Boutique Design New York (BDNY) is the leading trade fair for the US hospitality design industry.
Based in the Jacob K. Javits Center “for two high-energy days each November, it’s the curated, creative event of the industry—bringing designers, architects, purchasing agents, hoteliers, owners, and developers together with inventive manufacturers of design elements for hospitality interiors for a highly curated experience.”
Events like these give us the opportunity to engage with the interior design community and allow us to showcase our outstanding talents and services.
This year’s show featured some strong design and color themes, the most evident being that of nature. From beautiful botanical themes using leafy greens and delicate flowers to organic structures with influences of earthly elements.
Textures played a key role in adding depth and warmth to spaces. Wool and leather led the way for textiles while elements of gold and metallic added a touch of glamour.
Not only did this theme dominate pattern and texture but also color.
Warm earthy muted tones were used to create spaces of zen while pops of blues and greens were used to create biophilic settings.
Our own stand was influenced by nature thanks to the bespoke floral carpet design that was specifically created for BDNY. The design showcased the high levels of our design capabilities and our ability to add vibrant, eye-catching color.
If you were unable to attend BDNY and are keen to know more about what we can offer, please get in touch with our US team here.
Natura, our new carpet collection for the hospitality sector, is grounded on a theme that accentuates how we are connected to the intricacy of nature.
As the world reconnects with nature, our designers took the time to pause and take in the beauty surrounding them. These moments of quiet reflection provided the inspiration behind this stunning new collection.
Designed to meet the exacting needs of the hospitality industry, Natura encompasses 7 new designs in 24 different colourways that are suitable for a range of applications, including public areas, guest rooms, restaurants and corridors, amongst others.
Our new designs magnify the beauty of nature by focusing on the intimate detail of the elements around us. The outcome is a carefully curated collection that finds a perfect balance between impactful aesthetics and subtle beauty.
The new designs are:
Alder – The hushed hues of Alder radiate with the soft, meandering patterns found on the bark of a Birch tree. The four contemporary colourways – Yam, Ribe, Ornäs and Kelp – are tempered by a distressed aesthetic that creates an enchantingly subtle narrative.
Arcus – Imitating the turbulent nature of clouds that form at the edge of a thunderstorm, Arcus evokes the expectant nature of weather. Available in three colourways – Lumen, Storm and Electric – this is a design that delivers a clear sense of drama.
Esker – Available in four colourways – Sif, Thar, Rift and Azul – Esker takes its name from the long ridges deposited by meltwater from a retreating glacier. These flowing striations form an intimate pattern of serenity.
Moso – Influenced by the patterns of Moso, a type of bamboo native to China and Taiwan, this impactful design is available in three colourways – Char, Lint and Tansu. The layered, patina effect accentuates the organic aesthetics of nature.
Nahla – Reminiscent of the ripples left by rain droplets, Nahla means ‘first drink of water’. The Arabic and African origin of the word resonates within the three colourways – Unda, Bayou and Zale – to create a mesmerising creative statement.
Vita – Reflecting the complexity of molecular structures, Vita is Latin ‘for the course of one’s life’. With three colourways – Alpha, Helix and Origin – the layered linear elements create three-dimensional depth for an emboldened design.
Zen – The striking Zen designs encompass the new heights that can be reached when you are in a state of calm attentiveness. The four modern colourways, Inga, Moka, Yari and Mesa, elevate the transition of the textures to create a sense of energy.
As you can see, just like the natural world, there is also a balance to how we have combined these new designs with the 24 colourways available. Earth’s strongest hues and hushed tones have been transformed into a contemporary colour palette and then intuitively paired with each new design to create maximum impact.
This year, the global colour authority Pantone has selected two Colours of the Year. The shades – PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating- have been picked as an aspirational colour pairing that conjures deep thoughtfulness and feeling as well as optimism.
Illuminating is characterized by a sunny, yellow vivacity imbued with solar power, while the Ultimate Gray is emblematic of elements both solid and everlasting.
“The selection of two independent colours highlight how different elements come together to express a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting, conveying the idea that it’s not about one colour or one person, it’s about more than one,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Colour Institute.
“The union of an enduring Ultimate Gray with the vibrant yellow Illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude. Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a colour combination that gives us resilience and hope. We need to feel encouraged and uplifted, this is essential to the human spirit.”
Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Colour Institute, adds: “The Pantone Colour of the Year reflects what is taking place in our global culture, expressing what people are looking for that colour can hope to answer. As society continues to recognize colour as a critical form of communication, and a way to symbolize thoughts and ideas, many designers and brands are embracing the language of colour to engage and connect.”
Pantone 2021 colours in Design
“Ultimate Gray and Illuminating do not have to be used in equal proportions, the company noted. Either colour can take precedence whether for apparel, furnishings, product design or packaging.” Hotel Management
Pantone have suggested that Ultimate Gray and Illuminating can work in harmony together to set both an uplifting yet grounded mood in guestrooms or lobbies, adding a much needed dose of hope and positivity.
Writing on behalf of Hotel Designs, brand strategist Emma Potter says, “Hotel interior design is deeper than simply decorating, colour schemes have the ability to cleverly transform and/or evoke emotions and designing with purpose as a whole will result in space that is more functional, more inviting and more appropriate to the guests checking in.”
Colour selection is a critical part of the design process at Ulster Carpets; it helps create depth and breathe life into what has been imagined. With over 650 colours to choose from plus the ability to custom dye to find that elusive shade, Ulster’s creative team can help enhance an interiors designer’s scheme from the floor up.
Examples of designs using greys and yellows from Ulster’s online Design Portal.
Thanks to Ulster’s unique advanced weaving technology we have total design freedom allowing our designers to maximise their colour usage to suit every brief.
Matthew Weaver, a Senior Field Designer at Ulster, says “Adding colour into carpet really brings the floor to life. It can be as simple as choosing a signature colour from the client’s design scheme to unite the carpet with cushions, artwork and wallpaper. Whether it’s a calming soft blue tone in a spa area alongside neutrals or a bold infusion of orange and teal in a restaurant, colour adds value and completes the story.”
Take a look at our projects page to see some examples of our design capabilities.
Influenced by the play of light and shadow at midnight, these eye-catching carpet designs are taken from our online gallery, Design Portal.
In terms of designs and colours, Design Portal offers an abundance of choice and a plethora of inspiration. Packed full of over 9,000 designs, this digital archive is easy to use, with designs collated into specific categories and collections.
You also have the option to search using either keywords or design numbers to help you find the right style for you.
All designs can also be recoloured to suit the project you are working on. Our virtual tuft box has both standard and neutral options, meaning you can recolour a design from a choice of over 650 colours.
Continually updated with designs created by our designs teams across the world, you can save your favourites for future reference or upload recoloured designs into your personal folder. You can also have access to any bespoke designs created for you by Ulster.
When the world’s leading interior designers say #inspireme Design Portal is the perfect place to start.
With some of the world’s leading carpet designers based in our offices across the world, every day we create what we call ‘The Art of Ulster’. This concept is about utilising the large canvas that flooring offers to create statement designs.
Ballrooms and lobbies are the perfect example of this, giving our designers the space to create impact aesthetics that pop with colour and texture. But even in smaller spaces, such as corridors, our ability to match designs to the required space means that you don’t lose your ability to leave a lasting impression.
The bespoke service also allows us to complement the interior design theme and provide a continuity that takes visitors on a journey from the front door and right through your venue.
By talking, listening and understanding, our designers have been able to build up strong relationships with leading interior designers, architects, specifiers and venue owners. This partnership approach has resulted in stunning designs.
Of course, having great designers is only one essential element of the Ulster service. We are able to translate their inspirational designs onto carpet by using a patented weaving system. Our weaving technology allows for unlimited design possibilities without the need for a repeating pattern.
The perfect combination of design and manufacturing capabilities puts at a unique advantage over other carpet manufacturers and is the reason why the Art of Ulster can be found in the world’s leading hotels, casinos and cruise liners.
CLICK HERE to take a look at some examples of the Art of Ulster in our Project Gallery or why not be inspired and explore our Art of Ulster gallery on Design Portal. You have to be registered to enjoy the benefits of Design Portal – CLICK HERE to find out more or to log in.
Take a look at our latest collection in Design Portal.
From rough textures and elements to smooth layering formations, explore the beautiful designs inspired by natures gems.
Packed full of over 9,000 designs, our online archive is easy to use and is a great way to get those creative juices flowing.
Design Portal is also fully searchable using key words or by design numbers while you can also create your own favourites to keep for future reference.
Once you’ve found the design you want, you can even recolour it to suit the project you’re working on. If we have created a custom design for you, then these can also be uploaded into your individual collection. You can then use our standard or neutral tuft boxes to choose from over 650 colours and recolour to your heart’s content!
“UNPRECEDENTED TIMES CALL FOR UNPRECEDENTED MEASURES”
Due to the ongoing global pandemic Maison & Objet took their extremely popular design exhibition to the digital realms during Paris Design Week 2020.
We have pulled together three of the most popular design trends and the four most influential colours and combined them with options from our own online archive, Design Portal, as well as current stock collections.
As you can see, thanks to our design expertise, we are able to connect with any trend. You can also connect to any of these trends by using Design Portal to inspire your own design choices.
Design Trends from Maison & Objet | Paris Design Week
“Interiors are all about surrounding ourselves with the things we love. Today, everyone’s striving to tune into the beauty of the earth. Wind, light, water, wood, stone and fire. Sometimes through technology, sometimes through the fusion of craft and design, reflecting a shift in attitudes towards the earth and how we all live.”
Wonder is a manifestation of the clash between the ever-changing awareness of our past, present, and future. In an attempt of hacked escapism, we find comfort in creating an incomprehensible world, one that ironically comes to mimic the things that we once found solace in. Thanks to innovations of AI and VR designers are playing with warped yet conforming shapes, design looks both familiar and completely novel — it’s a sensationalized concoction of rendered dimensions.
A return to the “Golden Age of Design” when craftsmanship was at its peak – brands are looking towards fundamental shapes, materials and details of the 1950s-60s to revamp into the modern stylings of today. Consumers are feeling the weight of over consumption, thus craving items that hold substance and feel good. They are slowing down, off the wave of technology overkill, and seeking to find inspiration in the heirlooms. We are also seeing that due to having so much access online, consumers have a desire to share their own personality in the home, thus bringing in their own heritage and roots – items that play to their childhood memories for a mix and match approach to styling motifs.
Colour Trends from Maison & Objet | Paris Design Week
Long ignored throughout history, green is now rising from the ashes to become an ultra-trendy color for the world of decor. In terms of furniture and objects, solid or plain green is the thing, in minimal shapes. For interiors, go green on walls and floors, in rather soft, natural, and muted tones.
Elegant, unchanging, and timeless, Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue is the color of the year to embrace today. Inspiring serenity, confidence, and commonality, this shade of dark blue reminds us of the twilight sky and fosters concentration, a color to take refuge in.
Organic shapes and natural materials, all in a kaleidoscope of clay-based colours…it’s a major trend these days. Whether its hand-whipped concrete walls, inspired ceramics, delicate wood, or tanned leather, let’s discover a visible (and visual) sampling of this style.
Long shunned, brown is making a comeback in design and decor. Its range of shades, deep and easy to match with, can be readily substituted for black, while adding a touch of difference, warmth, and velvety softness.
Now that you’re suitably inspired, now is the time to move onto Design Portal. Packed full of over 9,000 designs, our online archive is easy to use and is a great way to get those creative juices flowing.
You can get a sense of what is currently on-trend by taking a look at some of the most recent designs from our creative teams based across the world.
Design Portal is also fully searchable using key words or by design numbers while you can also create your own favourites to keep for future reference.
Once you’ve found the design you want, you can even recolour it to suit the project you’re working on. If we have created a custom design for you, then these can also be uploaded into your individual collection. You can then use our standard or neutral tuft boxes to choose from over 650 colours and recolour to your heart’s content!
In terms of designs and colours, Design Portal offers an abundance of choice and a plethora of inspiration, however where a project does not require a bespoke product, our variety of stock ranges offer an attractive alternative, with the added advantages of readily available samples, matching batches, quick turnaround times and no minimum order quantities.
If you wish to discuss your project or view Ulster’s collections our Paris Office is open and our experienced team are available to help develop ideas or answer questions.
Rez de Chaussee | 59 Rue Du Faubourg |Saint Antoine | 75011 | Paris | T: +33 (1) 70 22 48 04 | E: uceurope@ulstercarpets.com
For more information on Design Portal or our large stock offering please get in touch by emailing marketing@ulstercarpets.com
Take a look at our latest collection in Design Portal
From ocean waves to soft floral patterns and mythology, explore the beautiful designs inspired by traditional Japanese culture.
Packed full of over 9,000 designs, our online archive is easy to use and is a great way to get those creative juices flowing.
Design Portal is also fully searchable using key words or by design numbers while you can also create your own favourites to keep for future reference.
Once you’ve found the design you want, you can even recolour it to suit the project you’re working on. If we have created a custom design for you, then these can also be uploaded into your individual collection. You can then use our standard or neutral tuft boxes to choose from over 650 colours and recolour to your heart’s content!
With the freedom to choose a superior number of colours over and above the industry standard, and no need for a repeating pattern, there are endless possibilities with a bespoke Ulster carpet.
The talents of our designers and the unique abilities of PSYLO™ have combined to make Ulster Carpets the market leader when it comes to supplying bespoke woven Axminster to the contract market.
Our designers work closely with clients all over the world to deliver breath-taking bespoke carpets which often become the showpiece of an interior scheme, like this one in the Intercontinental Grand, Paris .
Credits: Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel | Design Practice : Pierre-Yves Rochon | Photographer: Thierry Favatier
Ulster’s designs can be found adorning beautiful spaces on every continent. With sales, design and planning teams located in the UK, North America, Europe and the Middle East, Ulster offers complete support in design, planning and execution of carpet projects.
Q&A with Amanda Ramsey | Grand Central Hotel, Belfast
Design Portal…
Some of our clients choose to take inspiration from over 8,000 designs in Design Portal. Available via desktop or mobile devices Design Portal offers access to our extensive design archive along with the opportunity to customise designs to meet your particular project needs.
The quality of design, service and manufacture are the reasons why bespoke Ulster carpets can be seen in some of the world’s most prestigious locations, as showcased in our project gallery.
For more information on PSYLO™ take a look at our brochure.
For more information on Design Portal, please contact sue.farnell@ulstercarpets.com with your name, company name and address.
Sand and carpet are not two elements that you would normally put together.
However, thanks to the design sophistication and unique manufacturing capabilities of Ulster Carpets, it is possible to recreate the look of sand in a carpet without the feel.
A great example of this is at the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel in Dubai where, a number of years ago, Ulster’s design team were set the task of creating a carpet that resembled an array of oriental style rugs randomly strewn across sand.
The stunning carpet that was created from this concept personifies the design freedom and unique weaving technology that allows Ulster to transform once impossible carpet concepts into a reality.
The reason for this is PSYLO™ – the weaving system patented by Ulster. PSYLO™ enables carpet to be manufactured to a greater degree of design intricacy, using an enhanced spectrum of colour at an unrivalled level of efficiency.
This technology provides the necessary design freedom to create the depth and texture needed to replicate the look of a sandy beach or virtually any other design. Being able to create a 3D design on a 2D surface provides more scope and is one of the key reasons why Ulster is chosen to make bespoke carpets for the hospitality, gaming and marine sectors right across the world.
Zen – The striking Zen designs encompass the new heights that can be reached when you are in a state of calm attentiveness. The four modern colourways, Inga, Moka, Yari and Mesa, elevate the transition of the textures to create a sense of energy.
