A Tapestry of Love for Rugs & Design, History & Home

In one sense, Wild Shaman is a Portland, Oregon-based rug shop specializing in rare and antique Anatolian rugs and kilims.

But it’s so much more than that. Enter the sun-drenched boutique in East Portland, and it’s hard to tell if you’re in a carpet showroom, an art gallery, a museum, or an extremely bright, warm, and well-appointed residence. Colors and textures explode throughout the sprawling, white-washed expanse. Broad fiddle-leafed fig trees and elegant wooden furniture play off brilliant, richly-dyed woolen Turkish rugs and eye-catching hand-woven kilims, while pops of neon signage and iridescent accent tables lend the space a harder, contemporary edge. Somehow, everything meshes perfectly. And it’s precisely this eclecticism that perhaps best defines Wild Shaman: a labor of love, reflecting its owners’ passion for history, design, community, and home.

Wild Shaman was created by Emre and Yesim Taskin, an entrepreneurial and multi-talented power couple from Istanbul, Turkey. Come into the shop at any time, and chances are one (if not both) of them will be there, ready to greet you with a warm smile and answer any questions you may have about a given rug’s pedigree. Their enthusiasm is palpable and contagious, and their expertise is totally approachable.

Emre & Yesim Taskin, Wild Shaman Rug Shop, Portland, Oregon

More Than Just a Portland Rug Store

To Emre and Yesim, Wild Shaman is a store in name only; the business of selling high-quality vintage Turkish rugs and kilims is secondary to what they represent: the celebration and preservation of Turkish and Anatolian culture. (Indeed, in addition to running the shop, the couple avidly collects especially rare and antique pieces, many of which are lovingly stored in a spare bedroom-cum-archive in their Portland apartment.)

Wild Shaman has quickly become a household name within Portland’s dynamic interior design community in just a few short years – and the future is even brighter. Their Grand Avenue location places Wild Shaman squarely amid Central Southeast Portland’s rapidly expanding arts and design neighborhood, and Emre and Yesim look forward to growing along with it, sharing their passion for their native culture and its history every step of the way. Stop by the shop for informal community gatherings, educational lectures, casual (and enlightening) conversation – or just to browse! Because at the end of the day, Wild Shaman isn’t just a Portland rug store – it’s an experience as unique and rich as each hand-woven kilim within.