September 14, 2023 By Hannah Martin, Mayer Rus, Madeline O'Malley, Fred A. Bernstein, and Mitchell Owens Architectural Digest
For AD100 mainstay Ken Fulk, every great design starts with a compelling narrative. “I instinctively built a business around storytelling. Whether I’m designing a house that stands for generations, a hotel for thousands of guests, or a party that lasts only a few hours, it’s all about creating a genuinely transportive environment and experience,” says the free-spirited conjurer. Predictably, Fulk’s new five-piece collection for The Rug Company, titled Divine Inspiration, is positively brimming with history, fantasy, and delightfully idiosyncratic interpretations of old-world forms and iconography. Consider Saint Joe’s Dome, a loosely illustrated rendition of the soaring ceiling of the deconsecrated Romanesque Revival church in San Francisco that houses Fulk’s Saint Joseph’s Arts Society. Or Surrealist Garden, a trippy dreamscape that nods to the folkloric and allegorical imagery of pictorial tribal rugs. Sonic Wave and Sonic Spruce, the most abstract offerings in the line, pay homage to the power of music and sound, while Zellige puts a snappy contemporary twist on traditional Moroccan tile work and colors. The narrative theme takes its most literal form in the pattern A Life Reflected, Fulk’s hat-tip to historic delft tiles, which allows clients to create a completely bespoke carpet based on their own personal lives and loves.
“You can pick and choose individual panels that reflect your hobbies or passions or anything that has meaning to you. Artists in our studio can even do portraits of you and your kids and your pets. You’re literally weaving your own story into the design,” he explains. “And that’s the joy of working with The Rug Company. They weren’t afraid of letting us do what we do best and try something a little strange and magical.” therugcompany.com