Last week I flew to Hannover as I was invited to attend Domotex.
When it comes to interior design trade shows I usually attend Maison & Objet in Paris and a few in London and I have to admit, both Domotex and Hannover were not on my list of places to visit but I’m so glad I went because it was a visual feast and I met a lot of interesting people including Award-winning Designer Alfredo Häberli (see his site).
If you don’t know anything about Domotex, it is The world’s largest flooring trade show and if you are a Retailer, Designer, Architect, Interior Designer, Manufacturer or Journalist, this is the place to be to discover the latest trends and technologies in flooring from rugs, tiles, carpet and wooden floors.
The rugs area was by far, my most favourite hall and the one that caused my heart to skip a beat more than once, especially the designs of Berlin-based creative company: Rug Star which I’m sharing with you today.
From hobby to passion: How did it all start for Jürgen Dahlmanns, Rug Star Creative Director…
Jürgen Dahlmanns, first came across the art of carpet weaving in 1991 in Nepal.
At the time, he was a Student: “I was making my way down the Annapurna mountains, when I spotted a traditional Tibetan sitting mat. I offered its farmer-owner $100 for it and took it home on the plane.”
Little did he know, this was the seed that would change the course of his life but from that point, he started collecting rugs as a hobby and soon realised there was a huge difference between the old, traditional carpets he had come across during his travels and the new yet less-vibrant rugs that were being made for the western market. Leaving a career in architecture, Jürgen decided to launch Rug Star in 2001, a company which now employs over 1600 people across four workshops in Jaipur and Nepal.
Since then, Jürgen Dahlmanns has designed over 10,000 rugs. Usually large items, a Rug Star piece often measures 3 x 2.5m although the company has also produced much bigger pieces including a 7 x 11m rug for one client.
Quality and longevity are also two of Jürgen’s obsessions. Each rug will last 150 to 200 years and will become more beautiful over time. Clearly investment pieces, each rug is handmade and requires normally about 3,000 hours of work…this is craftsmanship at its finest.
Intimacy Berlin
Not only Rug Star pieces are amazingly beautiful but the company has also built a great image bank of rugs in real homes which really help to visualise the impact of such a piece in your homes. It all started in 2015 when Jürgen Dahlmanns started asking friends and friends of friends if they would allow Rug Star to shoot their rugs in their homes.
The home owners were not paid but in exchange for allowing Star Rug to shoot their rugs in real-life living situations, they were being treated to a meal and taught about this fine craftsmanship of rug making. Since then, the company has visited around 18 homes, shot over 106 rugs and has another 18 homes scheduled in Berlin until Jurgen moved to Beijing and starts a new series called Intimacy Beijing. This series made me realise how much I need to add Berlin to the list of places to re-visit…
Rug Star was not the only company that caught my eyes.
I saw some beautiful pieces from Morocco which reminded me of the beautiful rugs I saw during my last trip in Marrakech. The ones I shared on Instagram stories were from a company called: Le Nouvel Atlas. They don’t have a website and they are not on any social media platform.
I also very much enjoyed listening to Alfredo Häberli talking about designs, making mistakes and learning from it and I wish I had spent more time with the YoungDesigner Trendtable were Designers from 5 countries were brought together to develop some trendsetting flooring concepts and designs which which were showcased at Domotex 2017.
If this is of interest to you, you can read the Show report here and register for Domotex 2018 here and if you go to Hannover, make sure you go for a meal at Pier 51 which has a great view on the lake.
What’s your favourite rug? Did you know about Rug Star?
A FEW RUGS I LOVE
