Everyone knows that when you’re looking for a beautifully designed and created handmade rug, you can’t go past Designer Rugs. But that’s not the only string to the company’s bow.

Designer Rugs is 40 years old this year – that’s 40 years of building a legacy of custom made flooring options for some of the most prestigious interiors across the globe. 

Established as a family enterprise back in 1986, the company has enhanced that reputation with initiatives like the Evolve design competition – the 2026 collection, comprising the six shortlisted designs, was released a couple of months ago.

But what you may not be aware of is it’s not all about the one-offs and the stand-alone bespoke rugs. Designer Rugs is also a specialist when it comes to one of the most renowned carpet brands on the planet.

Originally created in the UK by Thomas Whitty in 1755, Axminster carpets to this day are distinguished by their strength, longevity and ability to carry intricate patterns – characteristics that align with Designer Rugs’ approach to woven flooring solutions perfectly. Importantly, the other major feature is customisability. Just as Designer Rugs’ stand-alone pieces can be created to customer specifications, so too can the Axminster carpets – a feature for which the Australian company has long been renowned.

An Axminster alliance

And now Designer Rugs has announced the launch of a new Axminster collection, working in partnership with House of Heras. Featuring bold eye-catching patterns and rich colourways, the carpets have been developed with such commercial settings as hospitality, workplace and retail settings in mind. The depth of colour and durable structure means the carpets answer that tricky dichotomy – balancing flawless decorative flair with the substance and durability required when specifying for high-foot traffic environments. 

“It was important that the designs felt expressive and atmospheric, but also disciplined enough to work beautifully across commercial interiors,” House Of Heras’ creative director, Silvana Azzi Heras, says.

“Art Deco offered that balance, bringing geometry, rhythm and elegance to motifs inspired by nature and ornament.”

Axminster in action

One of Designer Rugs’ most successful recent collaborations was with Azzi Heras, designing the fitout of Grappa restaurant, in The Rocks in Sydney. Working closely with Grappa’s owners and architects, the designer’s goal with the project was to summon up the warm and evocative feeling of postwar Italy.

It’s an era exemplified by glorious, lazy afternoons under the Mediterranean sun, sharing meals under the vines and with friends and family around a long table. Integrated with this, however, Azzi Heras looked to invoke the romance of those Art Deco motifs, combining that 20th century period with a contemporary nod to refined elegance to create a design conversation encompassing patterns, colour, light and movement. 

And underfoot? The luxurious appeal of a sumptuous Axminster carpet – balancing the geometric lines that typify Art Deco design with what Designer Rugs describes as an ‘organic exuberance’.

For the colour scheme, the palette kicked off with a scheme of black, dusty pinks and dark greens, but evolved to delve into deep burgundies, sumptuous plums, misty mauves and subtle taupes – colours and shades that enhance the intimate nature of the restaurant’s atmosphere.

Azzi Heras took these colours of the architectural finishes and tailored the carpet to harmonise with the rest of the decor. For the upstairs dining room, the result is the custom-designed Grappa Ruby Axminster carpet.

“Each colour was chosen not in isolation, but through open dialogue and meticulous review with the project team, ensuring every surface drew from the same refined vision,” says Designer Rugs.

And more…

Customising the floor covering in this way wasn’t confined to the upstairs dining room, but was instead part of a multilayered approach that wove the carpet’s intricate motif and bespoke colourway throughout the adjoining zones. Charlie’s Bar and the private dining rooms were therefore gently merged into the overall effect, linked by this subtle visual thread. 

The atmosphere then is one of timelessness – quiet elegance and refined luxury grounded by the inarguable quality of bespoke Axminster throughout.

This exquisite attention to detail was even extended to the peripheral design elements – the staff uniforms and curated accessories. 

Azzi Heras notes that coming in at the ground floor of the project, as it were, instead of being introduced at the end of the fitout, meant that the carpeting was very much developed as part of the broader interior vision. And this made the world of difference to the final look and feel of the restaurant.

“When the carpet is considered from the beginning, it can become part of the identity of a space rather than simply a surface,” she says. “At Grappa, the final design and colourway informed so many later decisions, which gave the interior a strong sense of cohesion.”

Learn more about Designer Rugs’ Axminster Collection. 

All photography Pablo Veiga.