Parts of a Rug – Field, Border, Fringe, Pile and Warp

All 12 parts on the diagram

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The design 8

Field The main area of the design, framed by the borders. One pattern may cover all of it, or a medallion may sit in its center.
Main border Usually one wide border surrounds the field. It is often filled with a repeating design.
Fringe The warp thread ends, left over at each end of the rug. They may be braided or knotted.
Medallion A symmetrical pattern in the center of the field. Parts of it are often repeated in the four corners.
Corner piece A design that fills a corner of the field. It is often a part of the medallion repeated. Also called a spandrel.
Guard stripe The lesser borders on either side of the main border. They have simpler designs. Also called guard or minor borders.
Selvedge The side edges of a rug, which run along the warps. They are wrapped in yarn to reinforce them.
Kilim end A strip made by weaving in wefts with no pile. It sits at the rug's start and finish. It protects the end from wear.

The weave 4

Pile Yarn knots set in the warp-and-weft foundation. The pile carries the design, and it is clipped to an even surface.
Knot In the symmetric knot the yarn goes round two warp threads. Both of its ends come up between them.
Warp The rug's foundation is its warps and wefts. The knots are tied to the warps, and the warps' ends make the fringe.
Weft They cross the warps, over one and under the next. They are beaten down after each row of knots.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where both sources use it: Peter F. Stone, The Oriental Rug Lexicon (University of Washington Press, 1997), read through archive.org's full-text search, https://archive.org/details/orientalruglexic00ston (field, medallion, spandrel or cornerpiece, main border, guard stripes, selvage or selvedge, fringe, kilim ends, end finish, pile, symmetric knot, warp, weft); and Wikipedia, Oriental rug, text only (field, medallion and corner design, main border with minor or guardian borders, selvedges, fringes as the ends of the warps, kilim ends, warp, weft, pile and the symmetric knot). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; an invented design, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

The words a rug dealer uses come in two sets. The first drawing has the layout of a hand-knotted oriental rug seen from above; the second shows how it is woven.

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The layout first, then the weave

Numbers 1 to 3 are the field, the main border round it and the fringe at each end. Numbers 4 and 5 sit in the field: the medallion and a corner piece. Numbers 6 to 8 are the edges: a guard stripe, the selvedge along each side and the kilim end. Open the second drawing for 9 to 12: the pile, a knot, a warp and a weft.

Warps run the length of the rug and end as the fringe; wefts run across it.
A corner piece is also called a spandrel.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a rug called?

On a hand-knotted oriental rug: the field, often with a medallion and corner pieces; the main border and its guard stripes; a selvedge along each side; a kilim end and fringe at each end. It is built of warps, wefts, knots and pile.

What is the fringe on a rug?

The fringe is the ends of the warp threads, the threads that run the whole length of the rug. They are left at each end and may be braided, tasseled or knotted.

What is the difference between warp and weft?

Warps run the length of the rug and wefts are woven across them. Together they form the foundation that the pile is knotted into.

What is the pile of a rug?

The pile is the yarn knotted into the foundation. Its cut ends stand up to make the soft surface, which carries the design and is clipped even when the weaving is done.