Designer Rug Blog - Interior Design Inspiration

A pale pink Savonnerie rug, bordered by gold latticework and boasting gold medallion motifs, laced through with light blue and sunset gold and filling a room with a rosy glow at the first glance of dawn; a light, golden needlepoint rug strewn through with faded ochre and ancient pale blues, flooding a room with radiant warmth in the middle of a rainy afternoon: the all-encompassing beauty of pastel rugs cannot be overstated. Hues like faded pinks, pale greens, soft yellows, warm ivories and light blues are predominant in a pastel color palette. The beauty of pastel rugs is that they become even more beautiful with age, gracing a room with a sure and graceful presence. Pastel rugs are one of the most beautiful styles of carpet, and they can really transform a room. If you're planning on choosing a pastel rug, there are many different styles to choose from, ranging from Savonnerie carpets and Oushak rugs to needlepoint rugs and Aubusson carpets.

Staring at any empty room begs the overwhelming question "Where should I start?" Of course, you want to make your room is beautiful and fashionable but you also want it to be comfortable and inviting to guests. Creating this balance and finding the right place to start doesn't need to be difficult, if you find an Oushak rug that helps you set the tone you desire for the room. Once you have selected the right Oushak rug, the rest of the room will fall in line easily. Subtly colored Oushak rugs are a great starting point because they contain hundreds of complementary shades of each color which makes it easy to pick fabrics and bring youthful energy to the entire room. Look for Oushak rugs made with fine quality handspun yarn which has hundreds of natural shade variations and a rich texture. This will give your room a feeling of glamor and sophistication and enhance all the other elements in the room.

Aubusson rugs represent some of the most beautiful rugs in history. Their origin goes back to the 16th century to the village of Aubusson on the banks of the Creuse river, whose waters were famous for their ability for dyeing vibrant colors. This region of central France is about 200 miles from Paris. Aubusson rugs are handmade in a flat weave construction that resembles heavy tapestries which adorn the walls of French castles and palaces. Aubusson rugs quickly captured the hearts of the French aristocracy because their patterns were similar to those of pile Savonnerie carpets which were unavailable to the aristocracy as they were made exclusively for the King's palaces. Aubusson rugs come in very large sizes and feature center medallions, lyrical floral patterns, and soft color palettes. For hundreds of years Aubusson rugs have been synonymous with the ultimate in French refinement and elegance. While Aubusson rugs continue to be produced in Aubusson and the nearby village of Filletin, the production is extremely limited and is mostly confined to orders placed by the French government for presentation to foreign heads of state. For a few years starting in the 1990's Aubusson rugs were woven in China, but with the rapid rise of wages in that country, hand weaving of Aubusson rugs is now coming to an end. However the love for Aubusson rugs continues unabated among sophisticated interior decorators and connoisseurs. Just as the French aristocracy was once captured by the beauty of Aubusson rugs, so are we today fascinated by the possibilities Aubusson rugs offer for designing refined and elegant interiors in both modern and traditional styles.

You may have become enamored with the idea of decorating your home with geometric rugs, but you're not exactly sure how to go about it. Geometric rugs, ranging from stark black and white rugs with wide stripes to pale Oushak rugs with geometricized floral motifs, can bring positive visual and emotional energy into a room. Chosen properly and carefully, geometric rugs are beautiful additions to a home. Chosen with abandon and without a thought to the rest of the space, geometric rugs can create a jarring and overwhelming feeling in a space if they clash with everything else in the room. Avoid the common mistakes people make when choosing geometric rugs will help you design stylish and inviting rooms. The first step is to open up your perspective on geometric rugs. Geometric shapes are present in modern geometric rugs and in geometric rugs inspired by antique rugs and classical architecture. This gives you a wide range of options. Listed below are ways to make your geometric rug selection process a successful one.

You're probably thinking, "The Oushak rug is the little black dress of interiors? How do you figure?" The origin of the little black dress is attributed to the venerable Coco Chanel, who believed that "la petite robe noire" was something every woman should have. When a woman throws on her favorite little back dress, she becomes larger than life. The little black dress is considered a fashion essential that turns a woman into her most beautiful and powerful self as soon as she dons it. Whether worn with a pair of dazzling diamond earrings in her ears, slinky black pumps, and full makeup, or worn with a simple updo, a single strand of pearls and low sensible heals, it's beautiful and perfect every time. The same sentiment could hold true for Oushak rugs. These timeless Turkish wonders, crafted from the softest wools into silky, luminous textures, have stood the test of time since their birth in the 15thand 16th centuries.

Leading interior designers are using soft colored Oushak rugs to give rooms decorated with traditional furniture and antique a youthful vibe.  Pastel Oushak rugs bring a contemporary energy to a room even though the patterns of Oushak rugs go back hundreds of years. To understand why soft colored Oushak rugs have become so desirable, read this quote by AD100 interior decorator Miles Redd which was published in a blog post last week: “Juxtaposition: high/ low; shiny/matte; refined/crude; grand/humble; modern/ancient. It is the essence of chic.” The best pastel Oushak rugs are an artful combination of modern and antique elements- their soft, tonal colors are modern, while their patterns are antique.  Such Oushak rugs are, to  borrow Redd's phrase, "the essence of chic". These Oushak rugs can perform multiple functions- they make modern rooms feel warm and sophisticated and they give traditional rooms a modern and youthful vibe. The antique patterns of Oushak rugs resonate with antique furniture, but their modern colorations give them a contemporary look. The best way to learn how to decorate with pastel Oushak rug and antiques is to carefully study interiors by great interior designers. We will learn from five beautiful interiors with Oushak rugs.

In last week's post we learned how Kate and Andy Spade created vibrant energy in their Park Avenue apartment by mixing modern art with Aubusson rugs and explained that energy is created when we mix objects from different periods and in different styles as explained by David Kleinberg's famous saying "When you stay relentlessly in one period, the eye absorbs it all in a single glance. Going against period introduces energy." Today we will learn four additional ways of creating energy in interiors: by creating pop with colors, through the interplay of different shapes, by mixing large and small scale patterns and fourthly by juxtaposing different textures and materials. We will learn these four methods from studying the Spade's apartment.

"I always put in one controversial item. It makes people talk." Dorothy Draper was talking about her approach to design, but she may as well have been referring to the effect that geometric rugs can have on a room. Geometric rugs are more than just floor coverings filled with designs featuring angles or curves. Have you ever noticed that you're drawn to particular shapes? If someone placed a square table in front of you and a round one, you'd probably have pretty strong opinions about which one you'd want in your home. Not only are humans drawn to certain shapes, but they're also drawn to symmetry and proportion. Shapes literally "shape" our emotions, drawing out of us a wide range of emotions ranging from ethereal calm to vivid, dynamic energy.,

Close your eyes, and think of a time you walked into a room with a beautiful damask rug that shimmered like silk. It was probably hard not to gasp as you resisted the urge to touch everything in the room, noting the way the damask rug, the furniture and the art all worked beautifully together. Damask patterns go back to ancient Byzantium and Damascus where they were woven in silk and the fabrics were used to cover walls as well as for drapes and furniture. A Damask fabric differs from other fabrics in that each side of the fabric is the perfect inverse of the other. Intricately woven with a weft yarn and a warp yarn, traditional damask fabrics have tonal colorations. Turning the fabric in your hands this way and that makes it shimmer and reveal subtle variations and elegant motifs and patterns. About 18 years ago damask patterns began to be woven into rugs using the Savonnerie carpet weaving method which allows the weaver to create the shimmer of silk damask fabrics by weaving the carpet with hundreds of shades of wool yarn. The effect is quite magical- the rug shimmers just like silk as you walk on it.

AD100 Interior Designer David Kleinberg famously said "When you stay relentlessly in one period, the eye absorbs it all in a single glance. Going against period introduces an energy." When Kate and Andy Spade mixed such very different stylistic periods as modern abstract art and a romantic 19th century Aubusson rug with floral and architectural motifs, they really went very far against period and the beauty of their Park Avenue living room is something to behold. The venerable Habitually Chic Blog went so far as to say "....it's one of those timeless homes that will probably look as good in 30 years as it does after three which is a testament to the chic taste of it's owners as well as their interior designer, Steven Sclaroff." If we believe that the source of this homes wonderful energy does indeed come from the mixing of very different stylistic periods, then the same contrasting mix will still be there 30 years from now and the energy in the room will still be as wonderful as it is today. In today's post we will try to get a better understanding of this energy so we can become better at creating it in our interiors.