Sisal Rugs

The Bolon BKB Faux-Sisal rug collection has long been a customer favorite and a perennial best-seller. BKB was the first weave collection from Bolon, and was designed to resemble sisal rugs. For 2010, the collection has been expanded with the 6 new colorways shown below.

The new colorways above include two new metallic colorways- Metallic Gamma and Metallic Alpha that we are very excited about. Textile metallics were first introduced in the 1950’s, and have recently made a resurgence in modern interior designs.

The GOOD DESIGN awards originated in Chicago in 1950 and is presented annually by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The award program was originally created by four leading architects of the time seeking to bestow honor on designers and manufacturers for their work based on function and aesthetic.

Bolon Twilight was awarded the GOOD DESIGN Award in the category of Floor and wall covering. Products considered for the 2009 GOOD DESIGN awards are judged in a matter similar to the original 1950 award with an additional emphasis on Green Design. For 2009, The GOOD DESIGN Awards were judged in New York by an international jury of design professionals,architects, experts, and cultural leaders.

“GOOD DESIGN is the singular, international design awards program the entire design and corporate world waits for each year, ” said Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine, Museum President/CEO, The Chicago Athenaeum

“GOOD DESIGN has immediate public recognition for the best new design produced worldwide” continued Mr. Narkiewicz-Laine, “For the public, it’s THE seal of approval. Hundreds of leading winning manufacturers and FORTUNE 500 companies print the GOOD DESIGN logo for awarded their products on their packaging, marketing information, advertising, websites, corporate information, posters, billboards, and branding. You can hardly open a magazine in Europe or Asia without seeing the Museum’s GOOD DESIGN logo positioned on advertising from automobiles to luxury personal products”

For more information visit the Chicago Athanaeum website

Look for Seagrass rugs, our newest addition to the Essentials Series, to be added to the site in the next few days.

The seagrass collection features four classical seagrass styles including a traditional half-Panama, a four over four basketweave, a heavy herringbone pattern, and a unique boucle weave (pictured below) that mimics the classical sisal rug weave.

Each of the weaves is available as a custom rug, or as broadloom for wall to wall installation. For more information, or to order samples while the site is being updated, please call us at (888)328-2080.

Our Designer Series Madagascar sisal rug in the Tupelo colorway was featured in the April, 2010 issue of Real Simple Magazine in an article entitled “3 Decorators Give Readers’ Rooms Makeovers” by Deb Schwartz.

The sisal rug was used in “a transformation that would turn the room from an echoing cavern into a welcoming nest”. The designer for this room, Kimberly Ayres, was named as one of the Top Ten Young Designers to Watch in 2009 by Domino magazine. Kimberly used a sisal rug as a cushy base, and layered a smaller rug on top.

It was 1941, and the United States was simultaneously propping up the UK with increasing exports and gearing up for hat looked like our inevitable entry into the war. Our steel companies were being stretched thin, and as a consequence it appeared that the metal necessary for car production would become increasingly scarce.

Popular Mechanics Magazine, Vol.76 No.6,Page 1, December, 1941

Henry Ford recognized the predicament his company may soon be in, and began a search for alternative materials for his cars. In December, he unveiled in Popular Mechanics Magazine a new car with plastic panels “grown from the soil”. The new panels were produced from sisal, hemp and other natural fibers, had an impact strength 10 times that of steel of equal thickness, and were considerably lighter as well.
From: Popular Mechanics Magazine:

“[T]here’s an industrial revolution in progress just the same, a revolution in materials that will affect every home. After twelve years of research, the Ford Motor Company has completed an experimental automobile with a plastic body. Although its design takes advantage of the properties of plastics, the streamline car does not differ greatly in appearance from its steel counterpart. The only steel in the hand-made body is found in the tubular welded frame on which are mounted 14 plastic panels, 3/16 inch thick. Composed of a mixture of farm crops and synthetic chemicals, the plastic is reported to withstand a blow 10 times as great as steel without denting. Even the windows and windshield are of plastic. The total weight of the plastic car is about 2,000 pounds, compared with 3,000 pounds for a steel automobile of the same size.”

Popular Mechanics Magazine, Vol.76 No.6,Page 3 December, 1941

Graphic is a new Bolon woven vinyl rug with a clean, streamlined architectural style perfectly suited for modern decors. Our early impressions are that this style rug will go well with minimalist interiors perhaps featuring white walls and reclaimed wood flooring adding a neutral color and a bit of texture.
Graphic is offered in three colorways of gray, brown and tan in two distinctive patterns. The material is waterproof, slip resistant, easy to clean and maintain, and extremely durable. Graphic is offered in finished area rugs, mats, broadloom for wall to wall installation, and tiles.

Bolon is a world leader in woven vinyl flooring with installations in everything from retail shops, hotels and homes to health clubs, saunas and private yachts.

The Ethnic faux sisal rug collection was introduced in 2009, and has proven to be a very popular collection. Ethnic relies on natural colors drawing inspiration from the geography of Norway, Finland and Sweden with hints of earths, stone and base metals.

The new colorway, Keise, is a dull silvery grey color mixed with a dark beige in alternating warp yarns tied together with a thin grey weft. Like all the faux-sisal weaves, Keise is slip resistant, durable and very easy to maintain.

The Ethnic collection is a woven vinyl rug with a solid vinyl backing that is made for us in Sweden. The rug is woven in 2 meter wide rolls (approx. 6′-7″ wide), and can be seamed together to make larger rugs and wall-to-wall floor coverings.

20% off our entire Jute Rug Collection in May, 2010

Above: Bora Bora Volcano with Cotton Pebble Weave border applied at 2″ on face

For the month of May, 2010, all of our jute rugs will be on sale at 20% off of our regular prices. The rugs in this collection are woven in Kerala, India either by hand or on semi-automatic looms in thick, chunky weaves that are soft and comfortable underfoot.

For more information:
Coastal Style Sisal Rugs Home
Wikipedia Entry on Jute
Merida Meridian Jute Rug Info

Real Simple hosted the fifth annual Housing Works Design on a Dime fundraiser. Each year Home Works creates a show at the Metropolitan Pavilion where top interior design professionals are invited to transform three blank walls into a finished room with donated upscale furnishings and accessories.

The editors of Real Simple created their own design which featured our Marrakech sisal rug in Chamomile with a bumble bee yellow border form our Viscose collection. Marrakech was chosen for it’s textural appeal and warm, natural colors, while the border was chosen to tie in the various yellow design elements.

The proceeds of the show benefit Housing works, a non-profit providing help for homeless individuals and families living with HIV and AIDS in New York City and beyond.

Twilight Faux Sisal Rug Collection has received the Universal Design Award 2010. The award is designed to honor entries that greatly benefit their target audience by demonstrating that they are accessible, intuitive, safe, affordable and sustainable.

The competition is open to product designers, graphic designers, manufacturers, service providers and service designers, architects, and interior designers, and is adjudicated by a jury of experts.

For more information on the award visit the universal design website