On March 12th, everyone at Jamie Stern Furniture, Carpet & Leather began working remotely due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. On March 13th, we began brainstorming ways to maintain some semblance of normalcy, continue building relationships with our partners in the interior design community and most importantly, have a little fun!
From this brainstorming session was born the concept of our National Rug Design Contest. From April 15th to May 4th, interior designers and artists from around the country were encouraged to take up their pens, pencils, paintbrushes and mouses to create wholly original designs for the chance to have their work turned into a beautiful custom wool rug. Twelve finalists would be selected, of which four Grand Prize Winners from different geographical regions would receive a full-size 5’x7’ rug of their design while two Runners-up from each region would receive a mini-rug measuring 3’x5’.
All of the submittals would be reviewed and the winners selected by our panel of esteemed judges, all of whom are interior designers themselves. William Oberlin, a founder and partner of New York-based Dutch East Design, Geoffrey Woodrum, the Vice President of the Dallas-based Streetlights Residential and Suzette Subance Ferrier, the Managing Executive and Studio Creative Director of New York-based TPG were all gracious enough to lend our contest their expert taste.
After roughly two weeks, the contest wrapped up with 156 incredible entries from the four regions (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and Southwest/California). The judges took their time deliberating over all of the beautiful designs and on May 11th, the twelve finalists were revealed. After another week, on May 18th, the Grand Prize Winners were officially announced and production began on all twelve rugs.
All twelve designs were hand-tufted with the finest New Zealand wool and bamboo silk available. The use of natural fibers like these allows the rugs to retain their beauty, softness and vibrancy for years to come. If there are any designs which deserve to retain their fine appearance and feel, it's these twelve.
We’d like to once again congratulate our Grand Prize Winners as well as our Runners-up. Also, we’d like to thank Sarah Doriani for contributing the contest’s wonderful illustrations. Lastly, we’d like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who participated in our first National Rug Design Contest. We are genuinely inspired by and truly in awe of the incredible artistry and talent that went into all of the submittals we received.
COVER Magazine wrote a feature article on our National Rug Design Contest and you can read it here!
To see all the beautiful designs that were submitted go to our Rug Design Contest page!
The Grand Prize Winners:
Southeast: Ivonne Ronderos – DKOR Interiors
Northeast: Jessie Lu - Common
Southwest: Lance Trachier – Swoon, the Studio
Midwest: Sanja Kerr – (formerly) ForrestPerkins
The Runners-up:
Southeast: Caitlin Jensen – Sweet Sparkman Architects and Mallori Hamilton – WB Interiors / Nelson
Northeast: Thomas McLaughlin – Thomas McLaughlin Design and Christine Scholtz – Christine Scholtz Interior Design
Southwest/California: Amy Stock – Huntsman Architectural Group and Kala Wahl – Kala Wahl Interior Design
Midwest: Hannah Hussing Wilkerson – Perkins Eastman and Aleshia Schilla – Huntsman Architectural Group
Thank you again to our esteemed judges!
William Oberlin - Dutch East Design
Suzette Subance Ferrier - TPG
Geoffrey Woodrum - Street Lights Residential