Black and White Rugs

The color palette that makes up America's most fashion forward contemporary rugs has been somewhat consistent for the last several years. Bold hues sometimes cleverly blended with the use of stippling (where the rugmaker uses different yarn colors and places the yarns very close to each on the pattern repeatedly for a speckled effect) was the rule driving fashion in rugs for years.

While this method is still hugely popular in rugs, and boldly colored rugs still sell quite well for us (rugs such as these fashion forward patterns) we are seeing a surge of patterns that are made with the striking contrast of pure black and white colors off setting each other in an eye capturing way never seen before in rugs.

For more on what is driving this trend in rugs, we sat down with Nina Upson fashion designer with Rugs To My Door.

Danielle: So for the many years that I have worked here managing customer care I have seen many rugs sell that are really bold in color. Maybe bright yellows with reds purples and burnt oranges all coming together to make a somewhat loud fashion statement.
Nina: Right. That has been a huge driver of rugs in the contemporary genre for many years, and I really don't see that going away any time soon. The interesting thing is that rugs are now also being made with very sharply different colors such as black and white.
Danielle: So what drives these trends and how do you know what colors are going to be popular next?
Nina: We just look at what is happening on the fashion runway.
Danielle: There is a fashion runway for rugs?
Nina: Oh, no, no, no (laughing). What I meant to say was that we look at the fashion runway for clothing design.
Danielle: Oh, I see. So how does that fit into home interior styling?
Nina: Typically color trends flow from women's couture to women's ready to wear men's ready to wear to home interiors colors--this is where we fit in, of course--to other things like even vehicle interior and exterior colors.
Danielle: OK. So that makes a lot of sense.
Nina: Yes, and you will see a lot of new black and white rug patterns being offered by Rugs To My Door in the coming months. This is because we really try hard to stay in front of the color trends so that when our customers realize a trend is here we already have the rugs in the colors they are looking for.
Danielle: Well I think that is all the time we have for now. Thank you for sitting down with me Nina I appreciate it.
Nina: You are welcome Danielle-anytime.