim Cushion (Merge or Squares) | 50 x 50 cm | 1.1 kg | not applicable | Sofa or bed, against smooth upholstery |
The two blended rugs have almost the same density, so the Medium is simply the Small at a larger scale. The pure wool runner is a little lighter per square metre. Even the Medium, at 4.1 kg, can be lifted by one person and shaken outside.
How a flat rug behaves under furniture
No pile means less to crush. A flatweave does not hold deep dents where legs stand, and the front legs of a sofa can rest on it without tilting the frame. It usually clears the bottom of an interior door where a deep pile would drag.
The dining table is where size matters. A common rule is that a rug should reach about 60 cm beyond each edge of the table, so chairs stay on it when pulled out. On a 140 x 200 cm rug that leaves room for a table only 20 x 80 cm, which is not a dining table. Use the Medium in a seating area: with a sofa of up to 200 cm, the rug runs the length of the sofa and its 140 cm depth covers a coffee table with room for feet on both sides.
In a hallway, leave a strip of floor showing on each side. On a 100 cm corridor the 80 cm runner leaves 10 cm either side, which looks intended; on a narrower one it reads as wall to wall. On smooth oak or stone, any thin rug can creep, so use a non-slip underlay, above all under a runner.
Which one we would choose
For a first kelim: the Kelim Rug Small. At 80 x 140 cm and 1.7 kg it works by a bed, in a doorway or at an entrance, and it is the easiest way to see how hand-dyed shade variation looks in your own light. Choose Squares for a graphic, cooler room; Merge for warmer, burnt tones.
For a living room: the Medium in Squares, in front of a sofa, not under a dining table.
For a hallway: the Calm Kelim Runner 80 x 200 cm in Dark Sand / Off-white or Off-white / Coffee. Its stripes are quieter than Squares or Merge, which suits a narrow space you walk through rather than sit in.
If a rug is not possible yet: the cushion in the same design brings the handwoven face onto a sofa. See every size in our rugs collection.
