Color Me Bold

A few years back, ABC Carpet began recycling worn or imperfect vintage Turkish rugs by bleaching and then overdyeing them in bright, uniform colors. Since then, the company has expanded its Color Reform collection to include carpets from India woven from the silk threads of old saris. Each one is handcrafted and unique—the original threads and the new dyes combine to create subtle variations in tone. Graham Head, the company’s vice chairman, hopes to encourage buyers to abandon safe beige for statement-making furnishings. “For the first time, the rugs and the art on the wall are going to play a more leading role,” he says. “For the last twenty years, we’ve basically been selling vanilla ice cream.”