We are thrilled to unveil yet another exciting design project by San Francisco Bay area superstar Green Couch Interior Design, headed by principal designer Jeff Schlarb.  Selected to participate among side some of the area’s top talent in the 2011 San Francisco Decorator Showcase, Green Couch, took on a unique reflective approach that is creative, thought provoking and eye-opening.

To execute the reflective theme, Green Couch took on two identical bedrooms in the upstairs of the home.  They selected all of the same furniture and accessories – from the lamps and light fixtures to the chairs and drapes – but in drastically different color palettes.  The result is incredible, in that they look and feel like completely different spaces.  If one saw each room individually in two separate homes, he or she would likely not think twice about connecting the two, even though they both have very unique touches, including the dimensional flowers adorning the walls, the puzzle-like valences, and the ornate chandeliers.

Both rooms feature our Veledo Recycled Leather Flooring in the same print, but each in a unique color.  Sticking with the light and airy theme in the cream room, Green Couch selected the Veledo Angus print leather flooring in the Bone color.  The execution is beautiful – the floors look smooth and soft but with some detailed texture to give them personality and dimension.  In the opposite room, Green Couch stuck with the Angus print but installed it in the deep Chocolate hue.  The effect is perfect — it adds an exotic touch to the refined masculine feel of the room.  It also brings intrigue and interest to the space while grounding the room.  It’s fun to see how transitional the product is and reinforce how the different prints and colors can change a space.

Our final take-away from Green Couch’s reflective design showcase is what a large role color plays in creating the feeling and mood in a space.  You can see here that the light colors create a soft and soothing atmosphere that has a clean, feminine feel.  The same pieces in bright bold colors have a pointedly masculine vibe that changes how you view the different objects within the room altogether.

A big thank-you to Green Couch for sharing this inspiring project!  After this powerful design demonstration we will never again make a hasty color decision!

Learn more about Merida’s Veledo Recycled Leather Flooring >

Learn more about Green Couch >

If you are familiar with Merida, then you are probably aware of our extensive custom rug capabilities.  Aside from our wide range of custom colors and patterns, we can also do custom shapes to accommodate every customer’s need.  From fireplace cutouts to hexagonal shapes – you name it, and we’ve probably done it. Round rugs have been in our customization portfolio for decades, so you might ask yourself – why is this one more special than the thousands that we made before it? Let us explain…

Hand cutting is an art. It requires a steady hand, good eye that can track asymmetrical natural fibers, and nerves of steel. One would think that hand cutting would be the hardest part of round rug production. In this case it’s not – edge finishing is. Unlike straight edges, round ones are much harder to finish. Many things can go wrong when finishing the round edge, including puckering of the binding, warping of the fiber, bowing, and formation of a crooked edge caused by too much binding tension. To minimize said issues, we were limited to using a Narrow Cotton edge finishing. The down side, however, is that with Narrow Cotton you can only expose half an inch of the binding face.

Recently our very talented team of craftsmen, while working on the project for our long time partner Redi Cut Carpets & Rugs, managed to finish Tonga sisal round rug with a Soft Cotton Twill binding, which has a much wider face. This amazing new edge finishing application is the result of incredibly skilled and patient artisans. As you can see from the photos, the edge face is a full inch and the material used is much stronger.  The end result is astonishing on many levels!

First ever from Merida - round rug with Soft Cotton Twill edge finishing

Dac (left) and Hoa (right) - the craftsmen behind this round rug

Binding the round edge with wider edge finishing is hard and time consuming, but result is stunning.

Seaming with thicker edge finishing, like Soft Cotton Twill, is very challenging but the guys did an amazing job

When Larry from High Falls Mercantile first approached us to donate a rug for his vignette at the Design on a Dime event we were curious to learn more about the event and the organization behind it. It didn’t take much research to quickly realize that the sponsor – Housing Works – is an incredible and inspiring organization that provides services and support to New York residents that are homeless and/or living with HIV/aids. Already familiar with High Falls Mercantile and their incredibly talented design team, it was a no-brainer to participate and show our support.

High Falls Mercantile's Design on a Dime Vignette

We had high expectations for Larry’s room, but he managed to exceed them – and then some. His unique application of adorning all of the walls with pages from an old encyclopedia instantly gave the room a vintage feel. Merida’s Tonga rug added a sophisticated, mysterious allure to the room in the Lava color. It also brought a nice textural element to the room that contrasted the smooth paper on the walls without detracting from the antiques and other pieces throughout the room. Larry layered the Tonga rug with a striped wool rug showcasing the versatility of natural fiber rugs.

Merida's Tonga Rug in Lava

We want to thank Larry and High Falls Mercantile for including Merida in this inspiring project.

View all Tonga color ways here >