Penumbra Rugs Explained: What the Design Actually Means

Penumbra is not a weaving town. It is a design idea — the partial shadow — and this is what it means when it turns up on a rug.

Where the idea comes from

The penumbra is the soft grey rim around a shadow where the light is only partly blocked — the transition rather than the state.

In our range this sits in the Painterly collection. Abstract designs closer to canvas than to carpet: washes, gradients and drifts, with no repeating motif to find.

How to read the pattern

A wide graded edge between light and dark. All the incident is in the transition.

Penumbra in a machine washable rug

Colour without edges is the hardest thing to weave. A gradient has to be built from discrete yarns, so the transition is really a very fine dither — which is why these designs need a dense, low pile to read smoothly.

Our Penumbra 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 originals this idea is drawn from, 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 Penumbra designs, across 3 colour families — grey & silver, lilac & purple and cream & white. 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

Painterly designs are effectively unique at every size, since the pattern does not repeat. Larger sizes show more of the composition.

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 Penumbra in the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom before anywhere else.

Common questions

Is this the same as a hand-knotted Penumbra?

No — and it does not claim to be. Penumbra is a contemporary design rather than a reproduction of an antique, so there is no hand-knotted original it is copying.

What colours does Penumbra come in?

3 colour families — grey & silver, lilac & purple and cream & white. 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 Penumbra rug go?

The living room, The bedroom, The kitchen and The bathroom 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.