Classic Rug Collection

Classic Rug Collection is the brainchild of Barbara Barran, a design veteran whose shift to production in Nepal enabled her to add new offerings for her clients while giving back to the children of South Asia by partnering with GoodWeave®.

Barbara’s interest in design and interiors began when she was a child growing up in Washington. Her father owned a furniture and carpet store, and every Sunday the family drove around looking at model homes and visiting home furnishings stores. Barbara and her sister Marcia spent endless hours poring over design magazines, painting and repainting their bedroom and dyeing their curtains and bedspreads.

While working towards her doctorate in English with a specialty in Shakespeare at Columbia University, Barbara worked for furniture galleries. After years managing and selling furniture for galleries and manufacturers such as Scandia House in Philadelphia, Ethan Allen, SunarHauserman and Knoll, she left sales to begin teaching at the New York School of Interior Design. She also had the opportunity to start a business: designing and painting quilt-patterned floor cloths. The Whitney Museum, the Smithsonian, Old Sturbridge Village and other museum stores carried her work.

Barbara started Classic Rug Collection, Inc., in 1999. She called it a collection because she envisaged rugs made in many different styles and techniques. Drawing upon her interest in historical sources, she has designed rugs based on American Primitive designs, the Gee’s Bend Quilt patterns and Art Deco/Vienna Szecession motifs. She also creates rugs drawing from her own experiences and imagination. Many of these ideas become one-of-a-kind, custom rugs.

Barbara selects from the finest rug manufacturers in the world to bring her designs to life. She commissions flat-woven wool, alpaca and llama rugs from Peru; hand-tufted wool and silk rugs from Thailand; hand-knotted wool and silk rugs from Nepal; and hand-tufted New Zealand wool rugs made by some of the finest craftspeople in the United States. In this way, she can find the technique–and the price point–that best suits her clients.

To learn more about Classic Rug Collection, visit www.classicrug.com.