HAY in Bath – an update of the rugs in store

As we mentioned at the end of last year HAY opened its first UK showroom in the beautiful city of Bath. At the time of writing back then, the shop was still being assembled, but we can report it is now up and running and looking gorgeous. We thought you might like to see a little of the shop floor today – and how our rugs are working alongside the contemporary furniture of HAY and WRONG for HAY. We also asked the manager Lucy Drane from the store for her thoughts on how to make the rugs work at home.

The two-seater Hackney sofa upholstered in navy blue velvet would probably make any interior look immediately smarter – here it’s paired with some of the cushions in the Nathalie du Pasquier collection from WfH and a beautiful, richly textured Beni Ouarain. “We find that the Beni Ourain rugs work beautifully with the sofas and armchairs, since they evoke such a cosy, warm and comfortable feeling in a living room setting,” says Lucy Drane. 

What we love about this scene is that nothing particularly matches and yet everything goes together. How we’d break this down into a look you can mimic at home? Don’t be afraid to contrast, but try to find a thread of continuity in what you put together. This scheme works because the colours are all muted – even the cushions are not bright red, they’re more burgundy in tone, and on the purple background the overall effect is appealingly dulled. There’s also an emphasis on gorgeous high-end materials with a textural quality – the velvet upholstery, high quality wool of the rug, and oak and brass on the side tables.

We’ve said it before, Boucherouites are perfect for hanging on the wall and this one is no different. Look how it mimics the door size along the wall and how it fills a stretch of wall which, left blank, would be boringly bare. “The Boucherouites often work as a standalone showstopper in a hallway or hung on the wall,” says Lucy. “We think the hand crafted sensibility evident in each unique rug, enables us to respond to a piece in a more personal way. The Boucherouites for example, evoke memories of a rag-rugging generation of women in one’s own family. Often too, evidence of the handmade through an imperfect technique is very appealing and in contrast, sits well alongside a contemporary, perfectly finished furniture collection.”

This little corner of the shop shows to us how to be playful and artistic with rugs – it’s less expected to find a Boucherouite on a wall than on a floor and this is what makes it so lovely. Refer back to our older post for further ideas on this.

Another corner of living room, which gives a few takeaway tips. Our rug – another gorgeous Beni – is again quite perfectly matched in size to this small two-seater sofa. Add a huge coffee table here and that relationship is completely lost. Add a small side table, and you can still have your essentials near the sofa, but can also enjoy the decorative qualities of the rug. Once again, nothing particularly matches.

“When we are styling specific areas in the store, we will often marry very bright, colourful pattern, such as our Nathalie du Pasquier cushions with softer, less colourful rugs such as the Beni Ourains. Or we do the opposite and pair a very bright Boucherouite rug with one of our antique pieces in the store,” advises Lucy.

Here the black detail in the rug relates to the black side table and black embroidered cushion – though we agree that this scene would work just as well with a brightly coloured sofa.

The same corner, dressed differently, this time with a Turkish Caput Kilim. This type of rug allows you to add more colour to your floor and we think it works well with the jungle of different prints going on around it – from the cushions and the bag on the window sill.

“Often the Caput Kilims work very well when layered as they are much flatter than the Beni Ouarains or Boucherouites. Caputs also have a simple, linear pattern with softer colours that work well together when layered. We have seen this technique work very well in many settings – living rooms or spacious landings in particular,” says Lucy. 

Layered carpets used to great effect in a previous HAY pop-up shop

If you can’t make it to Bath, head to our etsy site for more Beni Ouarains, Boucherouites and Kilims.

Thanks to Lucy Drane at HAY for the photographs.