Woven Wonders by Art + Loom

Samantha Gallacher is one-half of Miami-based IG Workshop, a full-service boutique interior design and construction management firm, whose work was recently featured at CASACOR Miami. However, the Miami Beach resident with a keen eye for aesthetics couldn’t limit her creative juices to only one endeavor. The savvy entrepreneurial designer recognized a void in her industry and combined her passion, knowledge, and experience to launch Art + Loom, a personal collection of bespoke rugs.

“In addition to working at interior design firms after graduating from the New York School of Interior Design, I spent three years as a rug and textile designer at West Elm corporate in Brooklyn,” said Gallacher. “It was there that I learned everything I now know about rug design.”

After moving to Miami to start her design firm, Gallacher realized there was a lack of the type of quality creative rugs she was looking to incorporate in her interior design projects.

“I started making my own rugs for clients,” said Gallacher. “Eventually, other interior design friends began asking me to make them for their projects, and it just snowballed from there.”

The rug design process begins with a sketch, painting, or tracing of photography Samantha does in Miami. From there, she selects colors from a pom box and designates which areas will have which construction. The rugs are then drawn into detailed specifications and sent out to a factory in India or Nepal – depending on the technique selected. She uses an array of materials for Art + Loom rugs, including wool, jute, silk, bamboo silk, mohair, and more.

Once the technique and materials are agreed upon, her team creates a 2’ x 2’ sample for approval so that her clients can make sure they have chosen the right colors and technique. Once approved, a rug can take anywhere from seven to 12 weeks to complete.

The rest is history. Samantha launched Art + Loom, a passion project that has turned into a lucrative business with a sales team, creative collaborations, and delighted clients. With her vast knowledge of color and textiles, she can transform commercial and residential spaces for clients seeking her magic touch.

“Art + Loom can be found in celebrity homes, hotels all over the country, and new development sales centers from Florida to New York,” said Gallacher. “We recently designed a store in the Miami Design District called Tailor House where Art + Loom products are featured, and we’re about to be on the floor in the new Stephanie Gottlieb Jewelry showroom in NYC.”

In addition to nationwide locations featuring Samantha’s work, she has a few exciting collaborations in the works.

“One collection we’re excited to launch is Lauren Williams for Art + Loom,” said Gallacher. “We love Lauren’s artwork and had previously purchased it for three IG Workshop projects simultaneously.  Because of this, we started speaking regularly, then one day, I got an email saying she loved our rugs and wanted to talk about possibly collaborating.”

The Texas-based self-taught painter is well known for her Canvas with Movement® tapestries boasting single fiber strands, which she manually dip-dyes to create one-of-a-kind pieces suspended from a walnut plank. Lauren pulled all of her favorite pieces from the past few years and traced them into rugs. The two creatives are now in the sampling process to determine the best way to present the idea of Lauren’s strings in a clean, high-end rug format for Art + Loom. The collection will be ready for purchase this March via Art + Loom and Lauren Williams Home.

Another collaboration Samantha is excited to launch this year is her collection with Sabrina MacLean of Miami-based Hinojosa. Influenced by her spiritual side, Sabrina wanted to create a collection with a deeper meaning. The result is Japanese-inspired rugs with a play on healing crystals and sand gardens.

Art + Loom products are sold directly to customers. Samantha currently works with one showroom in Greenwich, Connecticut, and is looking forward to having her different collections at showrooms across Miami this year.