Sultanabad Rugs: Where the Design Comes From and How to Read It

Sultanabad is a real place in the history of carpet weaving, and the name on a modern rug is a reference to a specific tradition rather than decoration. Here is what it refers to, and what the pattern is actually saying.

Where the design comes from

Sultanabad carpets were woven from the 1880s for Western drawing rooms, largely through the Ziegler company of Manchester. The designers scaled the ornament up and thinned the palette down, deliberately making a Persian carpet that would sit under English furniture.

In our range this sits in the Persian Court collection. Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan and Sultanabad — the workshop tradition that gave carpet design the centred medallion and the endlessly turning floral field.

How to read the pattern

An all-over pattern of large palmettes and leaves with no medallion at all. Without a centre the rug has no single correct orientation, which is exactly why decorators still reach for it.

Sultanabad in a machine washable rug

The difficulty with a Persian workshop design is density. The original might carry several hundred knots per square inch and a vine scroll that never repeats; a washable rug has to keep the drawing legible at a much coarser gauge without letting it turn into mush.

Our Sultanabad designs are woven in chenille polyester on a woven cotton backing with a non-slip finish. That construction is what makes the rug washable at 30°C in a domestic machine — there is no latex or rubber layer to crack, and no wool to felt. It is a genuinely different object from the hand-knotted rugs the name refers to, and it is meant to be: one is an heirloom, the other is a floor covering you can put in the wash.

Colours it comes in

We currently weave 2 Sultanabad designs, across 4 colour families — cream & white, orange & terracotta, red & burgundy and blue & navy. Prices run from £50 for the 60 × 100 cm to £185 for the 200 × 300 cm, with delivery to the UK and Europe included.

What size to buy

A formal medallion design wants to be seen whole. That argues for the larger sizes — 155 × 230 cm or 200 × 300 cm — where the centre is not hidden under a coffee table.

Every design is woven in all ten sizes: 60 x 100, 80 x 150, 100 x 200, 120 x 180, 80 x 300, 100 x 300, 155 x 230, 200 x 300, 160 round, 200 round cm. We would put Sultanabad in the living room, the bedroom, the dining room and the hallway before anywhere else.

Common questions

Is this the same as a hand-knotted Sultanabad?

No. A hand-knotted Sultanabad is a different object entirely — tied by hand in wool or silk, often over months, and priced accordingly. What we make is a power-woven washable rug that uses the Sultanabad design vocabulary. The pattern is the inheritance; the construction is modern.

What colours does Sultanabad come in?

4 colour families — cream & white, orange & terracotta, red & burgundy and blue & navy. We file a rug under the colour it reads as across a room, not the colour covering the most area, so an ivory ground with strong blue motifs is listed under blue.

Where should a Sultanabad rug go?

The living room, The bedroom, The dining room and The hallway suit it best. Anchor the sofa and coffee table. Because it washes at 30°C, the rooms most people avoid putting a rug in — kitchen, hallway, under a dining table — are the ones where it earns its keep.

Living with it

• Machine washable at 30°C on a gentle cycle — sizes up to 120 × 180 cm fit a standard 7 kg drum.
• Non-slip woven cotton backing: no separate underlay needed on wood, tile or laminate.
• Low pile, so robot vacuums pass over it without snagging.
• No latex, glue or rubber crumb — nothing to break down into dust.
• Dry flat or over a rail. Never tumble dry.