Clara Bona

Alberto Levi Gallery on the occasion of Design Week 2023 presents three collections of rugs made in collaboration with Clara Bona, an architect and interior designer who for the first time tries her hand at designing the rug, an element she has always considered fundamental to creating a complete, unique and special home.

"I think that an interior project, especially of the living area, should start precisely from the choice of the rug," Clara explains. "The right rug in fact strongly characterizes the style of the room, creates a warm and lived-in atmosphere and above all helps to delimit the space and define the functions: in fact, the conversation area of a living room without a rug always looks bare and unfinished."

Thus, the rug takes on the same importance as a painting, a work of contemporary art or a piece of designer furniture. Instead, it often happens that its choice comes as the last step, when everything has already been defined: colors, furniture, lights. And there are still many who think of the carpet with a traditional, old and outdated image, which brings them back to dusty memories: nothing could be more wrong.

Starting from these considerations, Clara Bona has designed two indoor collections designed precisely to make the rug the protagonist of the interior design, in a fresh and contemporary way, suitable even for those who have never considered the rug as the fulcrum of home furnishings.

Relazioni and Percorsi are two different but complementary lines, which can also coexist in the same space, but which represent two interpretations of Clara's style, which is never a rigid and univocal style, but is always open to new inspirations and contaminations. And they are complemented by an outdoor line (Orizzonti) designed to furnish outdoor spaces with the same attention as for interiors: gardens and terraces in recent years have really become more and more important, and today they must be designed in a new way.


Relazioni starts with the use of geometric shapes combined with a palette of full and intense colors, combined in such a way as to create harmonious but unusual and never obvious compositions. The design arises from a grid in which shapes and color fields take shape by intersecting with each other and creating a perfectly balanced play of solids and voids.

They are designed for a home with eclectic furnishings, in which one is not afraid to introduce color even in a bold way. Lived and personal homes with an international soul, in which contemporary and vintage design pieces, antique furniture or from faraway countries, designer and handcrafted lamps coexist: thanks to their compositional balance, these rugs can be integrated into very different contexts, just as if they had always been there. 

But they are also ideal in more neutral interiors, with clear walls and a few very selected pieces of furniture: in these cases, thanks to their very strong visual impact, they can become the real protagonists of the space, resolving that feeling of emptiness typical of these homes. Knotted entirely by hand in Nepal with hand-spun Himalayan wools, hand-dyed in a range of eleven colors that Clara offers in various combinations.


Percorsi plays on the materiality of the wool, chosen in a single color, white, and crossed with dark lines that are glimpsed in an interplay of raised surfaces. They have been designed with those who prefer a minimal, single-color style in mind, but without sacrificing a warm home with great personality. Thanks precisely to the graphic path that runs through them, they have a pattern that makes them unique and unmistakable. These rugs are able to give the room a soft, comfortable, cosy feeling. And that is why they are perfect not only in city homes, but also in vacation homes, thanks precisely to this natural yet contemporary mood. Knotted entirely by hand in India with an erased technique using fine hand-spun New Zealand wools.


Orizzonti is a new line of outdoor rugs: a collection characterized by a light and neutral color palette in which it is texture that enlivens the surface and becomes decoration. They are practical and very easy to clean, and can also be used indoors. But they become a really valuable aid when you want to decorate an outdoor space with the intention of making it an extension and extension of your home. 

The colors and surfaces are soft but very distinctive: they can transform and warm up a porch, a terrace, a courtyard. In fact, outdoor flooring is often practical but cold and unwelcoming: all it takes is one of these rugs to transform the space and make it warm and personal. Woven with a shuttle weave technique in Dacron, which is a resin ideal for its qualities of durability in both indoor and outdoor situations, as it is also easily washable. Carpets from all three collections can be run