How To Design With Patterned Rugs
Decorating with statement rugs is often challenging, so here are some tips and tricks to help guide the process.
As we know from The Big Lebowski, a good rug can really tie a room together. And while solid color or neutral rugs are always a safe answer in decorating your home, there is just something about bold patterns that can take any room to the next level. Powerful geometric and organic patterns can easily become the focal point of any space, which often makes it a challenge to incorporate them in a way that doesn't overpower everything else. When used to their best advantage patterned rugs can have a harmonious effect, complementing other elements, rather than just drawing attention to themselves. We take a look at some Dwell homes that found the perfect balance in mixing colors, shapes and textures with their patterned rugs.
In this custom-built London guesthouse kitchen designed by Studiomama, lustrous vertically clad cabinetry achieves additional depth with the addition of the chairs, which were picked up for $15 each at a local market and powder coated in bright orange.
Photo: Ben Anders
Gandia Blasco Lepark Wool Rug
All of the modern rugs by Gandia Blasco are Goodweave certified and the perfect addition to any room in your home. Yarn composition: 100% New Wool. Hand tufted. Designed by Enblanc. Photo Courtesy of HORNE
ShopBurrow Playa Rug
Disco never disappeared, as far as this exciting pattern is concerned. This hand-tufted rug is a blend of wool and viscose and features a warm, eclectic style that's right at home in a Bohemian chic design scheme. Photo Courtesy of Burrow
ShopMoooi Freaky Rug
Bringing an aesthetic that combines an optical illusion and a highlighter doodle in the margin of a paper, the Freaky Rug from Moooi Carpets is sure to delight. Its vivid neon colors are tempered by the geometric cross-hatch pattern and the more organic shape of the rug itself. Available in either polyamide or a tufted wool blend, it's colorfast and durable and sure to make an impression no matter where it's placed. Dutch design studio Moooi has expanded their signature individuality into flooring with Moooi Carpets. Their high-tech printing process lets designers from founder Marcel Wanders to Neal Peterson explore previously impossible rug designs, inspired by everything from Renaissance fine-art paintings to Buddhist mandalas. Photo Courtesy of Lumens
ShopA copper mobile by JF Jones hangs over a Leander crib and a vintage Moroccan rag rug in the nursery. The rocking chair is by Hans Wegner for Fredericia.
Photo: Derek Shapton
A Losanges rug by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, part of Marquina’s 2011 collection, anchors the simple master bedroom of Nani Marquina's vacation home on Ibiza.
Linie Design Memo Rug
A graduate of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Urd Moll Gundermann has worked with a number of international companies in the textile, fashion, print and industrial design industries. Since 2012, she’s served as designer and product developer at Linie Design, one of the largest developers and wholesalers of handmade rugs in Europe. Her Memo Rug (2016) is woven from pure wool, with fringe on both ends. It features geometric shapes in neutral colors that captivate the eye without dominating the room. Linie is a member of Care & Fair, an organization created to help fight illegal child labor and improve living conditions of carpet knotters and their families in India, Nepal and Pakistan. Made in India. Photo Courtesy of Design Within Reach
ShopNanimarquina Losanges Rug
A floor covering that's remarkably rhomboid. The Nanimarquina Losanges Rug is a visually (and technically) complex piece designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec. Within the generally rhomboid borders are numerous diamond-shaped sections--in a seemingly random mix of sizes and colors. It is hand woven in the classic flat Kilim style using 100% Afghan wool (which is itself hand spun to create one-of-a-kind tonal variations). Tradition made contemporary. That is how Nanimarquina approaches the production and design of each of their distinctive, award-winning area rugs. Nanimarquina rugs range from natural and understated to modern and dazzlingly vibrant. No matter how avant garde the designs (or innovative the materials used to make them), all Nanimarquina rugs are made using time-tested methods and tools of hand-crafting. Photo Courtesy of Lumens
ShopThe site-sensitive exterior belies an interior festooned with a kaleidoscopic mix of colors and an array of tactile materials. The Peter rug, Malibu sofa, and ceramics are Adler’s own designs. The tables, pendant lights, and rocker are vintage. Adler and Doonan used scaffolding from the house’s construction to build the bookshelf.
Photo: Floto + Warner
Shibata made the 10-person dining table using $130 sawhorse legs from Maruki Wood Products Company topped with a sheet of birch plywood. A hole in the sliding wall fits over the table, enabling it to be used in both the library and the meeting room.
Photo: Ryohei Hamada
Memphis Milano Birds Rug
What is most captivating about Nathalie Du Pasquier is the confidence with which she transitions from design to painting. Or, perhaps such a dichotomy isn’t entirely correct, given that her work isn’t based on any form of “transition” but rather a stylistic code: a common denominator that pervades every expressive form. The presence of structure, of a solid yet lightweight construction: this is the common factor, the distinctive feature that allows bright colors and joyful decorum to grasp hold of a concrete architectural conceptuality, despite the fact that Nathalie isn’t actually an architect. Amongst the founding members of the legendary Memphis group, headed by Ettore Sottsass in the eighties, Nathalie Du Pasquier contributed to the world of design with the production of furniture, objects and fabrics inspired by her passion for Africa, with animal-print textures, totemic shapes, and almost ritualistic geometric embellishments. Exotic fascination and rigorous formality gave the exuberant creations of Memphis a touch of essential artistic depth. Photo Courtesy of Yoox
ShopLinie Design Arguto Rug
A graduate of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen-based interior designer Hanne Kortegaard has worked for several leading Danish and Swedish furniture manufacturers. In collaboration with Linie Design, Kortegaard has created several distinct Nordic rug designs. Her Arguto Rug (2017) features interesting geometric shapes that captivate the eye without dominating the room. Hand-tufted from pure wool with a nonslip backing. Made in India. Photo Courtesy of Design Within Reach
ShopThe living room is five steps down from the kitchen and office space and features textured black slate tile from Olympia Tile, Voyage Immobile sofas with Farniente collection upholstery (a wedding present from Flanders’s mother) by Roche Bobois, and a rug from Turkmenistan the couple picked up in Jerusalem. The sliding glass doors are by Loewen and the glazing above is by Inline Fiberglass. Sawatzky relied on Wayne Arsenault for the custom millwork and carpentry.
Photo: Naomi Finlay
A pair of interior architects with a years-in-the-making furniture collection recast an old Belgian factory as a playful family home.
Photo by Frederik Vercruysse
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