Afghan handmade rug,Chobi. Size:240x167 cm

This Chobi rug was hand-knotted in Afghanistan, the kind of piece that takes months rather than days to finish. It's woven in the Chobi style — an open field, a restrained border, and a colour palette built to look decades old the day it's finished. The wool takes natural dye unevenly on purpose, which is what gives a handmade rug that slight variation a machine-made one can't fake.

At 240 x 167 cm (7.9 x 5.5 ft), it's a good middle-of-the-room size — large enough to matter, not so large it fights the furniture. It ships as the individual piece shown in these photos; once it sells, that particular rug is gone.