“One sits more comfortably,” Verner Panton once noted, “on a color that one likes.” The late Danish industrial designer was right, of course. (He usually is.) An especially luminant rug underfoot makes lounging, work and play all the more pleasing. Scandinavian artisans have known this forever—their earliest weaves date back to the 14th century. By the 1800s, Swedish rug makers were perfecting a handmade style they dubbed rollakans. These were flat-woven and woolen, featuring geometric patterns, tapestries you could walk across. Thanks to the influence of flat-weaver artisan Marta Maas Fjetterstorm, their popularity exploded in the 1950s. Mid-modern furniture designers admired the hand weaving, and the sparse, geometric compositions. Pile free, plush and still lightweight, they’re still perfect for homes now—even a little rug-on-rug layering.
Be sure to shop an exclusive curation of Swedish flat weave rugs here. Don’t forget to (virtually) flip through the pages of the latest issue of Magazinish if you don’t have the print version.
