CASE STUDY: HACKETT LONDON MARBEUF

With any successful store design concept, the devil is in the details. Hackett London has a longstanding tradition of featuring natural fiber sisal rugs in their stores in classically English herringbone patterns. Across a spectrum of styles, sisal is prized for its neutral tone, all-natural composition, and warm inviting texture.

The challenge for store designers is to make the product perform well in demanding retail environments, especially in historic neighborhoods when the floor plan can present additional challenges. Hackett's owners reached out to Curran & sisalcarpet.com after seeing our quality work in fitting room carpet for one of their outlets. They were looking for a natural sisal stair runner to match the sisal rugs they already had staged on the sales floor. They first expressed interest in Astute.

The "Extra Mile"

Being quite astute ourselves, we quickly realized the intricacy of the ask. The owners preferred that the same person take measurements, manufacture, and install the stair runner to reduce complexity as the staircase was a bit complicated (see photo for the dramatic and elegant curvature of the stairway). As this is a relatively commonplace architectural feature in Paris's city center, we reached out to a local workroom. The stair runner was cut to precise specifications and installed beautifully with ornamental brass bars fixed to the cove joints.

The material itself presented another wrinkle. Aesthetically they found that while Astute had the desired pattern the color didn't match their existing rugs very well. They found a more suitable color match in Astoria | Mesquite from our SynSisal® collection. SynSisal® is Curran & sisalcarpet.com's proprietary sisal-like recycled nylon alternative for contract hospitality and retail store environments. Not only was the color a better match, this turned out to be a much better choice for the stair runner as SynSisal® is: easy to clean and maintain; highly durable; fire-certified; doesn't fade; and made with recycled yarns.

As you can see the results were simply stunning, transforming an elegant spiral staircase into a statement showpiece for the store.