Are Persian Rugs Out of Style? How They Work in Modern Rooms

By Storied Rugs7 min read

In stock now: 2006 Persian rugs

Modern white living room with a painted brick wall, a large red Persian medallion rug under a gray sofa, cognac leather chairs and oak table

No, Persian rugs are not out of style, and neither are oriental rugs as a whole. When a room with one looks dated, the cause is usually what surrounds the rug, such as heavy formal furniture or curtains and cushions matched to it. Put the same rug among plain, simple furniture and it looks current, especially an old rug whose colors have softened with age. Some rooms lean into the old look on purpose, as our post on grandmillennial style shows. “Oriental rug” is the older, wider name for hand-knotted rugs from Turkey to China, and everything below applies to those rugs too. Oriental rug vs Persian rug explains how the two names fit together.

Spare white dining room on a pale concrete floor, a rust red Kashan rug with a navy border under an oak table and black chairs — A Kashan, 7 feet 5 inches by 10 feet 8 inches, as the only pattern in a spare dining room with white walls and pale wood. A traditional rug among plain modern pieces is one of the easiest ways to use one today.

What makes a room with a Persian rug look dated

Check for these before you blame the rug.

Everything matches. When the rug’s red and gold show up again in the curtains, the cushions and the wallpaper, the room turns into a period set.
Pattern on every surface. A patterned sofa, patterned walls and a patterned rug all compete, and the rug loses.
The rug is too small. A small rug floating in front of a sofa looks like an afterthought in any style.^[1] Our guide to choosing the right rug size has the rules.
It is a machine-made copy. Printed or machine-woven “Persian design” rugs often come in a flat, overly bright red and navy, sometimes with a synthetic shine. From across the room they look like imitations. Our post on how to tell if a Persian rug is real shows the difference.
Dark, formal furniture all around it. Surrounded by carved dark wood and tassels, the rug looks like part of a furniture set rather than a choice of its own.

What makes one look current

Contrast does most of the work. Put a hand-knotted rug in a room of plain modern pieces, such as a linen sofa, a simple wood or stone table and fairly bare walls. In that room the rug looks like a deliberate choice rather than something you inherited. Let it be the room’s only pattern, or at least the main one.

Softened color helps too. A vintage rug has had about fifty years of light, footsteps and washing. Its reds have usually eased toward rose and its navies toward slate. Those quieter colors sit with modern furniture much more easily than new, full-strength dyes do. Our post on why vintage colors age so beautifully explains what happens to the dyes.

Then get the size right. Leave bare floor around the edges, and let the furniture sit on the rug instead of around it.^[1]

From above, a red Tabriz rug with a navy medallion under the front of a linen sofa, an oak table and a sheepskin chair — A Tabriz, 8 feet 2 inches by 11 feet 6 inches, seen from above with the front of the sofa and the lounge chair standing on it. There is bare floor on every side, and the furniture sits on the rug rather than around it.

Persian rugs in minimal, mid-century, Scandinavian and industrial rooms

Minimal

In a pared-back room the rug is the decoration, so choose one that can carry the room. Look for a pattern that repeats across the whole rug in a few colors, such as charcoal, navy or faded red. It looks calmer than a big central medallion in six colors. Keep the furniture low and plain. Let the rug cover the floor properly, because a small rug in a minimal room looks lost. Navy rugs and faded reds are a good place to start.

Mid-century

Walnut and teak furniture on tapered legs, leather, and rust or mustard upholstery all sit well with Persian village rugs. The bold, angular patterns of a Heriz or a Hamedan match the clean lines of the furniture, and their warm reds share its colors. Our rugs are about fifty years old, so they are close in age to furniture from the 1960s and 1970s. Our Heriz guide and Hamedan guide show the range, and vintage rugs in a mid-century modern room goes further.

Sunken 1970s seating pit with cedar walls, a deep red geometric rug before a rust velvet sofa, a chrome arc lamp and glass table — A deep red village rug in a sunken seating area with a rust velvet sofa and an arc lamp. Bold geometry suits a 1970s room well.

Scandinavian

Pale wood, white walls and linen call for a pale rug. Turkish rugs are often a good fit, because many have a cream or ivory field with dusty rose, sage, stone or faded blue in the pattern. Those colors suit a Scandinavian room without making it feel heavy. A Persian rug works too, once its red has faded toward rose.

Industrial

Brick, concrete and black steel overwhelm a timid rug. Deep reds and burgundies work well here. They have the weight to hold a concrete floor and the warmth to soften a hard room. Size matters too. Industrial rooms tend to be large and open, and a rug that looks fine in a small living room disappears under a high ceiling. Go up a size and let the rug mark out the seating area. Our post on oxblood rugs covers what to pair with the darkest reds. For gray floors in any room, see what color rug goes with gray floors.

Are red oriental rugs out of style?

This is the question that matters most, because many Persian rugs have a red or burgundy background. Some reds look dated and some do not. A bright, flat red paired with navy, in a formal room where everything else is red too, looks dated. A softened red that shifts a little in shade across the rug looks current, especially next to plain upholstery. The trade calls those gentle shifts in color abrash.^[2]

A few habits work in almost any room. Keep the upholstery plain, in linen, oatmeal or leather. Pick one other color from the rug, such as its navy, green or cream, and repeat it once or twice in the room. Put warm wood near the rug. And do not add a second strong red. Terracotta and rose rugs are the gentle way in, and a deep red rug suits a bolder room.

Glass-walled living room on concrete, a terracotta Heriz rug with navy geometric drawing between a cognac leather sofa and two boucle armchairs — A Heriz, 7 feet by 10 feet 3 inches, with a terracotta field and navy drawing. A softer red with bold geometry is one of the easiest Persian rugs to place in a modern room.

How interior designers use Persian rugs

Designers who put Persian rugs in modern rooms tend to choose the rug first. They take the room’s colors from it and mix furniture from different decades around it, instead of matching everything to it. Our post on how interior designers pick rugs for their clients explains how that works when every rug is one of a kind.

If you are wondering whether a Persian rug will look dated in your room, ask four questions:

Is it the only strong pattern in the room?
Are the sofa and chairs plain?
Is it big enough for at least the front legs of the seating?
Do you repeat just one of its colors elsewhere, and only once or twice?

If you can answer yes to all four, the rug will look like a choice you made on purpose. Browse Persian rugs for reds and formal designs, or Turkish rugs for paler colors.