Navajo Rugs 101

The Navajo are among the finest rug makers in the world, featuring loom work and design on par with the best Persian rugs. These Southwestern masterpieces feature designs and colors that work with many decor styles, from midcentury modern to Arts and Crafts to eclectic. Their timeless patterns have even inspired tribal-style rugs, like the one shown here, that are trendy today. “Navajo rugs warm up any room they’re in,” says Ann Marshall, director of research at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. “They’re so diverse and there are so many looks and styles that there’s something for everyone.” Here’s a lesson on Navajo rugs rich history and some of the major design styles.

Many of the rug designs take their names from the towns or trading posts where they were originally sold in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. White traders art-directed the designs based on what they thought they could sell to tourists, so regional styles developed. Today the styles are made by weavers all over the Navajo Nation, so the name refers to pattern, not its place of origin. Two Grey Hills, named for a village in New Mexico, is defined by its earthy hues of white, black and brown. Weavers mix undyed wool from different sheep to create subtle shades of the trademark Two Grey Hills hues. It’s an old-school style that eschews commercial dyes and focuses on traditional Navajo materials and sensibility. Woven by Helen Bia.

Ganado is a classic Navajo design style that originated in 1878 at a New Mexico trading post run by a guy named John Lorenzo Hubbell who found he could sell red rugs by the trainload back east via mail-order catalog. Ganados remain one of the most widely recognized styles of Navajo rugs. When you see a mass-produced rug pitched as having a Native American design, it’s usually a riff on a Ganado. This style always has a red background with a black, white and gray design based on a central diamond or two. Crosses, zig zags, serrates (a stair-stepped pattern) and other simple geometric shapes surround the main design. Rug woven by Elsie Bia.

These look a lot like Ganados, but they have a gray background instead of a red one. Weavers use black, white and red in a design centered on an elongated diamond. Like Ganados, they have black borders, stair-stepped diamond patterns and simple geometric shapes throughout the rug design. And like Ganados, they originated at a Hubbell trading post and were sold by the hundreds of thousands via mail order in the early 20th century. Rug woven by Mae Jean Chester.