Carpets for Vandra Rugs

Carpet collection from Design Studio Yuriy Zimenko for the Swedish brand Vandra Rugs

Ukrainian interior designer Yuriy Zimenko exclusively for the Swedish company Vandra Rugs has developed a collection of carpets. The debut line is called “Meditative lines” and consists of Rays and Horizon. About the carpets that were presented last week in the Kyiv furniture salon Davis Casa.

The Swedish company Vandra Rugs is engaged in the manufacture of handmade carpets from various materials for individual orders. The manufacturer collaborates with renowned designers, architects and interior studios around the world. The collaboration with the Ukrainian designer was the debut for the company, as well as the carpet collection for the designer Yuriy, on which he worked.

The last 4 years, Yuriy, in addition to his interior practice, worked on the creation of furniture collections for two Ukrainian brands. Collaboration with the Swedish carpet brand has become a real experiment for both parties. According to the creators and the designer himself, the experiment was crowned with success.

The dynamism and abundance of information characteristic of our time prompts each of us to search for a foothold, to organize the space around us and introduce certainty into everyday life. The field of experiment often becomes the home interior. This concept can manifest itself in different elements of the interior: in the color of the walls, in furniture and decor. All this can be said about the collection of carpets developed by the design studio of Yuriy Zimenko for the Swedish company Vandra Rugs. At first glance, graphic elements that are formal at first glance help the designer solve the task: a line, a color spot, and a strict configuration of the object. Patterns invented by Yuriy Zimenko structure the space and give it a meditative lines. High-quality natural materials (in this case, wool) and handmade work enhance the energy of the product laid down by the designer.

The history of the Swedish company Vandra Rugs began back in the days of Joseph Frank, in 1960, when he ordered the production of a cotton carpet of his own design. To your surprise, the weaving studio where Vandra Rugs carpets are made today is located in the city of Kahovka, Kherson region. It so happened that Larisa Boden, one of the founders of Vandra Rugs, lived in the village of Lyubimovka, Kakhovsky district, and was looking for opportunities to create jobs for women in her village. With future partners - Sia Attling and Maria Waddenberg Ulsson, who were engaged in completing textiles in Sweden and already used traditional Scandinavian carpets in their interiors, which at that time were made by weavers in Sweden - Larisa met in 2005 thanks to her husband, a Swedish businessman.

The old age of Swedish weavers and the high cost of manufacturing handicrafts did not allow expanding the production of carpets in Sweden and cooperation with Ukrainian women was the best solution for both parties. Machine tools were purchased in Sweden, and the Swedish weavers Laila and Barbro initially came to Lyubimovka to teach Ukrainian women the wisdom of their weaving. Step by step, Ukrainian weavers improved their skills. Vandra Rugs has always been and is a socially responsible women's company, today 31 women and only one man work here.

Thanks to joint projects with the Childhood Foundation of Queen Sylvia of Sweden, Vandra Rugs began working with renowned Scandinavian designers, which earned them fame. The atelier made designer carpets, which were sold through auctions in Stockholm, and the proceeds went to the needs of children supported by the Royal Fund. Every year, as part of international exhibitions, the company presents new collections of carpets, the creation of which such well-known designers as Ami Katz, Lars Nilsson, Eva Schildt and others have worked and continue to do so. In 2019, Ukrainian interior designer Yuriy Zimenko entered their circle, which we are extremely pleased with.