How Color Affects a Design

Here is our Starburst rug design in several different colorways.  It never ceases to amaze me that color can be so influential.

Colors selected by Debora Haughton, interior designer in Winchester, VA

Colors selected by Maud Duggan, Union Place, interior designer in Minneapolis

Colors selected by Katie Liverman, Simply Sage, interior designer in Washington, D.C.

Colors selected by Judy Pickett. Design Lines, interior designer in Raleigh, NC

Colors selected by Autumn Muldowney, interior designer in Minneapolis

Variation on the Star Burst design in a flat weave rug

Spring Market at Highpoint

We finished setting up our exhibit at Highpoint market today in the Modern History furniture showroom at 430 N. Wrenn.  We will also have several rugs on the floor in the furniture vignettes. Hope you will stop by if you are coming to market!  Lunch is served daily on the patio...hoping for beautiful weather!!

Rug Inspiration in Barcelona

Travel is a great source of inspiration as we all know.  A few years back, a trip to La Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi, in Barcelona, provided a great idea for a rug design.  Thank you to our client, Rena Feldman of Inview Interior Design in Minneapolis, for a wonderful collaboration!

Ceiling of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Radiance, designed by Julie Dasher

Room designed by Rena Feldman of Inview Interior Design
Rena won a 1st place award for this room from ASID
Photo: Jon Huelskmap, Landmark Photography 

Our Rugs are Heading to Consular General's Residence in Middle East

We couldn't be more excited as 4 of our rugs are heading to a Consular General's Residence in the Middle East.  This has been a fabulous opportunity to work with the design team at the U.S. State Department. Thank you to our wonderful team in Nepal.  I think the images below reflect the amazing attention to detail of our associates there.

Hand-tufted wool rugs from New York to Minneapolis

We always enjoy and appreciate receiving install photos from our interior designer clients.  Here are couple of beautiful recent installations where our custom rugs were specified.

Thanks to Melissa Pollack at Pollack Interiors Co. in Belmore, NY and Tim Ricker at At Home in Edina, MN for trusting us with their custom rugs.  We love working directly with designers to create special rugs in custom sizes and colors to enhance their spaces.

Space design by Melissa Pollack at Pollack Interiors Co. in Belmore, NY
15'5" X 15'5" Pearl Necklace rug by Julie Dasher Rugs
All wool/Hand-tufted

Space design by Tim Ricker at At Home in Edina, MN
4 X 12 Custom Geometric runner by Julie Dasher Rugs
All wool/Hand-tufted 

Casbah rug in Lake Forest, IL

Here are some photos sent to me by our client ESL Design in Lake Forest, IL.  This room was designed by Elizabeth Scott-Lisk at ESL.  She chose our Casbah design in wool and silk, hand-knotted in Nepal with 100 knots per square inch.  We love the colors and how the geometric design complements the beautiful furnishings in the dining room.

Our Wonderful Team in Nepal

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful team in Nepal including our finishing staff who pay such amazing attention to detail as they sort and trim the wool fibers to define the patterns in our rugs. This 12 X 25 foot rug is our 4-color Flamestitch design being made for a client of Maggie Nielsen Interiors in Chappaque, New York.

Introducing the Sylvie & Mira Collection

We are thrilled to be introducing a new collection of rugs designed by Lisa Peck called Sylvie & Mira.  During her 20 years in the industry, Lisa has collaborated with a host of people on a variety of projects that span the gamut of style. She is an expert at working within three-dimensional space, identifying hard materials and mixing them with textures and patterns. Her mastery of color has earned her the nickname “Color Queen” around her office. And while there’s no idea too big or detail too small, Lisa understands the importance of protecting her clients from spending time and money on frivolous extras. Perhaps more importantly Lisa has developed lasting relationships with clients and trade professionals along the way. And she has done so in large part because her pull-no-punches approach and inspired designs knock your socks off.

Lisa's design journey has led to the creation of this beautiful new rug collection, hot off the looms in Nepal.  Here are some of the beautiful samples available in a variety of showrooms around the country, including Julie Dasher Rugs.

Abrash in a rug

Abrash in a rug is a striation created by yarns that are dyed in multiple colors which are fairly close in tone.  Abrash shows a beautiful textural effect which can stand alone without any additional pattern in the design.  The abrash technique can be done in heavy, medium or light variations.

Here is a picture of a rug with heavy abrash that we recently created for Sweet Peas Design in Chicago.  Susan Brunstrum, the owner and head designer, at Sweet Peas had done another rug with us using 3 colors in a heavy abrash in the background of the rug with a cream-colored design in the pattern.  This time, her client wanted just the heavy abrash background and no pattern for a highly subtle, textural rug.  This project didn't leave much for me to do as a designer but I am thrilled with how the rug turned out.

Hand-knotted rug being stretched in the finishing stage

Hand-knotted rug being trimmed in the finishing stage

Beautiful new samples

I can't help but share a picture of 2 new beautiful samples created by our team in Nepal.  The green sample on the right is our English Damask pattern in all Tibetan wool.  This is a strike off for Rebecca Laymon, an interior designer in Raleigh, North Carolina. The sample was woven in 2 different colorways, with half the sample in a mix of green and cream and the other half of the sample in shades of green.  The cream-colored sample is our Quatrefoil pattern in Tibetan wool and raised Chinese silk for Francia Fusik, a designer who has a beautiful new showroom in Windemere, Florida called All In One Decorating Solutions.  Both samples are hand-knotted in Nepal with 100 knots per square inch.

Here is another beautiful wool and silk rug hand-knotted by our expert craftspeople in Nepal.  This rug was produced for an interior designer in Chicago for a client's dining room.  It is our Stately Damask pattern with raised silk.

Thank you for your generosity

As most of you know, there were 2 very powerful earthquakes in Nepal recently resulting in great loss of life and property for the people there.  Julie Dasher Rugs has received tremendous support from many of our clients, friends and family for our supplier in Nepal and for Goodweave. Goodweave is on the ground in Nepal providing a myriad of services for the children, their families and also supporting the efforts to rebuild so that properties are more earthquake resistant in the future. We are truly humbled by your generosity and are happy to report that our factory in Nepal is fully operational.  Our supplier and his team are amazing people and are recovering from this challenge with grace and strength.  We admire them greatly.

In that light, here are some pictures of a beautiful rug they just finished for one of our clients, an interior design firm in Washington, D.C.  The attention to detail and craftsmanship of this talented team are evident.

Countdown to Highpoint Market

We are very excited to be exhibiting at Highpoint market for the first time the week of October 18th! Our booth is being transformed into a colorful display of our rug designs that were made all over the world.  If you are heading to Highpoint, please stop by and visit us in Suites at Market Square #M-1044.

Here are the 4 runners we had made for the show.  Stop by the booth and fill out your entry to win one of these runners!

Hand-woven rugs a “knotty” business for our Rug Guru - Sweet Peas Design

Susan Brunstrum, Principal of Sweet Peas Design in Chicago, speaks to our hand-knotted rugs.  Click on this link to see a beautiful Lily Pad rug created for one of her clients.

Hand-woven rugs a “knotty” business for our Rug Guru - Sweet Peas Design

Today is the Festival of Colors!

Today is the Festival of Colors, a national holiday in Nepal and India...2 countries where our rugs are produced.  The holiday is also called Festival Holi and has many purposes.  It celebrates spring first and foremost and originally signified fertile land and favorable harvests.  As a way to say farewell to winter, the festival is a time of enjoying spring's beautiful colors.  In addition to this, the holiday commemorates events from Hindu mythology and has a religious purpose.  Today...participants will hold a bonfire, throw colored powder and celebrate in a grand way!

People throwing colored powder to celebrate the holiday

Colored Powder

White Tiger

This traditional Nepalese tiger design was custom colored for a client who loves WHITE TIGERS.  It always amazes me how much color can influence a design.

White Tiger--Custom-Colored in grey and white tones

Tiger in traditional Nepalese colors