Narrative Threads Blog
Scroll through our Narrative Threads blog to enjoy behind-the-scenes insight on special projects for leading interior designers and architects.
Scroll through our Narrative Threads blog to enjoy behind-the-scenes insight on special projects for leading interior designers and architects.
Creative Matters operates internationally, and our global supply chain is one of our proudest achievements. Our clients benefit from our multi-country manufacturing ecosystem, allowing us to be nimble in the face of changing trade regulations. A key differentiator is our in-house logistics team, who are able to stick-handle the complexities of the changing landscape. This team is empowered through the ability to strategically source while executing seamlessly, all while making sure we’re not compromising on our design vision. Here’s how we do it.
Creative Matters’ Ana Cunningham and Ali McMurter, co-owners and managing partners, mark the end of their first year at the helm together. As we welcome 2025, we’re looking back at major milestones and looking forward to what will come this year under their ownership and leadership.
In 2021, Beckford House, located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, underwent an impressive renovation. Working directly with Studio Sofield, we designed eight custom floor coverings specifically tailored to the unique spaces of Beckford House. We created handknotted, handtufted and woven Axminster floor coverings to complement the residential building’s interior.
Welcome aboard the Entourage, a superyacht by Moran Yacht & Ship, and experience Creative Matters’ inaugural custom design project for a vessel of this kind. Created in collaboration with interior design studio Burdifilek, our team designed and installed 100% prism nylon handtufted rugs to enhance Entourage’s serene ambiance.
We’re offering exclusive glimpses into the insights of three of our designers at Creative Matters: Madeleine Baigent, Mengting Shen and Sophie Williams. Explore each of these designers' creative journeys, and how they shape their approaches to creating one-of-a-kind custom pieces.
Recently, Creative Matters had the privilege of collaborating with InSTUDIO interior design firm on a custom rug design for the reception area of the TGF Law Firm office. We provided a comprehensive design service, creating a stunning custom round rug to serve as a captivating centerpiece, infusing the corporate interior with vibrancy and character.
In 2022 we welcomed the installation of a project started back in 2018 with Gensler Toronto. Four large, perfectly-designed rugs are now gracing a spacious, high-end lounge accessible to tenants of the new CIBC Square two-tower development in Toronto’s financial district. Named The Canopy, this area is designed to elevate…
The Pendry opened its doors in September all aglow with elevated interiors by our friends at Gachot Studios and equally elevated floorcoverings by Creative Matters. This was our third luxury hotel with Gachot - the three of them united by their use of a variety of the production methods we offer.
In June 2021 the design eyes of the world were upon the reopening of the iconic French department store, La Samaritaine. Reinvented for the 21st century, the French historical treasure had undergone a spectacular restoration. It’s luxurious light-filled interiors were redesigned by Yabu Pushelberg who asked us to create carpets and rugs for 19 different areas.
In November 2015, the Faena Hotel Miami Beach opened to international applause and we were proud to have contributed four rugs to its fantastical aesthetic. As you would expect, the rugs excelled themselves in quality, luxe and colour.
Frequently an interior calls for a rug in flattering neutral hues. For our designers, this can be just as challenging and exciting as a colourful project. The combinations of warm and cool tones are endless; the results are versatile, subtle and stylish.
The carpet for Bergdorf Goodman's iconic New York City department store is Creative Matters’ biggest handmade carpet ever and everything about it is luxe, shimmering and enduring.
We asked our designers for their favourite rugs - 8 designers, 8 very different choices. Reading though the reasons for their selections, we realize the criteria for a successful rug are endless.
We continue to surprise our clients, and even ourselves, with the range and beauty of effects that can be created with the handtufted quality. We were particularly reminded of this when two of the artists from the Canada House project visited our studio in May.
The Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Centre in New York is one of those iconic places known to anyone who grew up with American culture - a formal supper club with panoramic views over Manhattan where celebrities and the influential mingled and danced on the rotating dance floor.
In the latter half of February, CMI basked in the glow of international media attention for the 29 rugs it created for the refurbishment of Canada House in London. One of the most delightful comments came from Henrietta Thompson in the U.K.’s The Telegraph ...
In February 2015, we unveiled the 29 custom carpets we created for the Canadian High Commission in London from original artwork by Canadian artists. This short video is the story of just one of them…
February 19 was a particularly exciting day for Creative Matters. We were finally able to reveal a project that had involved all our designers for many months in 2014 - no less than 29 area rugs with very different designs for Canada House in London.
In August, the media was abuzz with the opening of the Park Hyatt hotel in New York.
Eight years in the making, it was intended to be a New York icon. Even so, the vision for the interior design was created by the Toronto firm Yabu Pushelberg (YP) which has been our client for many years.
We started work on this project in May 2009 but the carpets were not installed until August 2014. Through experience, we have become accustomed to the lengthy process attached to carpets in iconic hotels, but we thought it would be interesting for our blog readers to see how a carpet project might extend over five years.
A magnificent addition to the Toronto cultural scene opened in September and we are very proud to be part of it. Not only is the Aga Khan Museum the first museum in North America devoted to Islamic art, but it is also the first time Creative Matters has designed a floorcovering for a museum.
Situated at the north end of the city, the museum is part of a $300 million complex that has been eight years in the making. More than 1,000 artifacts from the 8th to 19th centuries are on display. We created the carpet for the Bellerive Room which features a ceramics collection