Every spring, I travel with my design team from Company C to the Sturbridge Vintage Textiles and Brimfield Antique Markets in Massachusetts to scour antique stalls for great finds—vintage home textiles, clothing, antique furniture and more.
These fabulous pieces become the inspiration for new rugs, home textiles, and furniture for the company’s colorful new collections. We kick off each new season by gathering as many swatches, colors, photos and more and tack them onto vision boards.
Our design challenge becomes finding stories that “complement” all of our concepts—what looks fresh and new, what may align with trends we’re seeing in the market, and what is a perfect fit for Company C’s color and design style.
One of our new fall 2018 rugs that recently launched at the April High Point Market was inspired by a 1920’s antique shawl handmade in India and found in Brimfield. We played with the unique motifs, scale and color from the shawl to create a signature Company C rug.
The result is our Indira rug, a super colorful and textural hit at market.
The Emma Bedding collection is another example of how the fabulous pieces from the past can bring forth something completely brand new.
Inspired by a vintage embroidered quilt, this graceful design in cool and soothing blues is hand printed on crisp, yet soft cotton percale for a modern take on an antique look.
For me, it is all about “the hunt” and finding the perfect vintage reference to work with. Invigorated and inspired by the designs, I love the process of dreaming up new ways to infuse the character of those timeless pieces into our own collection, with fresh colors for today’s market.
Years ago, we found small pieces of very old tapestries at Sturbridge that had beautiful coloration. One of them became our Avalon rug, which has been one of our best selling hooked rugs for over 10 years. 
It is a leafy design with saturated shades of blues and aquas – and today this fabulous rug lives in our house on the coast of Maine.
The discovery of vintage references that become the source of fresh, exciting designs that inspire colorful living in the market is what brings us the greatest joy.
Cheers to Colorful Living!
Christine Chapin
A BLOG ON COLORFUL LIVING 