Blake Colburn is the Associate Creative Director at Jaipur Living, the U.S. branch of Jaipur Rug Company, which was founded in 1978 in Jaipur, India, by N.K. Chaudhary. Originally working beside nine artisans on two looms, Chaudhary has grown the company to be one of India’s largest manufacturers of hand-knotted rugs and is often referred to as the “Gandhi of the carpet industry.” 

Colburn’s first campaign with Jaipur Living, located at LaTarantella at Grassini Family Vineyards in Santa Ynez, CA.

The company’s American headquarters are based just outside Atlanta, Georgia, where Colburn is currently living. Quite a comeup for a kid from Checotah, Oklahoma (the same hometown as Carrie Underwood), who in his own words “grew up in a small town of about 5,000 people, farming and baling hay, and didn’t have any expectation of going to college.” 

After studying biochemistry at Oklahoma State University, Colburn was working in the Lowe’s paint department in Oklahoma City when Brandon Smith at Dwelling Table asked if he would be interested in styling a photoshoot; it evolved from there. “I’ve loved rugs my entire life, and was selling antique rugs myself through college. I always just enjoyed interior design, then I got into prop styling, and had studied the rug industry for so long that I was familiar with the right people to connect with, and was just recruited to be here, honestly.

“I had the opportunity to go to an art gallery in Texas, and Lacey Land, the creative director for Loloi, was based in Dallas. I had followed her through her entire career journey, and so I invited her there, just because I wanted to meet her and I was graduating college. I had applied for dental schools, but I just wanted a break and didn’t want to continue school yet. So I met her, and it was just a domino effect of her just getting this huge opportunity to move to Atlanta and lead this new creative team. And even though we’d just met, she was like, ‘I know nothing really about you, but I just had this feeling, and I know you’re supposed to be on my team.’” Her instinct has paid off quite well.

“My passion has always been in making good design mass consumable — like a Zara home. I want good design to be available to everybody, because growing up, I could never afford any of that,” Colburn says. “But the taste levels are there, and so you want to make it at a price point that's consumable for everyone.” 

Follow his work at @blakecolb and @jaipurliving, and his company online at garmon.co. 

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