Inspiration, expertise and creativity are spread across every floor, from traditional hand-woven rugs to eye-catching avantgarde features.

Mourne Textiles, for example, is a Northern Irish rugs and home textiles specialist that still uses authentic Kentish handlooms. They exclusively use wool from British sheep, such as Piebald Jacobs, Hebridean, Wendsleydale and Cheviot. “Their wool fibres are especially long and fine. Rather than dying the wool, many designs feature all kinds of natural colours, from ecru to beige and different shades of brown and grey,” Mario Sierra elaborates. The company established by Norwegian textile designer Gerd Hay-Edie in 1949 is now run by Sierra, her grandson, and his mother Karen Hay-Edie.

In addition to hand-woven rugs and throws, Mourne Textiles also offers upholstery and furnishing fabrics. They still come in the classic designs created by the talented founder, whose avant-garde creations were already sought after by furniture designers, couturiers and designer brands like Liberty and Terence Conrad in the 1950s and 1960s.

Other decades-old family businesses include the US-American carpet manufacturers Stark Carpets and Tufenkian, both of whom have big permanent showrooms at the Chelsea Harbour Design Centre in London.

Read more in our print edition textile network 3-4/2019.