Commissioned by the secretary of London’s prestigious gentleman’s club The Reform Club to help him realise designs for a new carpet to replace the tired worn one currently residing in the newly restored library, I headed up to the club to get a proper sense of this historic building.

We had already talked about somehow reflecting the magnificent ceiling design on the carpet, but whilst visiting the library we lifted the old carpet to reveal something unexpected, the pattern produced by floorboards within both the doorways and window bays and an unusual pattern of tessellated boards running around the outside of the whole room. These them formed the basis of the underlying pattern of the carpet. So not only does the carpet mirror the design of the ceiling, it also acts as a window to what lies underneath.

The final piece of the puzzle was to add the club’s initials to the strip of carpet seen as soon as you enter through either of the doorways.

After a period of fund-raising the carpet was finally produced by the makers of the Royal palace carpets, Axminster carpets, and installed in September 2015.

Photos courtesy of Anthony Bianco