With the pronouncement of “Living Coral” as the 2019 ‘Color of the Year’ by a certain color marketing firm came the usual flurry across social media and beyond of image after image after image of products, including rugs and carpets, exhibiting the hue.

Each of them, to quote Pantone, “emit the desired, familiar, and energizing aspects of [a] color found in nature. In its glorious, yet unfortunately more elusive, display beneath the sea, this vivifying and effervescent color mesmerizes the eye and mind. Lying at the center of our naturally vivid and chromatic ecosystem, ‘Living Coral’ is evocative of how coral reefs provide shelter to a diverse kaleidoscope of color.”

Mid-Century Modern is a style that spans several decades and whose iconic aesthetic remains relevant even in this time. True period carpets differ greatly from those of today which take retrospective influence from the form, yet all remain undeniably modern in context. This is the enduring power, the glory, of “Modern Love.”

Revered as deities, feared as harbingers of doom, or held as symbols of the inner struggles of man, animals have great significance in cultures around the globe.

To thoroughly examine these varied interpretations of animals across the spectrum  of humanity, would be a herculean task requiring volumes, and perhaps a lifetime to comprehend. Instead and in a spirit of curiosity, a visual summary is offered here to fuel reflection on the diversity of and mutual reliance upon, our cohabiting fauna.

RUG INSIDER presents a selection of complementary colored carpets which remind it’s not easy to be green.

What is it about a carpet that inspires an exuberant ‘Wow!’? Is it the color? The design? The material? The construction? Maybe it is as former rug and carpet dealer Nedret Gürler once stated: ‘Color is like the appearance of an attractive person; it draws you in. Design is like their personality; it keeps your attention.’ Or perhaps it is as Michael Mandapati of Warp and Weft suggested in the RUG INSIDER Winter 2018 article ‘The Chairman’, when asked what makes a great carpet: ‘It’s everything.’

As modern carpets continue to delight buyers across all market segments, Rug Insider takes a look at some inspired examples.