Rug design used to be a specialist business until the online rug store, Funky Rugs (www.funkyrugs.co.uk), came up with the idea of letting anyone - especially interior designers - have a go. Funky Rugs' new online design tool launches in January 2008 in time for the new season designs.
This is rug design at its most sophisticated. The new design software gives rug buyers and interior designers the tools to create one-off designs. The range of options is so huge, it's quite likely that any chosen combination of design, colours, and textures is likely to be unique.
Despite the sophistication, the design tool is extraordinarily easy to use. The first step is to choose an appealing rug design from dozens that are on offer. After that, online designers are free to change each individual colour using a simple colour palette, or to alter the overall look by choosing different textures. The range of textures includes wool, hemp, silk, and loop.
Rug designers can experiment with designs, colours, and textures for as long as they wish until they achieve a result with which they're happy. Then, they can see how their design might look in situ by placing it in a finished room. There are so many room styles and layouts to choose from, there's bound to be one that's similar to the designer's own room.
Even at this stage, designers can refine the look by changing rug colours and textures within any chosen room, or by seeing how the rug might look in different rooms. A particularly useful feature is to see how a single design might look if it were extended to an entire house by applying subtle variations of colour and texture within each room. In this way, interior designers can achieve an overall unified style.
New users of the rug design tool must register first, after which they can download the design software to their own PCs. Using downloaded rug design software is much faster than designing online - a bonus for busy interior designers whose clients are eager to see how easily their homes can be transformed by designer rugs.
To find out more about designer rugs, and how to design them yourself, visit www.funkyrugs.co.uk.