With his new rugs for Patterson Flynn Martin, master designer Thomas O’Brien weaves his inimitable style into a glorious collection marked by extraordinary craftsmanship and irresistible soul. What’s more, they’re entirely customizable.
To call Thomas O’Brien detail-oriented is an understatement. When creating his new collection of 25 rugs for PFM, the designer behind Aero Studios and Aero Ltd. mined his own stash of treasures, drawing inspiration from such places as the hand-brushed cover of a vintage book and a set of cherished Indian kerchiefs.
One design riffs on the work of 20th-century artist Line Vautrin, incorporating into it motifs from a vintage piece of Spode. “I love bringing traditional, classic things forward and making them modern,” O’Brien says. “It creates something that you can’t put your finger on—is this new? Is it antique?”
The result is a group that feels storied yet fresh. Despite widely various origins, the rugs are united in their untamed textures, woven in a range of techniques and rendered in three different fibers—silk, wool, cotton—to create varying depths and heights. The nuanced treatments bring each design to life. “A rug itself is like a painting,” O’Brien says. “It has to stand on its own, it has to be a thing.”