Nani Marquina & Marcos Catalán Furniture

Founded by designer and entrepreneur Nani Marquina, a pioneering Barcelona-based contemporary rug company called nanimarquina continues to explore combinations of the old and the new in its designs — an attribute that sets the brand apart as a leader in the textiles industry. As Nani also enjoys collaborations with designers, a partnership with Marcos Catalán yielded a versatile range of poufs upholstered with kilims. 

Modern style meets traditional craftsmanship in the graphic and richly colorful rugs that populate nanimarquina’s showrooms. A family-run business, nanimarquina creates timeless, long-lasting rugs and carpets that bring alluring textures and pops of color into contemporary spaces while paying homage to the ancient traditions associated with carpet-making. 

Nani Marquina studied industrial design at the Escola Massana before pursuing a career in interior design. She soon discovered that the market for furnishings didn’t exactly offer a wealth of modernist rugs to complement contemporary interiors, so Nani began designing her own textiles and founded her eponymous brand In 1987.

Bringing in leading Spanish designers including Pere “Peret” Torrent, Sybilla and Javier Mariscal, nanimarquina quickly became a leader in textile design, garnering praise in Europe as well as the United States.

Marquina traveled to India, Nepal and Pakistan to learn about their rug-making traditions. Inspired by the hard work and skill demonstrated by traditional weavers — and moved by how fundamental rug-making is to the cultural history of these parts of the world — Marquina decided to move the company in a new direction. In 1994, nanimarquina relocated its production facilities to India to work with the region’s talented artisans (today, the manufacturer produces rugs in Nepal, Pakistan and India). 

Maria Piera Marquina, Nani’s daughter, now heads the company as CEO, helping nanimarquina continue to expand into the international market and maintain its prominent position as a purveyor of fine textiles worldwide. The founder collaborated with designer and Canary Islands native Elisa Padrón on the company’s award-winning Tres collection, while a series of poufs was the fruit of her partnership with architect and designer Marcos Catalán.

Nanimarquina’s Kilim Poufs collection sees the brand’s legendary expertise with textiles translated to the design of three-dimensional home accessories. Poufs, which appeared in France during the 1840s, are of the low-platform seating variety, and these flexible furnishings have been made available in all manner of shapes and sizes over time.

Catalán’s cylindrical designs for the nanimarquina collection are upholstered with colorful kilims, one of the most distinguishable types of rugs. The term “kilim” is Turkish in origin, but many variations of this type of textile share a common heritage and are practiced all across the Balkans, throughout the Arab world and elsewhere. There are Persian kilim rugs, kilim rugs from Central Asia and more.  

Nanimarquina is as dedicated to the communities that are home to the brand’s facilities as it is to producing quality textiles. In collaborating with the Care & Fair association, nanimarquina founded the Kala project, which directs a portion of their earnings to ensure education for their workers and their families. Nanimarquina also uses recycled materials such as bicycle tires in some of their designs and has incorporated the use of biodegradable, eco-friendly materials in the rug-making process. 

Nanimarquina’s dazzling designs have earned the company many accolades and international recognition. Their designs have received the Red Dot Award and the IWEC award, among others. Authentic Nanimarquina textiles have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Salone del Mobile and at the Council of Human Rights at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva. Nanimarquina’s carpets are available through the company’s hundreds of distributors worldwide, and the brand has partnered with the likes of Fendi, Harrods and Rolls Royce.

Find Nani Marquina and Marcos Catalán seating and other furniture on 1stDibs.