By Donna Cornelius
Journal features writer
Oriental rugs do double duty, according to Paige Albright.
“Rugs are the one thing that ties everything else together,” Albright said. “A rug can warm up your space.”
But carefully-chosen rugs are more than just floor coverings.
“The study of Oriental rugs is very historical,” Albright said. “Rugs are made in specific regions, and it’s how people expressed their artwork.”
The owner of Paige Albright Orientals in Mountain Brook Village combines her knowledge of rugs with a gift for interior design. She was an art history major at the University of Alabama and then worked in design, she said. She opened her shop on Petticoat Lane in 2007.
“I fell in love with rugs,” Albright said. “You learn new things, and I love discussing the weave, the pattern and the artwork.”
Albright is one of this year’s tastemakers at the Antiques at The Gardens show. The event is Oct. 3-6 at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
At the show, Albright will create a space she’s calling “Return to Mecca.”
The theme, she said, is a nod to architect and author Bobby McAlpine, a fellow tastemaker and the show’s featured lecturer. With Jane Schwab and Cindy Smith, McAlpine is curating an area called “Welcome Home.”
Those who visit Albright’s space “will see Moroccan and Turkish pieces,” she said. “We’ll take lots of pretty pieces, soft pieces and add pops of color.”
A tent, she said, will give her display the atmosphere of a Moroccan bazaar.
“We’ll have rugs—small and large—and antique pillows,” said Albright, who will be on hand to talk with show-goers throughout the event.
Visitors to Albright’s home on Canterbury Road in Mountain Brook naturally expect to see some stunning examples of rugs—and they won’t be disappointed. She’s adeptly mixed and matched rugs in different styles and sizes, from an over-dyed Oushak in the master bedroom to a zebra hide beneath the dining room table.
Even the family’s dog, Sugar, has his own rug in the kitchen.
“All the rugs work together,” Albright said. “Pretty things enhance pretty things.”
The Albrights have lived in their Canterbury Road home for eight years. The family includes Paige’s husband, Carl, and sons Carl IV, who’s 12; David, 10, and Bibb, 9.
“We love it here,” Albright said. “It’s within walking distance of my shop and the schools.”
In addition to her rugs, the house is filled with pieces with family ties.
“The light fixtures in the foyer and dining room are from Carl’s grandfather’s house,” Albright said. “He lived on Country Club Boulevard.”
In the upstairs guest room, handed-down, monogrammed Limoges china is displayed in a large cabinet with glass doors. The china was hand-painted by a monogrammer in Atlanta, Albright said.
Also upstairs are the boys’ bedrooms and another room where the children and their friends can hang out.
Son Carl’s room has a mohair blanket as a rug and framed Scottish plaids on the walls—along with a picture of a UA elephant. A map of Cahawba, Alabama’s first capital, represents the family connection to the state’s first governor.
“Carl’s family goes back to William Wyatt Bibb,” Albright said. “That’s who our son Bibb is named for.”
The two younger boys share a bedroom. Between their beds is a Moroccan rug, and on either side of the beds is a “war rug.”
“They’re Afghan and very collectible, but they’re tightly-woven and sturdy,” Albright said about the war rugs. One illustrates the Romanian conflict, she said, and the other the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York.
“I was in the rug district in New York City on that day,” Albright said. Thankfully, she was unharmed but will never forget the experience, she said.
In the room that Albright has turned over to her sons and their friends, a bed made in Selma is turned sideways against the wall to create a daybed. The boys may be plugged into today’s technology by playing video games or using their computers in the room, but they’re also connected to the past by old maps of Alabama and a framed Vicksburg, Miss., newspaper front page from 1863.
“The boys love this room,” Albright said.
The entire family enjoys the house’s main level. In the den, which Albright said was added by a previous owner, her sons can often be found at the large farm table doing homework or art. Another rug takes pride of place here—and not on the floor. It’s a framed turn-of-the century Persian Kelim fragment.
“The rug belonged to Carl’s grandmother, Sally Lamar,” Albright said. “She gave it to Alicia Schleusner, who is my mentor in the rug world. Alicia gave it back to us.”
While Albright loves the historical significance of Oriental rugs, she’s doesn’t mind a bit of modern flair. One example is the Oushak patchwork rug in the master bedroom.
“It’s over-dyed,” she said. “Often rugs that have issues such as extreme wear or holes or tears are repurposed. They’re cut into and sewn together as a patchwork.”
The pieces are processed before they’re over-dyed in one specific color, she said.
“Different areas accept the dyes differently and give variation in color tonality,” Albright said. “We have sold lots of colors–greys, blues and in this case, citrus.
“I think it makes this one young and fun. It makes it more of a ‘now’ kind of piece.’”
In the living room, a sofa started life in another family home—a little more recently than some of the other pieces.
“I had the sofa in my first apartment in Tuscaloosa,” Albright said. “I had it covered in mohair.”
Above the sofa are photographic portraits of Carl IV, David and Bibb. Each photo by Michelle Smith was taken of the boys when they were 4 years old—and each is wearing the same plaid outfit.
Albright said she originally bought the pair of needlepoint-covered chairs that are now in her living room for her shop but liked them so much she brought them home. The large rug in this room is an antique Oushak in light colors.
While the living room, like the rest of the house, is filled with intriguing pieces, one of Albright’s favorite possessions is a slim, well-used volume on the bookshelves. The book, published in 1904, is called “How to Know Oriental Rugs.”
“I have a collection of Oriental rug books at my shop but like to keep this one at home,” she said. “It was given to me by a friend.”
The book includes maps detailing the provenance of rugs.
“It’s so interesting to see how the maps have changed since the book was printed,” Albright said.
The rug expert said she loves “moving things around” in her house. The zebra hide on the dining room floor, for example, was first in the computer room adjacent to the living room and then in a bedroom.
“It’s fun to see how everything goes together,” Albright said. “What I have enjoyed most is collecting antiques, building on family pieces, mixing modern and traditional–and having a wide variety of Oriental rugs throughout my home, because I love them all.”
