Design Within Reach has expanded its product offering with a new collection of rugs by designer Little Wing Lee of Studio & Projects.
The ‘Semita’ rug collection merges tactility with function – neatly packaged together to create collectable design objects. Spanning both round and rectangular forms, the pieces are handcrafted in India, with wool from New Zealand. Little Wing Lee, an honoree in the Wallpaper* US400, sees a rug as a central piece to a room, more so than a piece of art.
‘A rug helps ground a room and set the scene for the other elements – furniture, lighting, plants, art,’ she explains. ‘A thing that sets a rug apart from, say, a painting is the tactile quality, your physical interaction with its softening quality. In truth, a beautiful rug can be on a floor or vertically hung, to introduce colour, texture, and pattern.’
The ‘Semita’ rug is inspired by traditional kilims, the flat, hand-woven textile rugs originating from regions like Turkey and North Africa. Lee also looked to her family home for inspiration, reminiscing about a striped rug. The result is a spiral motif nodding to constructivist painting and broken geometry.
The word semita primarily means a 'footpath' or 'narrow pathway' in Latin. The design's scattered lines and angles create a maze-like quality, a pattern that you can trace with your eyes or fingers.
Says Lee, ‘When designing a rug, I start with the pattern and colour. The next layer of design involves construction and materials. Playing with pile height and how the fibres reflect light are tools to control and enhance elements of the design. A beautiful rug will successfully balance all these elements.’
Lee’s compositions balance graphic qualities with organic shapes, while also playing with light and texture. The collaboration highlights craftsmanship and function, and sits neatly within DWR’s collection of artful objects.
