Artfully Floored

This Asha Existential Sun silk-and-wool rug was inspired by Vani Sayeed’s painting. / Courtesy photo

Artist and designer Vani Sayeed in her studio. / Courtesy photo

The collaboration between interior designer and artist Vani Sayeed and Landry & Arcari Rugs and Carpeting conquers the delicate interplay between art and furnishings. The duo’s Global Chic collection of rugs brings wall art to floor level with luxurious silks and wool in playful designs that are inspired by Sayeed’s powerful paintings. And in knowing this fine line between art becoming furnishings and vice versa, this team has created a sell-out.

The two Boston-area businesses have worked together styling clients’ homes for more than a decade, but it was this new alliance creating rugs that embrace geometry with art deco flair that really pushed their ability to see beyond their day-to-day inventiveness. “I was just blown away because [the paintings] had that really great transitional look that [Sayeed] loves to do. And I said some of these would make perfect rugs as they are,” Jeff Arcari explains. “The trend for rugs over the past five to 10 years has definitely been toward more transitional patterns—patterns that are somewhat based in old traditions but kind of fresh and new.”

This Iman Blue Orb rug is geometrically inspired and, like other rugs in this collection, comes in a range of customizable tones and textures. / Courtesy photo

Named for Sayeed’s mother and daughters, the Asha, Iman, and Zaina rugs (which stand for “Hope,” “Faith,” and “Beauty”) blend Sayeed’s love of family, travel, and architecture. The Asha Existential Sun, for example, draws from a trip to Martha’s Vineyard with its riot of color, while Santorini inspired the Iman style’s striking Blue Orb. Sayeed and Arcari’s team brainstormed colors, materials, and details, which manifested into digital designs that Arcari dispatched to weavers in Nepal. It took several months for the rugs to be handmade using the finest global silks and wools. In the Asha rug, “47 different shades and colors of wool and silk create shadow lines, depth, and contrast to evoke that three-dimensional visual as seen in the painting,” Sayeed explains. “In all our rugs, you’ll see the subtle striation or abrash detail where we use different shades of similar colored wool and silk yarns. It creates a visual play and interest, especially on the background of the geometric Four Square or Star design.”

Sayeed experiments with different materials and their influence from her art. / Courtesy photo

Sayeed and the team from Landry & Arcari collaborate on rug designs. / Courtesy photo

The Iman Blue Orb rug complements a range of design styles. / Courtesy photo

The rugs also feature myriad combinations of knots mixed with cut piles and a flat weave to create a striking visual and textural intercourse. The rugmakers employed a dying technique called Double Dye on several styles, including Zaina, using the same dye bath repeatedly to achieve eight different color shades with one strand of yarn, which also results in varying consistencies in an emerging color, Arcari explains.

Delightful to the eye as well as underfoot, Sayeed says rugs in the collection can accompany any residential setting. The Zaina and contemporary styles are 100 percent wool and very durable, she says, while the Deco rug can be customized in all wool or wool/silk combinations. “The Star is very interesting, in shapes and symbolism, and is represented in cultures across the globe. This is not your standard star, but is clearly inspired by a star in the age-old herringbone design—a simple pattern in the way it’s woven, but not strict,” Sayeed says. “These subtle details make me happy and smile, and I hope the clients do, too.”

Sayeed and Jeff Arcari review materials during a design meeting. / Courtesy photo

First published in the print edition of Boston Home’s Winter 2024 issue, with the headline “Artfully Floored.”