A taste of the rich pattern of colors, prints and textures available at Island Rug Co. Photo by Tomas Del Amo.
Since ancient times, sheep have been raised in some very harsh climates. Tibet and Nepal, for example, are nestled at altitudes of higher than 12,000 feet, with constant exposure to intense cold.
Wool has evolved accordingly, into a truly remarkable fiber. Durable, crush-resistant and flame-retardant, it’s nonallergenic and resistant to bacterial growth and dust mites. Carpets made from wool release soil, dust and stains more readily than man-made fibers, don’t require harsh chemical cleaning and look great with simple vacuuming.
Wool rugs are ideal in semitropical climates. In high humidity, the fiber absorbs moisture (up to 30 percent of its weight without feeling damp) and releases it when the atmosphere is dry. In Hawaii, walking barefoot on wool carpet feels cooler, less sticky and more comfortable than synthetic fiber carpets. For more on your feet’s best friends, read on.
Island Art
Kelly McGuire, of Island Rug Co., is at work on a new art medium. His partners? Hiroshi Tagami and Michael Powell, two of Hawaii’s most prominent artists, whose paintings are on display in galleries throughout the world.
“We plan to produce limited editions of several paintings woven into area rugs of Tibetan wool with silk highlights,” McGuire says. One sample, of a Tagami artwork, has already been sent to Nepal.
“It’s actually a Tagami masterpiece in a different medium,” McGuire notes. “It comes with a signed certificate from the artist and his signature woven into a corner. The rugs are handcrafted in Nepal from 100 percent Tibetan wool or wool-and-silk combinations. Next year, I’m inviting other artists to come on board and create an Island rug line, devoted specifically to tropical designs.”
A custom area rug from Pacific Home brings out the playful and colorful in this Lanikai family room. Photo by Tomas Del Amo.
Custom Interiors
“At Pacific Home, we are excited to introduce our customers to innovative and elegant products,” says Jenn Johnson, co-owner. These include specialty area rugs by custom designers.
One textile designer is Emma Gardner. Raised in Japan, she brings an Asian influence to her designs, which she tailors to a tropical lifestyle in blues and greens. Her custom rugs are hand-woven from Tibetan wool and Chinese silk.
“Gardner is popular with interior designers in Honolulu because of her wide variety of styles and extensive color palette; you can get exactly what you want,” co-owner Aubrey Yee says. “They’re of heirloom quality and will last generations.”
Angela Adams, another supplier, offers less customization but quicker availability. Pacific Home has also begun working with bamboo-fiber rugs, a sustainable material woven in Nepal that actually feels like silk. Pacific Home is a Hawaii dealer for FLOR modular nylon carpet squares which, once in position, meld together seamlessly.
Hand Weaves
Hand-crafted rugs have been part of the Tibetan culture for hundreds of years. They continue to be made in India and Nepal by Tibetan exiles, who use traditional methods to produce carpets that will last centuries.
A member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), Shirley Shivhon, of Shivhon and Associates LLC, specializes in Tibetan rugs exclusively. As proof of her devotion to the craft of Tibetan rug weaving, she helps support and nurture the artisans.
“Our goal is to improve the quality of life for our weavers and their communities while enabling their tradition of rug weaving to continue,” Shivhon says. “I know the workers and their families personally. It’s amazing to sit and watch them weave up to 4 inches a day. An average-size rug takes a couple of months to complete. It is incredibly labor intensive. Yet they never make a mistake. It’s uncanny.”
Thatsa Brio!
A Furniture World Outlet’s founders Al Cicogna and Michael Zhang have changed the name of their business to CZ Brio: “C” for Cicogna, “Z” for Zhang, and the Italian “brio,” which says it all: vigor, vivacity, verve, zest, vitality, spirit. “What we choose to sell in home furnishings and accessories in Hawaii is contemporary, unique, dynamic,” Cicogna says.
His Italian heritage and sense of brio held forth with the recent introduction of a new line of area rugs by celebrated Italian design house, Versace. Woven from superb New Zealand wool, the line of rugs features the famous Versace Medusa-head logo, a world-renowned symbol of Italian luxury, created by Versace in Italy’s fashion capital, Milano. The rugs are available in a variety of colors and standard sizes, or can be special ordered.
Custom rugs available from Fine Linens & Furnishings. Photo courtesy of Madeline Lowe Designs.
Bedroom Ambiance
Kaye Fawcett, of Fine Linens and Furnishings, recently found Madeleine Lowe, an acclaimed designer whose custom silk and wool rugs match Fawcett’s choices in linens. Lowe selects sheep raised in the Himalayas whose wool is saturated with lanoline to protect them from the intense cold. Lanoline-rich wool has a special luster, incomparable softness and natural stain resistance.
“Our core business is bed linens, specialty items otherwise not available, so when choosing a rug design, my aim is to match it with the bedding,” Fawcett says. “When you prepare the bed at night, the sheets, pillowcases—everything will reflect the ambience of the room and coordinate with the rugs.”
Homeworld's online customizing shop offers a spectrum of choices in design and material.
DIY Rugs, Online
Homeworld is collaborating with Creative Accents, an online custom area rug manufacturer offering more than 130 colors, sizes, shapes and styles. Customers can see their color and design choice online, before they buy. Homeworld can deliver an area rug, made exactly the way they want it, in just two to five weeks. It also offers a variety of synthetic and wool blends, and natural fibers such as jute and bamboo.
“Island homeowners with stone, tile and wood floors are looking for mats and rugs as ‘softening agents’ for their floors,” division manager Daphne Oliveros says. “Most of our customers prefer soft, neutral tones and clean lines.” She recommends simple contemporary designs, avoiding hard, bright, “touristy” Hawaiian themes. “It’s more bringing the outside in, reflecting the soft hues and natural tones of our Island environment,” she says.
Tips on Carpet Care
The Floor Store Hawaii specializes in carpet installation and cleaning. For general carpet cleaning, owner Marc Haine’s recommended home remedy is a wet/dry vacuum to suck up water. It’s a modest investment to protect a major one.
The trick to cleaning good-quality carpet is rinsing, Haine says. After using a mild cleaner on a major spill, thoroughly rinse it and wet vacuum to remove all traces of the cleaner, or the carpet may discolor. Steam works because the heat breaks down oils and greases.
But Oriental carpets are best left to a professional cleaner. “A lot of time we run into issues of carpet dyes: are they natural or synthetic?” Haine asks. “You can ruin a rug unless you know precisely the material it’s made from and what kind of dyes were used.”
1 Hot Garage
What is soft underfoot, can take a lot of punishment, comes in four distinct patterns and nine different colors, covers any existing or uneven floor surface, muffles noise and can be installed by anyone with a soft mallet?
It’s 1 Hot Garage’s amazing Tuff-Seal flexible flooring material. An 18-inch-square, quarter-inch-thick, modular PVC tile originally designed for commercial and industrial applications, the material is ideal for residential use in workshops, garages, basements–and yes! the kids’ bedrooms, since Tuff-Seal is an excellent noise dampener.
Tuff-Seal tiles can be laid without adhesive or special tools. They are joined together with a patented interlocking mechanism; just the tap of a hammer renders them seamless. Colors are black, red, white, blue, taupe, light gray, dark gray, teal and canvas–all easily mixed and matched. So if you’re looking for the ultimate soft floor, Tuff-Seal may fit the bill.
Where to Get It
- 1 Hot Garage
1738 Silva St.
843-8011
www.1hotgarage.com - CZ Brio
(formerly A Furniture World Outlet)
1673 Kalakaua Ave.
941-3595
www.czbrio.com - Fine Linens & Furnishings
Gentry Pacific Design Center
560 N. Nimitz Hwy, Suite 106
589-2737 - Homeworld
2 Locations in Honolulu
702 S. Beretania St.
Honolulu, 543-5300
www.homeworld.com - Island Rug Company
415-A Kapahulu Ave.
735-2404
www.islandrugcompany.com - Pacific Home
420 Ward Ave.
596-9338
www.pacific-home.com - Shivhon & Associates LLC
381-5102
www.shivhon.com - The Floor Store
1711 Homerule St.
848-7771
www.thefloorstore.com
