Mohawk extends Madden into area rugs

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 4/22/2002 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK —

As of last week's New York Home Textiles market, Mohawk Home has added area rugs — in 14 different patterns and two constructions — to its ever-increasing Chris Casson Madden collection.

"It's the first time in my design experience that [my licensing partners] got my vision," Madden told Home Textiles Today. "Usually I need to do some tweaking with the product, but this time there was nothing to do. Mohawk did an extraordinary job with the line, and I'm thrilled about the way it came out."

Madden's area rug collection was originally scheduled to launch in January at the Atlanta International Area Rug Show but was held over until the April market enabling a more inclusive promotion of her entire Mohawk-made line to take place.

Madden personally attended the market last week to help promote her new area rugs as well as the additions to her existing line, which has now more than doubled in skus. In October her initial launch of home textiles goods under the upscale Newmark division of Mohawk Home was composed of an assortment of throws, decorative pillows and wall hangings. Since February, she has added cotton woven blankets and top-of-bed products, in addition to area rugs.

The area rugs collection is available in two price point tiers, based on construction — the higher-end product being a fine-denier 100 percent polypropylene offering containing 10 colors and fringe and set to retail for $249 to $299 for a 5' x 8'; and the more competitive rugs of lighter-weight 100 percent polypropylene offerings featuring eight colors and no fringe and set to retail for $199 to $249 for a 5' x 8', Pat Moyer, vp, marketing, Mohawk Home, told Home Textiles Today.

The area rugs don't directly coordinate with the rest of Madden's product line.

"There's no 'matchy-matchy' here on purpose," said Madden, who hosts the weekly program "Interiors By Design" on the HGTV network and is the author of more than 15 cooking, home design and lifestyle books. "I just want things to work together and over time as well as having a certain patina about them. It's just the way I decorate my own home."

She added that what does correlate across the line are the colorways — soft, muted and earthy tones "that age well, like people do."

All the rugs are available in three sizes — 2' x 4', 8' x 10' and runners.

"The whole point about area rugs is that they are the bones of the room," said Madden. "It's always much harder to match the rug with the rest of the room after the fact. People get nervous about design and decorating rooms, and I say to them avoid the qualms by starting underfoot."