Woven Accents imports 'handy' new collection of area rugs

DECATUR, GA — Woven Accents, an importer of hand-made area rugs from China and India, made its debut at the New York Home Textiles Show at the Javits Center with a booth that literally overflowed with 42 pieces from its new — and first — introduction.

"We've even lent a rug to our neighbor here," said Tom Wierbonics, co-owner and president, leaning out and pointing to the sage-colored area rug used to accent the home furnishings in the booth next door.

Woven Accents, only six months old, focuses its offerings on contemporary and transitional designs, creating clean and crisp modern looks as well as borrowing from ancient designs — "by taking a panel design, blowing up the main motifs and reducing the amount of color we use," Wierbonics explained.

"Aside from being my favorite looks, from my experience this [contemporary designs] is the greatest area of growth in the rug industry right now," he said.

Half of the area rugs Woven Accents imports are hand tufted. The other half includes a combination of hand-knotted, hand-hooked and flat woven rugs. The sizes offered are 18" x 27", 24" x 36", 3'6" x 5'6", 5' x 8', and 8' x 10'6".

Price points for the main size, 3'6" x 5'6", ranged from $400 to $600, depending on the design.

Based "three miles outside of Atlanta," Wierbonics said, Woven Accents is an import house and not a manufacturer, like so many other area rug companies in Georgia.

"Because it's a personal preference of mine to have imported, hand-made rugs," he said. He explained that if a customer is spending $400 on an area rug, "they want a story to go with it and they want some romance, but with a machine-made, they can't get that."

Each of the 14 collections in Woven Accents' introductory line includes two to three designs and a variety of colorways. But because of the "simple" look Woven Accents is hoping to achieve in its offerings, Wierbonics said limitations come in the amount of colors per area rug.

"Clean and simple is the direction we're going," Wierbonics said. "It's what people are buying these days. People want something they can smile at and not feel overwhelmed [by]. The most colors we'll put in a single rug is seven."

At the show, Wierbonics was hoping to attract the attention of catalog, upscale home center and specialty store buyers.

"We came because we're looking to meet up with new customers and place more orders," Wierbonics said. "We heard it's a great show for catalog buyers. We are fully capable and can do drop ship, bulk or container."