Nouri Rugs

You've been by it. I had. It's just around the corner from Zona Rosa (yesterday's post) on Colorado Blvd. (636 East, to be exact). I wasn't in the market for an imported oriental rug so I'd never stopped in. But the other day I was out with my camera, and I stopped when I saw the prettiest red rug hanging on a rack on the sidewalk.

The thing is, it was raining and the rug was getting wet. A man stood outside the store (later I learned his name was Mr. Martinez). I asked him if the rain wouldn't ruin the rug and he told me a little water wouldn't hurt it. "Come in and see," he said.

I stepped over the threshold of Nouri Rugs and took it all in. I've tried to give an idea here of the sheer volume of rugs but I couldn't get them all in the photo. There have to be at least 2,000 rugs in there. Maybe 4,000. I don't know how to tell from the piles, rolls and hangings. I met the salesman, Fred, who told me every rug in stock is hand made in Persia (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, etc.). On their business card it says the rugs are old and new, and that they buy, sell, clean, repair and appraise oriental rugs. The business card also says "Since 1907."

I stepped back into the rain, bedazzled. The pretty red rug still hung outside, the rain rolling off its back like it was nothing.