Los Angeles Design Blog | Material Girls | LA Interior Design

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Ginna Christensen, proprietor of the company 27 Ground, a collection of stunning and sophisticated area rugs.  27 Ground is based here in Southern California with a warehouse in North Carolina, and factories in India and Nepal where the rugs are hand made.  Each rug is like a piece of art.  The collections range from eco friendly, to modern and traditional, and some additional collections by designers.

Here are a few favorites ranging from the many collections (which are also featured on the website):

For more info, email info@27ground.com

Kate Middleton has not yet asked me to officially be her decorator, but I know in due time she will call.  I mean, what with her upcoming nuptials to Prince William to be planned, she does have her hands a wee bit full at the moment. Of course, between the Country House and Clarence House, we will be needing to do quite a bit of sourcing and so I thought, why not get a head start?

First on the list, we will be needing to incorporate some family heirlooms (so many hand-me-downs!).  Then, we will want to update the furnishings, to bring a bit of personality into the interiors from our young royals.  The tricky part is keeping with the tradition of things. So I found the perfect start – why not integrate an area rug based on a stamp of Queen Elizabeth II? Oh, the Queen Mum would be so proud! Of course, we wouldn’t want to be stepping on her (not the smartest way to start off with your in laws!).  The likely place for this find will be as a wall hanging! I think Kate & I are off to a good start!

Kate is going to want one girly room at Clarence House, this could the perfect place for her Queen Elizabeth II wall hanging in pink!

Or maybe above the console at the Country House?

And since everyone is going to want to be like Kate, you can purchase your own right here.

Available at Stamp Rugs

Lately, I have been doing an incredible amount of furnishing sourcing for client projects – today specifically researching and sourcing area rugs, pillows, and poufs.  In my “internet travels” I came across Calypso and loving their home goods section, especially the collection of area rugs, pillows, and poufs – coincidentally everything I was looking for!

{Knit Wall Clock}

{Beignet Pouf}

{Lapis Quilt}

{Kuba Jaipuri Pouf}

{Trellis Euro Pillow}

{Goa Pearl Euro Pillow}

{Hampton Lattice Rug}

The Decorating Diva featured a great round up of blog posts on the Tigressa Carpet launch that a select group of bloggers had the opportunity to attend.  After meeting all of these fabulous bloggers it was neat to see everyone’s individual report on the two day event – and it was so much fun to meet the faces behind everyone’s unique blogs.  For the full report, check out “The Shaw Floors Blogger Round-Up.“

The Decorating Diva

Colour Me Happy

Daily Danny

One Project Closer

Building My Green Life

Charles & Hudson

Traditional Home Blog

To read my blog post, click here.

It was so much fun meeting all these wonderful bloggers!

The Material Girls were recently invited to a preview of the latest product launch from Shaw Floors, a new and innovative line of carpet called Tigressa.  As part of the exclusive sneak peek event, I got to experience Tigressa up close and personal – and it lives up to it’s name as being both soft and strong.  Tigressa has a unique fiber shape to create an ultra-soft texture and the advanced yarn engineering produces a pleasant, luxurious touch with superior durability.  Having grown up in the carpet industry, I can attest to this being the softest carpet I have ever felt.  The experience of this event had a very personal impact on me.  I was practically born into the carpet manufacturing industry since my father was president of a division of a local, Southern California based carpet mill called ETC/Westweave Carpet Mills (which later expanded to Western Solutions, and acquired Sunweavers & El Dorado).  The carpet mill is no longer around but through-out my life I was familiar with the “big guys” in the south – that being Shaw.  In fact, some years ago my father along with the former president of ETC Carpet Mills (Paul Reznikoff) had dinner with Bob Shaw in Dalton, Georgia.  To actually have been able to take a trip out and experience the mill in person was really, truly very exciting for me!

For the two day event, myself along with other attendees, got to stay at the beautiful Barnsley Gardens Resort just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

The first day began with an evening cocktail hour and dinner introducing us to the new product line where we got to see the many colors and textures of Tigressa carpet.

The preview and dinner event was held at the Ruins located at the Barnsley Gardens Resort.

Attendees experiencing Tigressa up close and personal.

Group photo of the attendees which included fellow bloggers, writers, the flooring industry, and Shaw Carpet Mills.  (I am about the 3rd row back, on the far left, in black.)

Over dinner I got the opportunity to sit next to celebrity guest speaker Amy Devers (of  TLC’s hit show Trading Spaces) who was a fantastic and engaging speaker. Amy enlightened us on her personal stories with carpet (such as loving carpet in the bathroom – yes, that’s correct – the impracticality of carpet in the bathroom, something I would never recommend to my own clients but Amy loves the feel and I can relate since I grew up with carpet everywhere – including the bathroom – that’s the life of having a dad in the carpet business, wall to wall carpet in each and every room!)

{the next day…}

We headed to Dalton, GA to visit the facilities of Shaw Carpet Mills which included an overview of the carpet manufacturing process and the technical aspects of carpet. (I will have much more to report on this in upcoming posts.)

It was such a great expereince to meet up with other bloggers and I enjoyed getting to know everyone!

We got the opportunity to visit the design studios of Shaw and create design boards ourselves.

Donning goggles, we toured the manufacturing facilities, which included the tufting machines and the yarn dying process. Even though I had seen this many times before, Shaw certainly has some advancements when it comes to their manufacturing process and carpet quality.

Sporting (personalized!) lab coats we toured the technical facilities of Shaw where all the product testing is done.

The afternoon finished with one last look at the Tigressa line of carpet and it’s availability to the market brought to us by Flooring America and Carpet One.

As part of the promotion, proceeds from Tigressa Carpet purchases will benefit the “Save The Tigers” fund.  For all Tigressá sales made between May 16 and August 20, 2010, they’ll donate a portion of the proceeds to the National Fish and Wildlife Federation’s Save the Tiger Fund (STF). STF sponsors effective efforts to stop the killing of wild tigers, enabling them to recover and flourish, and empowers local people to live in balance with natural resources, providing tangible benefits to them whenever possible.

Thanks to Empower MediaMarketing for putting together such a fabulous event! They kept to a great schedule and every last detail was flawless!

{Photos by Jill Seidner}

This company makes wood tiles that can be used in both dry & wet areas! Check out their site here.

 

The one and only, Karim Rashid – known for everything from product design, industrial design, furniture design, interior design; has now launched a line of ceramic tile.
You make recognize some of his furniture as well as product design for Umbra: 

The ceramic tile line is called “R+Evolution by Karim Rashid” and is available thru Design Tale Studio.  The series showcase Rashid’s strong use of color and signature panache with eleven wall decors and five floor tiles.

 

These wall tiles come 12″ x 36″ and as pictured above – a creative idea for any surface such as a table…and up a wall!

And 12″ x 12″ in a porcelain tile for the floor:

To view the entire line, along with installation images, click here.

A new rug collection debut at Roubini Rugs in New York by Tuleh cofounder Bryan Bradley. They are a series of hand knotted silk rugs called “Whimsical” that feature pictorial imaginary woman of Tuleh.  It starts with a pattern called Tuleh, an exteme close up negative-exposure style.  Then comes the risque Elle Neige, bubbly Bath & Body, domestic goddess Maison Tuleh, and wraps up with Love, a greeting card in hand-knotted wool.

The rugs come in standard sizes and can also be ordered in custom dimensions.

Tuleh

With Tom Jones

Maison Tuleh

Fawn

Parfum

Bath & Body

For more info, visit Roubini Rugs.

Looking for an area rug? Thomas Paul Rugs offer some great colors and patterns.

For pricing & sizing availability, please see the Design Public website.

Here are some amazing new rug designs from the “guest designers” who are designing rugs for Patterson, Flynn & Martin.

Kelly Wearstler
Inspired by memorable moments in her life, Kelly’s designs spark a delightfully bold sensibility and inventive sophistication:

David Kleinberg
With a modern, understated sophistication, David’s designs have incorporated two textures, triple weave and hand-knotted Tibetan for an alluring quality.

Paule Marrot
A legendary 20th century designer, Paule’s legacy of timeless style lives on in this sumptuous collection.

Matthew Patrick Smyth

Drawing inspiration from fine furnishings, antique textiles and ornate iron work, Matthew’s designs are the epitome of classic elegance.