The Bovina Collection
From the Field to Your Floors
Known for its fresh mountain air and centuries-old farmhouses, the upstate New York town of Bovina informed NuStory’s Bovina Collection. Created in collaboration with local resident and lifestyle editor Newell Turner, the collection inspires living in close connection with nature. The town is a locus of the New Ruralism, a movement that seeks to bring nature and modernity into balance. Bovina is a growing home for Brooklyn creatives who’ve decamped to the country.
Hand-knotted with a shag effect, our Wild Turkey Feathers Rug is inspired by the birds that roam the Catskills.
The New Ruralism
The Digital Age is driving people to seek balance in an increasingly abstract world. With our heads typically buried in digital devices for so much time, we’re looking for lifestyles grounded by a sense of place. Bovina includes about 45 square miles of fields and forests, with a tiny village center of two and a half streets. In its bucolic Catskills setting, Bovina is a small town with an outsized gravitational pull. “Though Bovina’s main drag is indeed tiny,” reports Escape Brooklyn, “the people here are what make Bovina so special and big. From its resident quirky farmers to A-list musicians—everyone’s got a story.”1
The Wildflower Sampler Rug has the vintage look of an heirloom discovered in a family farmhouse.
Turkey Feathers, Wildflowers and Barn Boards
Tucked among the Catskill mountains near the highland headwaters of the Delaware River, Bovina has a wealth of natural beauty. The collection draws on Turkey Feathers, Wildflowers, Barn Boards, Hay Bales and other aspects of the pastoral landscape. It also references historic American design, with rugs inspired by Coverlets and Camp Chairs, each with a distinctive design that brings together traditional techniques and modern materials.
The Angelica's Garden II Rug brings traditional craft into the current century.
Re-Imagining Traditional Techniques
To create these rugs, we collaborated with weavers in India, applying traditional techniques in new ways. The Kicking Hay Rug is crafted from 100% jute braids stitched by hand onto a canvas surface to create a pattern that feels both classic and contemporary. The Catskills Botanicals II Rug is hand-tufted from cotton and wool in a damask floral pattern that evokes the look and feel of vintage wallpaper. And the Clouds Rug is hand-knotted with wool, cotton and a touch of viscose for soft luster. Each rug is a true collaboration—between designer Newell Turner, our New York studio and the master weavers we work with in India.
Hand-knotted from wool and cotton, each Lover's Knot Coverlet I Rug is unique.
Moments with Meaning
Photographed in a modern farmhouse, the Bovina Collection illustrates how the right rug can tell a story. In a classic wood-and-white kitchen, the Lover’s Knot Coverlet I Runner adds color and pattern while engaging in a dialogue with the home’s hand-hewn materials. The banded flat-woven ends vary slightly, revealing the weaver’s individual way of working on the loom and continuing the home’s story of handcraft. Every pattern contains multitudes of meaning—made richer through the mind of the designer, the hand of the weaver and the context of a thoughtful, carefully crafted home.
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2: A Perfect Fall Weekend in Upstate New York, Lisa Przystup, Vogue, 10.16.2020