Behind the Design: Points, Dots, and Other Inspirations Behind the Almana Rug

At first glance, the Almana Rug—which comes in Black and White and Cobalt Blue—looks like a simple bordered rug with beautiful floral details. But upon closer look, you’ll notice that every element in this rug is actually composed of tiny dots—arduously drawn, one by one, by hand. Amazing, right?

All of our rugs have a backstory—and they’re all as colorful and intricate as the designs themselves. In this series, we’re taking you behind the design, to our textile designers and their design process, to give you the full scoop on how some of our favorite and most creative rug designs were made. For our first feature, the Almana Rug, our textile designer Ellen Cote gives us the 411.

Rug Name: Almana Rug

Colorways: Black and White and Cobalt Blue

Textile Designer: Ellen Cote

The Inspiration

“Our textile design team is great at pulling inspirations from anything we see, whether that’s from nature, a tile that we saw on the street, or textile designs we’ve seen around the world. We can see the beauty in something, take inspiration from it, and make it into something our own.

The Almana Rug is part of our Modern Traditional Rugs Collection. For this collection, I was inspired by traditional-style rugs, especially the ones that are two-toned because that brings a more modern element to a design.

In bringing together traditional and modern styles, I used a traditional bordered composition but with a modern twist. Rather than making it heavily detailed with the motifs, like most traditional-style rugs, I decided to design it in a different way that created intricacies within the design.”

The Technique

“This particular rug design brings together two different types of design techniques, which I think embody mixed modern as a whole. It also utilizes a style that is not so traditional.

I created the Almana using the stippling and pointillism technique but in a much simpler way. Rather than clumping together the dots, or changing the colors of the dots to create depth, I just dotted around each of the motifs, creating more of a two-dimensional feel. I also kept the two-tone color of the design, which adds a more modern element to a traditional style.”

The Process

“The process of creating the Almana is relatively straightforward. I first hand-drew the motifs (or the elements within the design) on a grid paper. I usually use a grid paper to maintain the symmetry within the motifs. Once I was happy with my motifs, I scanned them so I could get them into my computer and create the composition.

The composition part is where I figure out the layout, the balance, where the center of the motif is, the medallion—basically where I make sure it’s a cohesive design. Once that was done, I printed out the design, set my trace paper on top, and started creating the dots.

Like everything that’s designed, this artwork has gone through plenty of iterations before we finally made it what it is today. Some of the changes we made were around the composition of it, from an allover design to a more structured feel, like the diamond that it is today. Some of the other things we thought about were figuring out the dot size, whether we wanted them big or small—basically just finding the happy medium that really worked for the whole design.”

What She Likes About It

“What I like most about this design is taking a relatively simple design with simple motifs and only two colors and making it more elevated. I was really excited when I was making it because the dots—when placed in a consecutive line—create a series of movements and shapes within themselves, and that makes the whole artwork more intricate.”

How to Style This Rug

“I would put this rug in a simple and more minimalistic space, with not too many patterns going on because it’s already pretty much intricate on its own. It also has that boho-ish feel, so putting it in rooms that have natural wood, natural color, and a lot of plants would be pretty as well.”

Almana Rug in the Wild

Love this rug design? See how Ruggable shoppers styled this rug.

To complement a black and white space

To give a classic look a modern feel

To add a decorative element without cluttering the space

To complement wooden elements and natural decor

To add oomph to a functional space

To enliven a minimalistic mudroom