Nordic Knots' expressive new rug collection with Studio Mellone was inspired by Brazilian modernism and Art Deco ocean liners
The new collection, which launched today, blends a variety of bold influences. ‘Ultimately, we were designing rugs that I wanted to use,' says designer Andre Mellone
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As a child growing up in São Paulo, Brazil during the ‘70s and ‘80s, interior designer Andre Mellone was surrounded by beautiful things. His father, Oswaldo, was a noted Brazilian industrial designer and, soon enough, the younger Mellone developed his own passion for creating expressive spaces — first as an architect, then as principal of the New York-based practice, Studio Mellone.
Since establishing the firm 14 years ago, Mellone has racked up an impressive client list, all drawn to his effortless mixture of midcentury and contemporary, including Lauren Santo Domingo, fashion brands like the Row and even Rockefeller Center. Still, despite having designed plenty of bespoke pieces, Mellone had never launched a product line. ‘I’d been thinking about doing a product for a long time, but I’ve been so careful about when to do it, how to do it and who to do it with,’ the designer tells Wallpaper*.
Then, one day, he got a call from Nordic Knots, a Stockholm-based rug company known for its design-conscious, high-quality collections. Would Mellone be interested in designing a collection with them? ‘It probably took me two seconds to say yes,’ he says.
‘I've been following Andre's work for such a long time. I love how confident Andre's interiors are,’ adds Nordic Knots co-founder Liza Laserow Berglund. ‘Andre just felt so right – it was pure logic.’
The result is a four-piece rug collection, which launched today in-store and on Nordic Knots’ website. While the collection is concise, each is the distillation of years-worth of Mellone’s ideas, ones that meld the vocabularies of Art Deco, Brazilian modernism and ‘70s and ‘80s design. ‘Ultimately, we were designing rugs that I wanted to use – I was designing rugs for myself,’ Mellone says.
There’s Pond, a plush rug made from New Zealand wool, which features concentric organic rings, to evoke the ripples on top of a body of water. Then there’s the warm, terra-cotta-hued Indore, inspired by the modernist palace of Yeshwant Rao Holkar II. The olive-hued Dots, carpet, with its soft variegated pile, feels plucked from either a vibrant Jazz Age or a sleek Brazilian pad.
‘I became kind of really interested in the process,’ Mellone explains. ‘Obviously you start designing rugs as a two-dimensional thing, but they’re actually 3D objects.’
The boldest design, Normandie, features a lively interplay of interlocking stripes. It was inspired by the SS Normandie, an opulent Art Deco ocean liner that first set sail in 1935. The ship was destroyed in a fire and broken for scrap in the 1940s, but its design has captivated Mellone. ‘I dream about it – I know every corner of that ship,’ he said.
One night, down a YouTube rabbit hole, Mellone discovered footage of a striped, plaid rug in one of the opulent rooms. ‘That then became the inspiration for this, so it was a little bit of an obsession that I finally made it into reality,’ he says.
The rugs are bold, but their colourways and patterns were designed to fit in with a variety of decor styles, whether anchoring a sparsely-furnished room as a bold gesture or layered with clusters of vintage furniture. Ultimately, it will be a way for consumers to bring a touch of Studio Mellone’s universe home with them.
‘When it comes to the design, we don't want to be involved, because why have we chosen to work with someone like Andre if we should dictate the way they look?’ Laserow Berglund explains. ‘That's how you create the best products: You create the world and then the product.’
