So last week

CUSTOMISED T-SHIRTS, MUGS AND MOUSE MATS ARE SO LAST WEEK.
Why not consider instead a rug made to a design or image of your choosing? That's the service on offer from Rug Designer, the first company offering an interactive rug design service worldwide.
Rug Designer is the brainchild of Anthony Hilal who has shed loads of expertise in the area having worked in the family business - which manufactures and supplies yarn to the carpet industry - for several years.

"Because we manage the whole process - that's from sourcing the raw material to making up the rugs - we're able to offer very competitive prices," said Anthony.

With rugs from £79 including delivery, they're fantastically affordable, but it has to be said that the best thing about Made to Measure is the input customers can have in the design of their rug - from the image or motif through to the colours. Let's face it, we all fancy ourselves as a bit of a designer, don't we? And it's great to get the chance to be part of the creative process.

"We can work with swatches of fabric or wallpaper or a photographic image," Anthony explained. "Just as long as the images sent to us are clear and quite specific - with everything in block colours - we can make up a rug in pretty much any design you like."

If you don't want to go to the trouble of designing your own rug they have a selection of ready-designed rugs that are pretty funky too - all the work of in-house designer Harneeta Kooner. Everything from retro patterns to organic or floral motifs, to paint splattered effects and of even a Zebra print.
These designs can be altered according to your whim - if, for example, you want a zebra rug in bright pink and blue instead of black and white. And the great thing is you can play about with your ideas online - on the website - to check how your finished rug will look.

The interactive aspect to the service is pretty unigue and it's great fun to mess about with patterns and colours, while giving you the confidence that the rug you order will work with the colours and configurations you have chosen. Incidentally if you don't find the colours you like they offer a Pantone-matching service too.

Meanwhile, future plans include Rug Designer concessions on select furniture retailers' websites - just like you have concessions in a department store, only these will be online. (Anthony is very interested to hear from anyone who has a suitable site.)

Oh, and all the rugs are 100 percent wool so no scrimping on quality either. Lovely stuff.