Floor Story celebrates its 10th anniversary by revisiting favourite rug collaborations
Floor Story founder Simon Goff has a unique approach to selecting who he wants to collaborate with. ‘I begin by approaching designers who have not previously created a rug,’ he says. This ensures there are no preconceptions, just unfettered ideas that can be translated into rugs that defy convention.
‘It began as an idea simply to be more creative – as we weren’t designers ourselves,’ explains Goff, who now has an in-house team to work on new patterns, but continues to value the power of a good collaboration.
The brand’s first-ever design, in fact, was the product of a collaboration. Goff met pattern aficionado Kangan Arora when they were both working for Heal’s and, when launching his new brand in 2014, turned to her to create ‘Circus’ – a range that typified his in-your-face approach.
Arora has since created many more designs for Goff, so, when he decided to approach 10 of his most popular collaborators to create new rugs for Floor Story’s 10th anniversary (the company also gained B Corp status this year – a stamp of sustainability rarely seen in the rug sector), she was a natural choice.
Arora decided to revisit her colourful ‘Harlequin’ design from 2022, swapping its palette for calmingly complementary tones taken from Sanzo Wada’s dictionary of colour combinations, published in the 1930s.
And she’s not the only designer to have taken Goff’s invitation as an opportunity to explore more soothing or personal colourways.
Camille Walala, for instance, has created ‘Pink Noise’ – a counterpoint to her original ‘White Noise’ design. While white noise is intended to stimulate, pink noise is often used to improve focus and aid sleep, hence the use of tone-on-tone blush hues rather than graphic monochrome.
Artist John Booth also stepped away from his vibrant paintbox to rework his ‘Giovanni’ rug in shades of blue, while Kitty Joseph created a version of her rainbow-like ‘Chroma’ design in green – forest and emerald through to olive. ‘I wanted to bring the outside in,’ she says. ‘The rug could be like a private garden in a flat for someone without access to one.’
Perhaps the most touching new design is Henry Holland’s ‘I Feel Love in Orange’ (pictured top, from £1,645). It has the same trippy effect as its predecessors, but in a shade that reminds him of his late mother.
‘She was a big fan of colour therapy and orange was her power colour,’ says Holland. ‘For me, this is a connection to her.’
All of these works have a spark of what made Floor Story’s collaborations special the first time round, but also speak to the world we, and the designers, live in now. As Goff puts it: ‘It’s never just about designing a rug’. floorstory.co.uk
