The latest trends in creative floor art

The humble floor rug is enjoying a very modern renaissance led by a powerful combination of new technology, contemporary design and painterly inspiration.

The best brands blend modern technology with age-old carpet-making traditions, creating pieces that may cost the same as a painting or sculpture by an established artist. But this makes perfect sense as they perform double duty as practical floor coverings and unique decoration.

Innovative weaving techniques that enable ultra precise machine weaving has seen creative designers such as Zurich-based Schönstaub (literally "beautiful dust") translate photorealistic motifs, graphic elements and fine drawings into rugs.

Founders Nadja Stäubli and David Schönen, who met while at Zurich University of the Arts, turned to the hi-tech Swiss precision of Schönherr, a historic weaving company, to help make Nebula, a debut collection of rugs (US$2,190 for a 220cm x 150cm rug).

The rugs take about six months to make and feature celestial-inspired patterns using photographs of nebulas in the small and large Magellanic Clouds taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

It's not just painterly inspiration driving the trend for creative floor art. Hong Kong architect Johnny Li, who co-founded YILINE by LI&Co design studio and opened a space at Central's PMQ this year, says it was a poem by 8th-century Chinese poet Li Bai that inspired him to custom design the Lotus rug (HK$100,000; 350cm x 350cm), reflecting the autumn sun in faded gold and a lotus leaf with crimson petals.