In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through how to effectively use our yarn color poms throughout your custom rug creation journey.
From initial concept to final delivery.
Whether you’re a business buyer in hospitality, retail, corporate settings, or a residential client seeking the perfect statement piece, understanding how to work with these color tools will help you achieve consistent, accurate results.
Conceptual Design & Visualization
Your rug journey begins with a design concept, and at this early stage, color selection is paramount.
Our yarn poms allow you to physically explore color options before making any commitments.
The Value of Physical Colors
Unlike digital colors on screens (which can be misleading), what you see in our yarn poms is what you’ll get in the final wool or silk.
This tangible confirmation of color choices is invaluable for making confident decisions.
For Commercial Projects
Hospitality:
We’ll help your interior design team spread out a range of our poms, mixing and matching hues to find combinations that complement your hotel’s lobby furniture or resort’s aesthetic theme.
Corporate Offices:
We can provide poms that match your company’s exact brand Pantone® color for use as an accent line or logo on the rug.
Retail:
We’ll help store designers select poms that align with seasonal merchandise colors or permanent branding elements.
For Residential Projects
We’ll work with you to choose poms that echo your room’s paint, upholstery colors, and other décor elements, ensuring the rug will harmonize with your existing space.
Select From Pom Options Effectively
Assign specific poms to each section of your design: As you work with our design team to sketch or render your pattern, we’ll help you select poms for each element (e.g., one for the flowers, another for the leaves, and another for the background).
View our poms in your intended environment: Take our selected poms to the actual space where the rug will live to see how they interact with your lighting and surrounding elements.
Consider material differences: We’ll explain how the same color might appear slightly different in wool versus silk, or in cut pile versus loop pile.
Create a color story: Our design team will help you group selected poms together to ensure they create a cohesive palette that communicates your design intent.
Translate Physical Poms to Digital Design
Once you’ve chosen your initial colors from our pom collection, we’ll create digital visuals to further conceptualize and communicate your design. Here’s our process for ensuring accuracy:
Professional pom photography
We photograph our poms under neutral, even lighting (natural daylight or calibrated studio lighting)
Our photographers position lights at 45-degree angles to reduce shadows and glare
We use a neutral background with color calibration cards to ensure accuracy
Precision digital rendering:
Our designers open the pom photos in professional design software
We use color sampling tools to capture the exact pom colors
These colors are applied to your rug design shapes
We compare the screen colors to the physical poms to ensure accuracy
We make adjustments as needed until the digital colors match our physical poms
Our digital resources:
We maintain a comprehensive digital pom color library
Our “digital pom box” interface lets you pick exact pom numbers and see them in a virtual design
This ensures the colors in your digital preview correspond to our real yarn colors
Pro Tip:
When we present digital renderings to you and your stakeholders, we always show the actual poms alongside the printouts or screen. This bridges the gap between digital visualization and physical reality, helping you understand what the final colors will truly look like.
Design Confirmation & Communication Process
Clear, precise communication between you and our rug design team is essential for translating your vision into reality. Our yarn color poms serve as the common language of color throughout the process.
Document Your Design and Color Choices
When you work with us, we provide:
Detailed design documentation: We create digital artwork files and detailed production specifications based on your selections.
Comprehensive color information:
- We list each color used and its corresponding pom number/code from our inventory
- All physical poms you’ve selected are kept as reference samples
- We include notes on color placement with color legends for complex patterns
- We maintain our pom inventory in ideal storage conditions to preserve color accuracy
Clear expectations: We commit to matching colors exactly to the poms you’ve selected. Our studio uses industry-standard universal color pom systems (including the ARS 1200-color wool pom set) to ensure consistency and quality.
Key Questions We’ll Address
Which of our standard pom sets would work best for your project?
Do you need custom colors beyond our standard range?
Will you need consistency across multiple pieces or future orders?
Would you like to keep a reference set of your selected poms?
Ensure Consistency Across Projects
For large commercial projects where consistency is critical (like a retail chain ordering rugs for multiple locations), we:
- Maintain the same pom references for every order in your project
- Record dye formulas specifically for your colors
- Keep detailed records of custom dye formulas keyed to pom numbers and client names
- Provide you with a master set of reference poms if desired
Industry Example
For a corporate office project featuring rugs with company logo colors, we selected poms from our collection that matched their official brand colors.
We recorded the pom codes in our document.
Through careful documentation and sample production, we confirmed we could achieve the exact brand colors, resulting in rugs that perfectly reflected the company’s identity across multiple locations.
Sampling & Color Matching Process
Before full production begins, we create a sample—often called a “strike-off.”
This smaller piece of your rug, made with the exact materials, colors, and techniques planned for the final piece, serves as the ultimate test for your design and color choices.
Why Our Strike-Offs Are Essential:
Material differences: We demonstrate how the same dye color can look different on wool vs. silk, or on cut pile vs. loop pile. A silver-gray pom in wool might appear shinier and lighter if rendered in silk yarn.
Adjacent colors: We show how colors influence each other. A beige next to a bright red might take on a subtle tint from the red. The sample reveals these interactions.
Pattern scale: Our strike-off confirms that the chosen section of design at actual scale looks good and that the colors distribute as intended.
Review the Strike-Off We Send You
Compare to Our Poms
Hold the original yarn poms we provided against the corresponding areas of the sample under neutral lighting. They should be extremely close if not identical. Minor variation can occur due to dye lot or material, but it should be within an acceptable range.
Check Color Placement and Pattern
Ensure each color is where it’s supposed to be according to the design. Evaluate if the proportions of colors are pleasing as expected.
Check in Different Lighting
View the sample under various lighting conditions, especially in the environment where the rug will be installed. This checks for metamerism—where colors match under one light but not another.
Provide Clear Feedback
If everything looks perfect, give us approval to proceed. If not, specify what changes you’d like. In some cases, we’ll create a second strike-off after making adjustments.
Commercial Application
For a luxury hotel ordering a custom lobby rug, we typically provide a strike-off that includes key motifs and colors. We encourage the design committee to place that sample on the actual lobby floor to confirm the color balance in the real setting and compare our yarn poms to the sample in the lobby lighting before approving the full order.
Residential Example
For a homeowner’s custom rug, our sampling process might add 4-8 weeks to the timeline but is “a very important step to ensure you get exactly what you want.” The strike-off allows you to see and feel a tangible piece of your future rug, building confidence in the final product.
Our Response to Feedback
If you find a color in your strike-off doesn’t match the pom, we’ll adjust the dye formula accordingly. For example, if you tell us “the blue appears a shade dark; can you lighten it slightly to better match the pom?” we’ll create a new yarn sample or strike-off to confirm the adjustment before proceeding.
Production & Quality Control Using Poms
With your approved design and color palette (confirmed by our poms and sample), we move your project into full-scale production. At this stage, our yarn color poms become a guiding reference to ensure your rug is tufted or woven with the correct colors throughout.
Use Poms During Production
Dyeing and yarn preparation
Our dye masters use the approved poms as the target for the dye formula, often doing lab dips (small test dye batches) and comparing them to the pom in a controlled light box before committing to a large batch.
Setting up the loom or tufting frame
Our production team prepares yarns in each color, often winding them onto cones or spools and labeling them by color number. Poms serve as a quick visual guide, sometimes pinned to the design blueprint or work order.
Weaving/Tufting with reference
Our artisans create your rug following a color map or chart that shows each color yarn against its pom or code. This ensures they choose the right yarn for each section of your design.
Quality checks during production
Our supervisors periodically compare the yarn being used back to the master poms to ensure consistency, especially for large rugs or multiple pieces that might involve several dye batches.
Our Final Quality Control and Inspection
After your rug is produced, we conduct thorough quality control checks:
- Compare the rug colors to the master poms under standardized lighting. Each color must match the pom or be within a very narrow tolerance.
- Use fresh reference poms: We understand that poms can age or fade if not stored properly. We always use poms that have been kept in darkness or covered for quality control.
- Side-by-side comparison: Our QC team places the pom directly on the rug surface next to an area of the same color, examining from a normal viewing distance and up close.
- Check against the strike-off: We compare the full rug to the approved sample piece to ensure consistency.
- Document with photos: We take images of the pom vs. rug for documentation and can share these with you upon request.
Our Commitment When Colors Don’t Match
In the rare case of a color mismatch:
- We assess the significance: Minor variations (within 2%) might be acceptable due to the nature of handcrafting. For major discrepancies, we take immediate action.
- We check under different lighting: Sometimes what appears as a color mismatch is actually an effect of lighting. We view the rug in neutral light alongside the pom.
- We offer solutions: For substantial mismatches, we discuss options: re-tufting sections (for hand-tufted rugs), re-weaving, or other remedies to ensure your satisfaction.
- We use the approved strike-off as our standard: The strike-off serves as proof of what was agreed upon and what the final product should look like.
- We consider the overall impact: We assess whether any slight color difference detracts from the design as a whole, always aiming to achieve the intended look.
Installation, Delivery & Long-Term Considerations
The final stage is delivering your rug and ensuring it looks as envisioned in its permanent home.
Our Final Inspection Process
Pre-delivery inspection: We thoroughly inspect your rug at our workshop before shipping, using our pom kit one final time to confirm colors.
Installation guidance: We provide advice on how to check your rug in your actual space and lighting conditions.
Follow-up support: We’re available to address any questions or concerns after installation.
Long-Term Value of Pom Documentation
We archive for future use: We save your pom selections and color information in our system, which can help with:
- Future maintenance or replacement (if a section gets damaged)
- Ordering additional matching rugs
- Creating complementary pieces for other areas
Documentation for you: We can provide records of pom codes, design specifications, and all relevant information for your files. Some of our commercial clients attach this information to facility management documents.
Industry-Specific Applications
Hospitality Projects
Hotels & Resorts: Our custom rugs reinforce your brand identity and local design themes. We help luxury properties match carpets precisely to their design scheme.
Our Design Approach: We help you select poms that complement your property’s architecture and create the desired atmosphere (calm and relaxing for spa areas, energetic for public spaces).
Practical Solutions: We factor in heavy foot traffic, frequent cleaning, and the need for a consistent look across multiple areas.
Retail Environment Solutions
Branded Spaces: From high-end boutiques to department stores, our custom rugs guide customers and create atmosphere.
Seasonal Flexibility: We work with fashion boutiques to change decor seasonally, with custom tufted rugs incorporating the season’s signature colors.
Consistency Across Locations: We ensure consistent color matching to brand guidelines across all stores for mass retail or franchise operations.
Corporate Office Interior Expertise
Brand Identity: We help you incorporate company logos or color schemes subtly into floor coverings.
Functional Zoning: We use different colored rugs to delineate spaces (meeting areas, collaborative zones, quiet work spaces).
Future-Proofing: We archive your pom information so future expansions can maintain consistent design elements.
Residential Project Approach
Personal Expression: We offer homeowners truly unique pieces that perfectly complement their décor.
Problem-Solving: Our custom sizing and shapes address unusual room configurations or specific design challenges.
Investment Value: We create properly executed custom rugs that become lasting investment pieces that elevate your entire space.
The Value of Getting Color Right
The journey that starts with selecting from our yarn color poms ends with a fully realized rug that delights those who see and use it. By following our process diligently, we significantly increase the likelihood of a successful outcome for your project.
Remember that color is often the most immediate and emotional element of design. When your rug’s colors are exactly as you envisioned—complementing your space, supporting your brand, or expressing your personal style—the impact is powerful and lasting.
Whether you’re outfitting a grand hotel lobby, creating a branded retail environment, designing an executive office, or adding the perfect statement piece to your home, our careful use of yarn color poms throughout the process will ensure your custom rug exceeds expectations and serves its purpose beautifully for years to come.
