Rugs for Goan & Portuguese Houses

The cement tiles of many Goan houses, laid in patterns that change from room to room, are often the most striking thing in the house. Rather than covering them, use a rug to mark the seating area and leave a wide band of tile all around. A plain or quietly patterned rug works best on a busy tile; a richer rug suits a plain red-oxide or timber floor.

Measure the furniture group, not the room. The rug should be large enough for at least the front legs of every sofa and chair to sit on it, with a border of floor showing beyond. In a long salão with two seating areas, two rugs often look better than one enormous one.

On ground floors that stay damp in the monsoon, a flatweave cotton dhurrie or a thin wool flatweave dries quickly and can be lifted and aired easily. Upstairs, on timber, a wool or hand-knotted rug with a breathable underlay is warm and quiet. Avoid rubber-backed rugs on old tiles and timber; they can trap moisture and discolour the surface.

Draw rug colours from the tiles, the window frames and the lime-wash: faded indigo, rust, ochre, soft green, cream. Old houses look best when the rug feels as though it has been there for years.

A slightly worn, vegetable-dyed rug often looks more at home than a crisp new one. If you have inherited rugs, have them cleaned and repaired before deciding they need replacing — fringes and edges can usually be rebound.

Under a dining table, choose a flatweave that a chair slides across easily and that can be taken out and washed after a family lunch. Make it large enough that the back legs of a pulled-out chair stay on it. In the long passages and corridors some old houses have, a narrow runner quiets footsteps on timber without hiding the boards.