Yahoo Finance Ruffles, stripes and animal print: Martin Brudnizki on his new collection for The Rug Company
‘A rug is the perfect frame for a furniture setting,’ enthuses interior designer Martin Brudnizki about the five customisable rugs he’s created as part of his ‘New Romantics’ series for The Rug Company.
Drawing inspiration from ‘an abstraction of the natural world’ for the border motifs – think a bold swishy whale-meets-mermaid-tail (which could also be interpreted as a flower petal) or a confetti-like sprinkling of animal print – each rug has been designed to act almost like a picture frame.
‘Often you don’t see the middle of a rug because there is a coffee or dining table on top of it, so that’s why I think border designs are great, because you’re basically putting the most effort into the part which is almost always exposed.’
The slightly raised ‘Ruffle’ design is one of the designer’s particular favourites, reflecting his love of passementerie. ‘I love a ruffle – it’s very much a part of my creative process as I have always edged things, from lampshades to the base of a sofa, even in my more minimalist phase. It’s just become more extravagant with time,’ he laughs.
‘Folly’, with its rounded edges, honours the legacy of French designer Madeleine Castaing who swathed whole rooms, from floors to walls to ceilings, in animal print. Martin, however, has taken a much more gentle approach, as he explains, layering ‘the sharp repetitive pattern of architectural balustrades with the loose movement of leopard spots as a new way of looking at animal print’.
‘Panthera’, also sprinkled with leopard print framed by a border of stripes, works particularly well on stairs. ‘This is the whole point with a border – you can make a runner out of it, you can scale it up, you can scale it down.’
He feels the bold use of colour – tangerine teamed with emerald green, or a dark navy on top of a silvery sky blue, hand woven in different combinations of Tibetan wool and silk – can work equally well in extravagant buildings as it can in a clean white space, where ‘they’ll just become like pieces of art,’ he says.
The joy of being able to order each design in any colour combination also appeals. ‘You can make them more neutral if you want to or more extravagant. But I think that they all work because a rug is the perfect way to soften a space, and it’s how you layer things into a room – the rug, the table, the chairs, the lamps – that helps to create the right atmosphere and homely feeling unique to you.’ From £1,250, mbds.com; therugcompany.com
