How to Spot a Real Authentic Handmade Kilim Rug

At Knot n Co, we see thousands of handmade rugs and Kilims per year, giving our team a sharp eye to distinguish between handmade and machine-made rugs. Not only that, but also to distinguish between low-quality and high-quality handmade rugs and the vast variety of different styles and designs.

As a bit of background context, Kilim rugs are a type of flat woven textile that hails from the region of current-day Turkey. Because they are flat woven and do not have a pile, they are both lightweight and highly durable.

This characteristic made them particularly useful for nomadic tribes in the Middle East and Central Asia, where they were employed as tent coverings and flooring, saddles for camels and horses, blankets, prayer mats, bags, and even sewn into salt bags for their herds.

Nowadays, Kilim Rugs are most authentically handwoven in Persia and Afghanistan.

A guaranteed authentic, handmade, woollen kilim rug has a few specific features that are difficult to mimic in a fake version. Yes, there are fake versions out there that are being sold at the same price! So read along to be an informed buyer of Kilim rugs.

7 Features of Kilim Rugs

Below are the 7 features of Kilim rugs that our team at Knot n Co use to identify real Kilim Rugs vs fake Kilim Rugs.

1. It is flatwoven, with no pile.

Kilims are most famous for their texture: flatwoven. This is a simpler, quicker and hardier method of rug weaving which gives Kilims their extreme durability and thin nature.

Being Flatwoven, they could be considered reversible rugs as they look the same from the top side and the bottom side.

Other handmade rugs have a pile on the top side and a backing on the bottom side. (What is a Pile? A pile is the fluffy side of a rug. This pile can be short, or a long pile, also known as a shaggy rug).

2. It has geometric patterns, being bohemian or tribal in design.

Triangles, diamonds, rectangles or squares, and stars are common motifs found in Kilims.

Coming from a nomadic origin, the design of kilim rugs is inspired by the shapes of the environment around the weavers.

These shapes originate from real-life objects such as ram horns, running water, fruits, ceremonial head ornaments, eyes and stars.

They would then be manipulated into a repeatable pattern, giving rise to a symmetrical geometric pattern.

See all of our handmade geometric rugs

3. They have slits.

Most Kilims will have small vertical slits between different colours.

This is just a part of the flat weaving technique, with the different colours in the kilim pattern being separated by being woven onto different warp threads (vertical threads). High-quality and low-quality kilims will both have these slits, however, high-quality kilims will be tightly woven so that the slits will be barely noticeable.

4. Being flatwoven, they are reversible with no real ‘back’.

Yes, they are reversible! Being flatwoven, there is no distinction between front and back.

This helps extend its lifespan as it can be flipped over every year or so, balancing out the wear and tear.

5. They will have tassels that extend from each short side; a distinct feature of handmade rugs.

These tassels are a distinct feature of all handmade rugs because they are left-over warp threads (vertical threads).

These are usually knotted off and left as a tassel, or sometimes, as seen in Afghan Chobi rugs, gathered and bound together with colourful thread.

6. They are lightweight and can fold into a compact shape.

Real Kilims are flexible and thin, showcasing the traditional weaving technique of the nomadic Central Asian tribes.

Fake versions will usually be thicker, and less flexible due to the difference in weaving style and perhaps material (some fake kilims might be woven using cotton or plastic instead of wool).

7. They will smell of wool, not plastic.

Wool has an earthy smell, especially our Kilims as they have been dyed using vegetable dyes. This is very distinct from the smell of machine-made, polyester rugs.

Sometimes our real kilims may have a slight chemical odour as our shipping team puts mothballs in the shipping container to protect the rugs from wool-eating moths during transport.

This should dissipate quickly if it hasn't already dissipated upon purchase. Moths are our arch-enemy!

We check every kilim for all of these qualities while we are overseas.

Then when our shipment of Kilims arrives at our Sydney showroom, we open up each Kilim and double-check the quality and authenticity of it.

Both of these checkpoints ensure our Kilims are always handmade with full authenticity guaranteed, at the best quality only.

After reading this, we hope you can be an informed and educated buyer of Handmade Kilim Rugs, being able to distinguish between real and fake Kilims, as well as high-quality and low-quality Kilims.