New Products - Flooring

Tibetan sheep raised in cruelty-free environments get their wool combined with hemp in Sandbar. The hand-knotted, cut-pile desert idyll boasts custom dimensions up to 33-feet wide and 50-feet long, and is made to order at 60, 80, or 100 knots per inch. 310-664-1420; naturalcarpetcompany.com. circle 702

As eco-consciousness matures beyond the reuse-and-recycle stage, forward-thinking manufacturers are broadening the definition of sustainability to include socially responsible business practices. This is all rather old news for Carolyn Wilson, who has spent the past 18 years forging a model of sustainable sourcing. Wilson founded Better World Arts as an importer of Kashmiri handicrafts; but the company's 1996 alliance with Kaltjiti Arts—an arts center in the remote northwest corner of South Australia—paved the way for today's cross-cultural collaborations. Anangu artists gather in a Port Adelaide studio to create aboriginal images, which are then turned into rugs, cushions, and jewelry by villagers in Kashmir's Himalayan region. But rather than merely collecting royalties, the Anangu artists are given ownership in the business, which in turn helps to support Kashmiri artisan communities some 6,000 miles away. Another fringe benefit: "When Anangu see their images, they respond spontaneously, often with song and story that belongs with the image," says Wilson. Now that's music to anyone's ears. 61-8-8240-3373; betterworldarts.com.au. circle 716

Inspiration often happens close to home. In the case of Angela Gruszka's Skylight collection, it came from the tar sealant used to preserve a wrought-iron Victorian skylight in the company's flagship store in New York. The collection's 12 rugs sport irregular lines that are bold and graphic, rendered in black against a white backdrop. All are hand-woven of raw wool, and feature a luxurious, 2-inch-high pile. 212-473-3000; abccarpet.com. circle 604

The glass in Profile Bamboo is as luminous as it is practical, suitable for all indoor and outdoor vertical applications, and even as residential flooring subjected to normal footwear. The handcrafted glass, available in such colorways as Nightsky and Agave, is made partially of bottle glass from curbside recycling programs. The bamboo field measures 3 inches by 9 inches, with 1-inch-by-9-inch and 1½-inch-by-9-inch trims. 800-278-8453; annsacks.com. circle 720

Obsessive-compulsives are already acutely aware that most floors teem with nasty microorganisms. But for the rest of us, Bev Hisey makes the point conspicuously clear in her Dirty Dishes series. Originally created as submissions for Radiant Dark 2009, a Toronto design exhibition organized around the theme of Elegant Corruptions, each 40-inch-diameter rug serves as a supersized Petri dish full of magnified bacteria and viruses. It's hard, however, to resist microbes this colorful, even with alarming titles such as SARS, Acinobactor, E. coli, Botulism, Cholera, Influenza, HIV, Streptococcus, and Anthrax. The nine patterns are rendered in New Zealand wool on cotton canvas, using hand-tufted, cut-and-loop constructions with varying pile heights that allow the germs to grow into full dimensionality—no microscope required. 416-703-3418; bevhisey.com. circle 603

Woven using a Dekyi process that produces a velvety texture and striated tonal background, Fern is a Nepalese rug with a leafy pattern. This natural beauty is made of unbleached, hand-spun, and vegetable-dyed wool, and is offered in three colorways and three sizes—6 by 9 feet, 8 by 10 feet, and 9 by 12 feet. Custom sizes are also available. 908-522-1004; michaelian.com. circle 626

West meets East in the poetic Haiku collection, where abstracted Japanese patterns and painterly motifs float on a deep chocolate ground. Bar motif Shima I unifies New Zealand wool and dull silk; Karuta I sports a repeated geometric motif that resembles a frog closure; and the large-scale floral Takenawa I is made of semi-worsted wool and silk. An additional 25 designs are available, and all are hand-tufted in China. Custom colorways are available. 212-979-2233; taipingcarpets.com. circle 628

Tom Polucci and Natalie Banaszak for Mannington Commercial

Design: Spectrum

Standout: These HOK designers translate spectrograph readings into varied stripes for not only nylon carpet but also premium rubber surfacing. 800-241-2262; manningtoncommercial.com. circle 440

The playful and happy Daisy Mae proves that you don't need cheery colors to brighten the day. Constructed of Tibetan wool, the carpet ensures that spring is always underfoot via a bold floral pattern, rendered in Touch of Grey or Grape Crush colorways. Five sizes are offered, ranging from 3 by 5 feet to 10 by 14 feet; custom sizes are also available. 800-298-1749; tufenkian.com. circle 607

The night sky inspired the pattern for Orion, a hand-knotted Tibetan wool and silk rug, which is sized and colored to order. As a RugMark member, the company ensures that these rugs are made without the use of child labor. 505-265-0144; joanweissman.com. circle 629

Jhane Barnes for Tandus

Design: Mental Blocks and Brainstorm

Standout: The shaded blocks and subtle stripes of these coordinating nylon carpet tiles achieve a balance between structure and nondirectionality. 800-248-2878; tandus.com. circle 438

Urban planning and the great cities of the past, present, and future inspired Tracey Sawyer to create her Where Are We Going? collection for the Nought Collective. In studying the geometries formed by civilization and its surrounding natural environment, the designer created nine map-like patterns—including BGT (Baghdad), NYC (New York), and (PEK) Beijing—composed of lines, curves, and shaded blocks. Tufted to a ¼-inch pile with 100 knots per inch or 1/5-inch pile with 80 knots per inch, these rugs just might stop traffic in the living room. 212-620-3024; thenoughtcollective.com. circle 617

The first product in the company's new line of more natural commercial offerings, Suzanne Tick's Corduroy Stitch takes design cues from suiting cloth and hand stitching, and uses more than 95 percent natural content. Wool face yarns attached to a jute backing results in a tailored, thick cut-pile carpet that is also environmentally friendly thanks to the materials' low-emitting, rapidly renewable traits. 800-575-8084; bloomsburgcarpet.com. circle 606

The Covet collection's conservatively textured Insatiable and Euphoric patterns will inspire cravings that need not be fought. The two woven broadloom carpets—which use high- and low-luster type 6.6 space-dyed nylon yarns—come in nine colors. Both boast CRI Green Label Plus certification, as well as low VOCs. 800-554-6637; karastancontract.com. circle 592

Varying pile heights produce texture with Spun, hand-knotted in India from Tibetan and New Zealand wool. The runner, at 2½ by 9 feet, and the rug version, at 6 by 9 or 8 by 10 feet, both come in Pearl—Kermit Green in addition to Pearl-Yellow and Pearl-Periwinkle. Custom sizes and colors also offered. 416-703-3418; bevhisey.com. circle 435

Travels to Nepal inspired the Devotion series, which translates indigenous imagery into the language of contemporary abstraction. Among the four patterns is RugMark-certified Garland, hand-knotted from pot-dyed, hand-spun Tibetan wool and Chinese silk. Select the standard size, 5½ by 9 feet, or custom dimensions. 718-643-9577; amyhelfand.com. circle 406

Speak says volumes, trumpeting upbeat messages using flooring as its medium. The rug is made of hand-carded and hand-dyed Tibetan wool, in a cut pile-and-loop, hand-tufted construction; luminous silk forms the writing. 707-775-3494; adkcarpets.com. circle 608

There's no mistaking Bank of America Plaza's most arresting visual component: Alexander Calder's Four Arches, a sculpture standing 42 feet high and painted, coincidentally, in Bank of America's blazing red-orange. But inside the vast lobby of the 55-story Los Angeles skyscraper, built in 1974 by Albert C. Martin & Associates, the severe granite walls were decidedly too colorless for the tastes of the building's owner, Brookfield Properties.  So design director Megan Brothers retained Perkins + Will principal Clara Igonda, who pledged to retain the building's modernist aesthetic but "soften and brighten it up." New lighting, doors, and furniture were a start. Still, the project begged for bolder touches—which is when Igonda says she remembered the "warmth and unique texture" of textiles by Christopher Farr. A yearlong collaboration with his U.S. headquarters in L.A. ensued.  

Beginning with watercolor studies, Farr says he envisioned "the tension created by asymmetrical placement of rectangles one inside another like Russian dolls." (If that's too abstract for you, think Josef Albers prints.) In the end, hand-spun wool and mohair were flat-woven into five custom tapestries in Turkey, on looms designed to accommodate supersize dimensions—the largest is more than 20 feet wide by 41 feet high. Stretched across aluminum frames specially engineered by Gilsanz.Murray.Steficek, the tapestries now span multiple levels on three of the lobby walls, bringing an invigorating dose of saturated color to the 3,500 people who visit the building each day. 310-967-0064; christopherfarr.com. circle 403

Scrolls that mimic the pattern of antique Indian wrought iron loop their way across the Bloomery rug. Named for the steel rolling process, this Himalayan wool piece comes in 6-by-9-foot, 8-by-9-foot, and 9-by-12-foot sizes, has a tight, 1/5-inch-high pile, and comes in more than 260 possible color combinations, making it highly customizable. 800-282-8961; delinear.com. circle 630

Sustainability-minded specifiers score a home run in the natural-flooring game. Cork tiles come in 12-inch squares or 12-by-24-inch rectangles. Consider six patterns and 36 color options, too. 800-404-2675; usfloorsllc.com. circle 431