In the 18th and 19th centuries Aubusson rugs were designed by artists some of whom were established painters for the King of France. Because Aubusson rugs are designed by fine artists, they have highly sophisticated color palettes. This makes them easy to decorate with as long as you keep these guidelines at the back of your mind:
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Carry no more than three colors from the Aubusson rug on to the fabrics etc.
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If you must pick a fourth color from the rug, use it in smaller details
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You do not have to pick any colors from the Aubusson rug provided you use contrasting colors
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You do not need to have any red in the Aubusson to design a red room
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Pairing Aubusson rugs with modern is the height of chic
The 16 gorgeous rooms with Aubusson rugs demonstrate how designers use the above five rules.
In the living room of Juicy Couture founder Pamela Skaist Levy designed by Peter Dunham a red floral Aubusson rug pulls together abstract art, green French chairs, white ottoman and purple pillows.
In the New York penthouse living room of Michael S. Smith, a cream Aubusson rug with red, green and blue accents unifies antique French furniture and blue and white porcelain.
Designer Justine Sancho use two espresso-black Aubusson rugs with a tree canopy design to anchor the living and dining areas of the a garden room in Maryland. The living area sofas pick up the golds in the rug and dining area chairs pick up on the reds in Aubusson.
The Mid Summer Night Aubusson rug by Asmara has red, gold and green top colors. It was chosen by Justine Sancho for the open plan garden room because it allowed her to heighten interest by picking gold fabrics for one of the areas and red fabrics for the other area.
French designer acques Garcia picked up the Aubusson rug’s greens, golds and wood tones in the paneled walls and not the reds for this salon in Normandy, France. Limiting the colors to pick up from the Aubusson rug creates a calmer more elegant atmosphere.
Asmara’s Rosemont Aubusson rug has red, rose golds, greens and blue’s as in the Aubusson rug in Jacques Garcia’s Normandy salon.
You can pick just one or two colors from the Rosemont Aubusson rug to create a chic room. The pinks and apricots in this romantic bedroom resonate with the soft reds in the rug.
Make a power statement with a custom red Aubusson rug as this one in Carolyne Roehm’s living room, “I love most colors but red has top billing,” says Roehm, “In fact I use it as a neutral, I find it goes with and enhances so many other colors. It just adds that spark of life to a room.”
“In the photos above and below notice how red works with every color including itself,” says Carolyne Roehm, “I like mixing different hues of red together. I often do that when arranging flowers. The master of mixing colors this way was the late Yves St. Laurent…for me he was truly brilliant at this”.
Asmara’s Pamplona Aubusson Rug has more than a hundred shades of red and gold so the rug will work with any shade of red in the room.
You can create a calmer, more neutral room by picking fabrics in only the browns and tans found in the Summer Aubusson rug and letting the reds and other colors in the rug provide energy, as in this Palm Beach living room by Kemble Interiors.
Kemble Interiors picked up only beiges and browns from Asmara’s Summer Aubusson rug for the upholstery fabrics in the above Palm Beach living room. The cream, red, yellow, and greens of the Aubusson rug stand out against the beige and tan fabrics and give the room a refreshing and calm energy.
For the library of their Paris home, the owners of the Hermes fashion house chose green for the walls because to create a vivid contrast to the reds and golds in the Directoire Aubusson rug. Choosing green when there is no green in the Aubusson rug, gives the room a sophisticated Parisian atmosphere.
Kemble Interiors again picked only the tans, golds and beige from the Branches Aubusson rug in the section of the Palm Beach living room that opens to the lanai.
Kemble Interiors picked beige, gold and tans from the Branches Aubusson rug for the Palm Beach living room. The red, green and blue in the rug provide all the color and pattern in the room.
You can pick more than three colors from the Aubusson rug to create a cheeful room as in the Swanson’s Napa Valley living room from Lonny Magazine. The fourth color should be used sparingly.
The Swanson’s derived pinks, gold and green from the Asmara Aubusson rug as well as small amounts of blue which are in the pattern details of the sofa fabric and in the porcelain. Limiting the fourth color to small areas keeps the room from becoming overwhelming.
Mixing in Warhol’s Campbell Soup art with a red Aubusson rug gives this room a young energy. Note that the only place the red from the Aubusson is picked up is the Campbell soup label.
The touches of red in the gold Aubusson rug and chair back tapestry are picked up only by the floral arrangements while the rest of the room is in neutral creams, beiges and golds.
Asmara’s Chambery Aubusson rug has many neutral colors- gold, beige and cream, with touches of red and rose. The cream in the rug picks up white fabrics and white wood trim.
You can pick up only the neutral colors from an Aubusson rug such as in this dining room by Samuel Botero.
You can create a modern, romantic look by using pink for fabrics and walls, even when there are no pinks in the Aubusson rug and the nearest colors are red and rose accents on a gold background. It helps if the Aubusson rug has touches of white or cream to pick up the white in the sofa and wall trim.
You can design a flamboyant dining room like this one in Jacques Garcia’s Paris home by choosing an Aubusson rug with highly contrasting colors such as blue and red. Create a “collected, not decorated look,” by using green fabrics for the chairs instead of blue which would be the too “matchy,” and utterly expected.
Asmara’s Empire Aubusson rug combines blue, gold and red in a very French combination.
The ornate music room in Miami’s Vizcaya Museum picks up just the yellows, golds and browns from the Aubusson rug and the blue and red are found only in the rug.
Images courtesy of Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Lonny Magazine, Justine Sancho, Jacques Garcia, Samuel Botero, Vizcaya Museum.