Rug Report: Home dcor starts on the floor – Home Accents Today

Jaipur Living expanded its custom rug services in an effort to boost designer business.

When Kathy Ireland launched the home division of her Kathy Ireland Worldwide design and marketing company 21 years ago, the model-turned-entrepreneur chose area rugs as her first product line.

In the home, its important to start with a rug that you love, something that speaks to you the color palettes, the textures, she told HAT during a special appearance at Nourisons IHFC lobby-level showroom during High Point Market. Have that be your anchor.

Irelands philosophy is increasingly being adopted across the home furnishings industry, as evidenced at the fall market. The area rug categorys role and relevance are gaining traction today more than ever, spurred by suppliers efforts to polish their fashion offerings, ramp up brand partnerships, invest in innovation and boost customization services for decorators to name a few initiatives sweeping the business.

Adding area rugs for the first time, also by way of a partnership, is fabric house Fabricut. Product development is currently underway, and the line will include practical fashion looks, including performance-focused qualities, that speak to the companys upstairs designer-centric aesthetic, said Danica Jones, senior director of marketing.

The introduction of rugs as a new category speaks to the companys broader effort to expand its Fabricut Finished Product division, which currently offers customizable window drapery and will grow by year-end to include a new category decorative pillows in a range of sizes and styles.

Our finished product division is really taking off, and our designer business is a big part of that growth, she explained.

Designer Thom Filicia of Bravo TVs Queer Eye fame was at market celebrating the 20th anniversary of his eponymous interior decorating firm in New York, a decade-long partnership with Vanguard Furniture and five years with Eastern Accents for luxury bedding. With area rugs as a longtime core piece of his branded assortment, he told HAT exclusively of his upcoming launch of a new rug licensee and all-new collection sometime later this year or early next.

Less than two years after entering the rug category, Lili Alessandra launched a customizable area rug collection.

Luxe bedding and accessories house Lili Alessandrahas come out with its first customizable area rug collection the companys third rug collection to join the mix less than two years since it became a category player.

Edge to Edge is a grouping of wool-viscose-linen blended pieces hand-woven in an Indo-Tibetan construction. The collection comes in 10 patterns all of them influenced from my best-selling bedding designs, noted President and Creative Director Sandra Hernandez Yedor.

She continued: My designer customer is a segment that is really growing for me. This collection caters to them and their clients needs.

Also expanding its custom rug services is Jaipur Living, a move the company made to reach a new goal.

We plan to double our designer business in the next two years, CEO Asha Chaudhary told HAT. And custom rugs are part of that strategy.

She said todays discerning shoppers are seeking more handmade, artisan-crafted products, different from the inexpensive products sold online. They want rugs that are unique, special, artisanal.

Surya introduced a collection of one-of-a-kind rugs at High Point Market.

With custom rugs as part of its offering for years, Suryahas deepened its bespoke investments via the launch of its first curated line of one-of-a-kind vintage rugs. The first batch hails from Turkey and spans 50- to 100+ year-old antique pieces. The company started with about 300 such items in stock and plans to quickly boost that total with more varieties from sources in other countries.

We were getting more and more requests for one-of-a-kinds from our designer customers, so we made sure to bring a strong assortment (to market), President Satya Tiwari said. We already have longtime, established relationships with many sources, so these rugs are an easy add-on for us.

Industry giants Karastanand Oriental Weavers(OW), known for their program rug lines, are scouting new niches to compete in the interior designer customer arena, too.

The designer business is definitely of interest to us, and were finding better opportunities for us to move into that segment of the market, OW President Jonathan Witt told HAT. We have started introducing some higher-end products on both the handmade and machine-made sides to become more attractive to designers.

The marketplace is experiencing a growing shortage of handmade product, Witt noted, as the artisan industry is challenged to replace experienced workers when younger generations opt for different trades or careers.

That shift is an advantage to OW, Witt said. The company is seeing more and more customer requests for better quality, natural fiber machine-made rugs, now that the company can provide them.

The Lilihan Collection pushed the limits of Oriental Weavers Axminster loom to allow cross-weaving for the first time.

One example is the Lilihan Collection that launched this summer.

We are constantly hearing from those retailers that the supply of quality handcrafted rugs is dwindling each year, he continued. We see that is a real opportunity for the machine-made business in general and more specifically this collection We have taken the limits of the Axminster loom and stretched them beyond the engineers imagination. While Lilihans roots are that of a classic Axminster woven rug, we were actually able to cross-weave on an Axminster loom for the very first time.

With innovations like this, OW is equipped to pursue new business with smaller-scale, mom-and-pop specialty stores, where so much designer business is getting done, Witt said.

Karastan is also looking to get into that action. Mike Riley, who joined Karastan in mid-October under the newly created title of general manager, has already hit the ground running, noted company President Rocky Casteel, and is looking for ways to elevate and diversify the 90+ year-old upstairs brand.

Mike Riley (left) and Rocky Casteel of Karastan

We are looking at adding various handmade constructions, expanding Karastans offering at the upper level price points with new kinds of products, Riley explained. And designers and decorators are part of that effort.

Under his leadership and new strategy, Karastan will be seeking placements with untapped retail customers, like higher-end furniture and area rug stores that offer design services as well as designer/decorator showrooms and other to-the-trade businesses.

At that level, youre talking about a totally different inventory model, he said. Were working on a lot of things to prepare for that customer.

Cecile B. Corral is a senior editor with Home Textiles Today and is editor of luxury textiles supplement POSH. She also covers the area rug category for Furniture Today and Home Accents Today.

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Rug Report: Home dcor starts on the floor - Home Accents Today