Rugs Double as an Art Medium in TRNK’s New Series

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8 Artful Floor Coverings Embrace Nature and Geometry

From tiles inspired by forest floors and desert sands to hand-spun Afghan wool rugs, these flooring options reflect the shapes of the natural world.

Rugs, Tiles, and More Geometric-Inspired Flooring Options

Round Composition Blue Sand by Golnar Roshan and Ruben de la Rive Box for Moooi Carpet

Rugs from Rive Roshan’s Colour Dial collection capture time and movement via tones and shades layered and blended within a geometric framework—the designers’ interpretation of sundials.

Doblecara by Ronan Bouroullec for Nanimarquina

Ancient kilim weaving techniques combine with handknotting to create this brushstroke-like design that’s reversible—one side subtle, the other bold—in hand-spun Afghan wool.

Koke by Kristin Ortiz and Maz Ortiz of Haustile

This mother-daughter creative duo—the brand’s cofounder and design director, respectively—teamed to conceive a high-tech-printed porcelain tile inspired by nature at ground level: forest floors and desert sands.

Portal by John Pomp for Kyle Bunting

The Philly-based glassblowing phenom and furniture designer masterminded a sexy collection of amorphic patchwork-hide floor coverings, each enigmatically accented with a mirrorlike polished-steel “portal.”

Loni by Cean Irminger of New Ravenna

To celebrate the tile brand’s 30th anniversary, its creative director reinterpreted enduringly popular mosaic patterns in new materials, such as this intricate assemblage of waterjet-cut honed Cashmere and Nero Marquina marbles.

Light Sienna by Shanan Campanaro of Eskayel

From the California designer’s Progressions collection, a rug inspired by wind and water represents a seamless flow of the full color spectrum, handknotted of silk and merino wool.

Emblem by Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran for Pierre Frey

Dimorestudio’s five-piece carpet series encompasses a mix of florals, abstracts, and geometrics—such as this stripe-meets-zigzag—drenched in warm, golden shades evocative of 1970s-era Milanese modernity.

Polaris by Gavin Harris for Designer Rugs

The interior and industrial designer’s New Zealand wool rug, tufted and carved by hand, represents a stylized, graphic take on joinery and interlocking machinery components.

Balmaceda’s Latest Collection is Full of Heart

Balmaceda, the rug company led by chief designer Jose María Balmaceda is rooted in Mexico City—and inspired by artisans from India and Nepal. The workshop’s emphasis on craft and thoughtful reinterpretations of tradition guides its latest collection, Corazones, sparked by the chambers of the human heart, the symbolic location of a person’s soul. That concept translates into unique rugs including Mercedes and Luz that evoke patchwork forms and hand-drawn maps, with colors that collide and edges that defy expectations. Completely customizable, the made-to-order rugs are hand-knotted of wool, bamboo silk, linen, and/or matka silk. Available in the U.S. through the Future Perfect.

Nordic Knots and Giancarlo Valle Cocreate New Rug Collection

8 Rugs by Esteemed Designers That Elevate Any Interior

These innovative rugs are sure to spark conversation. From a handknotted wool rug by Diane von Furstenberg that references Giraffe markings to one that incorporates recycled candy wrappers by Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer, these floorcoverings prove there are no limits to a designer’s imagination.

Wool, Silk, and Candy Wrappers Are Part of These Rug Designs 

Hover by Lady Deirdre Dyson of Deirdre Dyson Carpets

In this handknotted wool-and-silk rug from the experimental designer’s Angles collection, over­lapping tonal tessellations in a rosy palette convey depth and the illusion of mesmerically suspended shapes.

Point of Contact by Mareike Lienau of Lyk Carpet

Through textiles, the Berlin artisan explores stewardship and storytelling: Her spiral art piece made from fair-trade Nepali wool symbolizes how everyday encounters transform the human perspective.

Giraffe Dusk by Diane von Furstenberg for The Rug Company

A handknotted Tibetan wool rug, its proceeds supporting the World Wildlife Foundation, pays homage to the fashion designer’s iconic wrap dresses via an animal-print motif dug from the archives.

Avant by Kelly Wearstler of Kelly Wearstler

The prolific Los Angeles designer’s Tibetan wool rug inspired by trompe-l’oeil dazzle camouflage comes in standard sizes, of course, but for extra pizzazz it can be custom cut to echo its pattern, as seen here.

Santa Fe by Jennifer Manners of Jennifer Manners Design

From a collection based on the American Southwest, the British designer’s rug—made of Himalayan wool and bamboo silk in a mélange of earthy tones and geometric motifs—takes cues from New Mexico’s state capital.

Plaster by Elizabeth Roberts for Radnor

The Brooklyn-based architect mashed up luxe looks and gently bohemian references to craft a playfully shaped, Goodweave–certified mohair rug with handwoven jute fringe, part of her debut collection, Parlor.

Movement 1 by Lars Myren for Fayette Studio

Rugs by the LM Design Studio founder are a soulful ode to hue and pattern, all completely customizable in colorway, with variations in pile height that suggest depth and indulgent movement.

Candy Wrapper by Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer for Nomad

A musician turned “color composer,” the File Under Pop founder and creative director curated six new shades, including zesty Lime Juice, for the German carpet brand’s rug made of wool and recycled candy wrappers.

Commune Cofounder Transforms His Paintings into Artful Rugs

These Modernist-Inspired Rugs Make a Statement

Chiaozza Copartners Dream Up Fantastical, Nature-Inspired Works in Their Brooklyn Studio

Interior Design: As a New York–based couple, what’s it like to experience your art on public view there?

Terri Chiao: It’s been amazing to contribute to the emotional and cultural landscape of a city that’s already so layered with history, architecture, and culture. And since New York is so global, having our work on view in places like Industry City and Central Park speaks to locals as well as those passing through, connecting us, and helping us have a conversation, with the whole world.

ID: What appeals to you about exhibiting outdoors in general?

Adam Frezza: Placing our work against the neutral backdrop of an urban environment creates a surreal feeling, because it has such high-key color and whimsical shapes and patterns. It lets us create a moment of awe for someone that they can carry with them throughout their day. We love exhibiting in an art gallery, but the concepts are isolated there, especially since some people don’t feel comfortable even walking into a gallery. Outdoors, there’s more potential for a flow of these ideas, with the viewer seeing it more freely and carrying it farther.

ID: Scumble Lumps at Industry City is designed to be touched and climbed. Is human interaction important to your work?

TC: A lot of public art you’re not supposed to touch. But when we’re out in national parks, or even Central Park, there are rocks to climb and so many ways to interact with nature. We want our work to have that same invitation—to lay on it, dream, and expand your mind.

AF: But even if our work causes someone to change their pace, look up from their phone, or distract them from what they were thinking, that’s also a huge compliment, especially in a place as dense as New York.

TC: Or when a child hugs one of our sculptures, which happens some­times. It speaks to the emotional connection art can have with people.

ID: Which recent New York project is particularly exciting?

AF: Our Floating Wooden Wall Works series for the café at Google Pier 57. They were inspired by maps and wayfinding symbols that loosely reference the building’s history as a former marine and aviation terminal. We like imagining Googlers eating lunch with these charms on the wall acting as little encouragements to daydream.

ID: You also make tabletop sculptures and standard-size paintings. Why do you work in different scales?

TC: Our projects often start small. For example, our Lump Nubbins, small sculptures of recycled paper pulp, act like sketches or tests for our ideas. The process is like a stream of consciousness that we harness to create interesting forms. The work flows directly from our hearts and minds, and there aren’t many restraints. At a larger scale, there are more practical considerations—and hands—involved. For Coachella, we made Sharpie drawings, then a 3-D designer, a team of builders, and our own painters and sculptors brought the forms to life. Whether the artwork fits in your palm or towers above you, though, the goal is to create a feeling of immersion, where the viewer can mentally, spiritually, or physically enter another place, where anything feels possible.

ID: What’s next?

TC: More interventions in nature, and I’d like to experiment with outdoor materials like mushrooms or tree sap. I’m also interested in doing more work with bare stone; I love shapes before I love color, and with interactive work, paint is a challenge anyway, because it wears away. I want to use materials that can just be materials, and the piece’s form—and its relationship to space, and to the person who’s viewing it or touching it—is what makes it powerful. As humans, we respond to bright colors and contrast, the way bees and hummingbirds respond to flowers. Colors create joy and curiosity and prompt touch. The next step for us is to make things that will last outdoors not for months or years but decades.

A New Multi-Piece Rug by Verdi Slithers Through the Room

La Coral by Colombian textile studio Verdi winds through space like a snake. The multi-piece rug was first unveiled in Dan Brunn Architecture’s Bridge House during Frieze Los Angeles, where it appears to move down a hallway in and out of the walls, an optical illusion created by careful placement of its sinuous shapes.

Verdi creative director Tomás Vera uses Peruvian alpaca wool, along with a jutelike fique plant fiber sustainably sourced from Colombia’s Andean region and Verdi’s signature copper and stainless-steel threads, which yields the stripes and checks—based on the irregular banded markings of Colombia’s coral snake.

Nanimarquina Transforms Wool Waste into Marbled Rugs