Personal Style All Sewn Up With Custom Rugs

Cele Huntzinger became familiar with Mike Mendoza’s craftsmanship when she decided her home needed a softer touch.

“My home has a 20-foot ceiling and a winding staircase in the entrance way and the living,” said Huntzinger of Fairbanks Ranch. “We decided a custom rug was the best way to soften the expanse of wood.”

Huntzinger’s 7-foot round rug evolved from there.

Decorator Lynn Harland of Del Mar Interiors worked with Mendoza on the design, based on the idea of a center flower replicated from a sofa fabric. A raised border was put in place, and after the rug was in the house, a flower spray was added.

“Lynn worked with him on the design, then he just got creative,” Huntzinger said.

Mendoza doesn’t claim to be an artist, though he does spend much of his life sculpting works of lasting beauty. His profession--custom rug craftsman--is one not chosen by many.

Sometimes his task is as simple as cutting and stitching together an area rug with a border of contrasting hue. Other times the work is as intricate as carving and inlaying roses and vines into wall-to-wall carpet. Mendoza often wields a heavy duty shaver with a vacuum cleaner attached to carve a bas-relief design into thick pile.

Family crests, sports logos and exploding flowers are popular motifs today with home decorators who want something on their floors that none of their neighbors have.

As alluring as they are, custom carpets and area rugs present a design challenge for even the most adept home decorator.

Judith Freathy, owner of J.K.F. Interior Design in Rancho Penasquitos, described the process she used recently when creating an area rug for a client.

“I took the fabric from the sofa and Xeroxed the print,” Freathy explained. “I then took that print and laid it into a scale model of the carpet size I wanted. Using tracing paper, I fiddled with the print until I got the design I wanted.”

Freathy delivered her sketch to a carpet maker in Orange County, along with a swatch of sofa fabric. There she selected the color and type of carpet she would use.

The result was a softly shaped area rug that defined a space for lounging. A curving lily leads the viewer’s eye to the focal point of the area, a grouping of eclectic antique and overstuffed furniture.

Most decorators claim that floor covering, more than any other design element, defines the atmosphere of a room. By switching from Mexican paver tiles to plush pastel wool carpeting, the mood can be switched from beer and chips to champagne and smoked salmon.

A custom carpet design, whether it mimics the seamstress’ art of applique, embroider or patchwork quilting, takes the concept one sophisticated step further.

While many carpet stores work with do-it-yourself interior decorators, most recommend the help of a professional designer when planning an individualized carpet.

Freathy agreed. “For that much money, you don’t want to be wrong.” Freathy added that it often costs no more to buy through a design professional than it would to purchase floor covering from a retail store.

“Most decorators work two ways,” she said. They can charge a set fee for the rug or carpet. The designer buys it at wholesale from the carpet maker, then charges the customer a retail rate, making his or her fee on the difference. As an alternative, the designer can charge a design fee but pass the wholesale price on to the client.

Bold home decorators may prefer to hatch their brain child, and most full-service carpet dealers will cooperate. John Antman, owner of Superior Floor Design, Encinitas, says many of the custom rugs he sells are designed by the homeowner.

“We can help them arrange it,” Antman said. “We show a lot of different things that have been done previously. They get ideas.”

Often customers choose a pattern copied from drapery or upholstery fabric to be inset into wall-to-wall carpet. With the popularity of hard flooring such as stone, wood or ceramic tile, area rugs also are popular.

“We’re in a wealthy area, people want something special for their home that they can’t find ready made,” Antman said. “Or they simply want something different from what everyone else has.

“A common concern is that when a small drawing is made, most people have trouble visualizing what the actual rug would look like,” Antman said. “In some cases we will make stencils, for example, of a complex flower pattern with vines running through edge of carpet.

“Then we make that to actual size so they can lay it on the floor where the area rug will be located and decide if its the proper size. We’ve even colored the template so they can get a better idea of how it looks.

“Obviously that costs extra money, but when spending extra money on a rug, they don’t want to take a chance,” he said.

The cost of a custom carpet or area rug depends on many factors, including the complexity of the design, the fiber, the weave and color. Wool is the most expensive fabric, and colors are the richest in wool. A synthetic fiber is sometimes more appropriate for special situations such as heavy traffic areas.

Ron Alleger of M. Austin Designer Floors, which has a showroom on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, tells custom rug buyers not to think just in terms of price per square foot, as they would with standard wall-to-wall carpeting. Not only is more carpet needed to create a pattern, “in this case, you’re paying for the labor to make the rug up,” Alleger said.

Freathy estimated that “an ornate area rug may run between $1,200 and $2,000, again, depending on the complexity of the design and quality of material.”

Typically an area rug takes from four to six weeks to manufacture, with extra time added for shipping if the work is done out of town. Most major carpet manufacturers offer a custom service through a full-service carpet store. Local custom rug makers may take less time and it’s often possible to check and approve the work before paying for the rug.

For those who yearn for a distinctive rug but don’t care to design their own, Ross Margolin, an owner of Outrageous Rugs International on Miramar Road, suggests a “programmed” rug.

Margolin stocks handmade area rugs, often Oriental in design, in an easy-to-carry size at his store. A customer can come in, select a design, then take it home to see if the color and pattern fit with other furnishings.

Once a rug is chosen, Margolin then orders it from the manufacturer in the right size and shape. Programmed rugs often are made by artisans in Tibet, India, China, Pakistan or elsewhere in the Orient.

Custom designed area rugs require more time, money and effort, but, says designer David Allen of Tchotchkesin Hillcrest in San Diego, what you end up with isn’t just a rug. “This should be a family heirloom,” he said.

Selecting a Custom Rug

* Choices are more varied when the floor covering is the first item picked for a room. The floor then sets the tone for everything else. If a house is already furnished, rugs and carpets must complement what is there.

* Think of your floors as the “fifth wall” of your house, connecting all the other design elements. Unless skillfully done, borders and area rugs tend to make a room appear smaller.

* Custom carpets or rugs can be used like a path or border in a garden to define an area such as a dining alcove, or to lead the eye to a unique piece of furniture or a dominant feature such as a fireplace.

* Study color dynamics or get professional advice in choosing a carpet shade. Color has a tremendous impact on mood.

* Let loose your creativity. A pair of mental health counselors had psychology symbols inlaid into their carpet; a car buff had a Jaguar logo carved into the floor covering in his family room.