Mrs Adaeze Okafor-Bello
Founder
Still buys every antique piece herself and can date a carpet by the feel of its wool.
Our story
A family gallery, thirty-one years on the floor
We still buy every carpet as if it were going into our own home, because for a few weeks it does.
We do not sell carpets we would not live with.
Every carpet in the gallery has been washed in our wash house, checked on the bench, photographed on a real floor and lived on by someone in the family before it is priced. It slows us down. It also means we can answer the questions that matter: will it shed, will the colours run, will it take a dining chair being pushed back every evening for twenty years.
We are a small team of eleven: buyers, two washers, a restorer, a crew of four who deliver and place, and the people who answer your calls. You will meet most of them.
Scene 02Timeline
From one room to nine hundred carpets
1995
One room in Ikoyi
Mrs Adaeze Okafor-Bello opens a single room of carpets she had collected on trading trips, mostly to friends who had admired her own floors.
2003
The first wash house
A carpet arrives after a flood in Surulere. Nobody in Lagos will wash it properly, so we build our own wash house with shaded drying racks.
2011
Weaving partners
We begin buying directly from weaving workshops instead of through dealers, and agree fair rates with each one.
2016
The restoration bench
Master restorer Mr Emeka Nwosu joins us. Since then he has rebuilt more than 1,100 fringes and edges.
2021
The gallery on Bourdillon Close
We move into a house with long rooms, high ceilings and north light, so carpets are seen as they will be at home.
2026
Second generation
Her son Kelechi now runs the gallery day to day, and the home trial service reaches 40 homes a month.
Scene 03People
The team you will meet
Kelechi Okafor-Bello
Managing director
Runs the gallery, the home trial crew and the bespoke programme.
Zainab Musa
Head of interiors
Works with architects and designers on whole houses, hotels and residences.
Emeka Nwosu
Master restorer
Thirty years at the bench. Rebuilds fringes, edges, holes and moth damage.
Names and roles are invented for this demo.
Scene 04What we promise
Five promises we keep
- 01
We tell you what it is
New, vintage or antique, wool or silk, hand-knotted or not. Written on the label and on your receipt.
- 02
We price it plainly
One price, shown on the carpet and on this site, with delivery, underlay and placing in Lagos included.
- 03
You try before you buy
Home trials for any carpet in the gallery, with the fee refunded against the one you keep.
- 04
We buy fairly
Agreed rates with every weaving workshop, paid on delivery of the carpet, never on sale.
- 05
We stand behind it
Bring any carpet bought from us back for an honest buy-back offer at any time.
Scene 05Where they come from
Fourteen workshops, one standard
Our weaving partners range from a family of five sharing two looms to a workshop of sixty weavers. What they share is hand-spun or carefully chosen wool, dyes that hold, and the patience to tie every knot by hand. We visit each partner at least once a year and pay agreed rates whether or not a carpet sells quickly.
See it on your own floor
Book a home trial and we bring up to three carpets to your home in Ikoyi, Lekki, Victoria Island or Banana Island, lay them, and leave the one you love.