An airport walkway, a 16th-century masterpiece, Hollywood’s red carpet, a floor people photograph their feet on, and a carpet made of flowers. Here’s what makes each one famous.
You might think the carpet in your place of business is purely a practical decision. Usually it is. But the right carpet can also make a space memorable, and a few carpets have become so tied to their place that they’re part of its identity. Here are five of the most famous carpets in the world, and what each one shows about the power of a floor.
Sacramento’s airport carpet turns a walkway into a view of the Sacramento River, and the Ardabil Carpet is a 16th-century Persian masterpiece in London. The Oscars made the red carpet a global symbol, Portland’s airport carpet was loved enough to come back, and Brussels builds a carpet of flowers every two years. The lesson for any business: a distinctive floor can become part of your brand.
Sacramento’s airport turns a simple walk into a view from the air. Artist Seyed Alavi created Flying Carpet, a carpet 150 feet long and 18.5 feet wide on the pedestrian bridge that connects the terminal to the parking garage. Its design is an aerial view of about 50 miles of the Sacramento River, so travelers walk the length of the valley as if they were flying over it.
The piece is made of wool and nylon, and it works as a welcome mat for everyone arriving in Sacramento. It’s also a good reminder that carpet can be public art and still handle constant foot traffic.
The Ardabil Carpet is often called the most famous carpet in the world. It was made in Iran and is dated 1539 to 1540, during the reign of Shah Tahmasp, and it’s one of a pair. It has a silk foundation and a wool pile in ten colors, with about 340 knots per square inch, and the one in London measures roughly 34 feet long by 17.5 feet wide.
Both carpets were badly worn by the time they reached England in the 19th century, and parts of one were used to restore the other. London’s Victoria and Albert Museum bought the restored carpet in 1893, with William Morris among its supporters. The smaller of the pair is now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
To protect its colors, the V&A displays its carpet flat in a glass case and lights it for only ten minutes on the hour and half-hour.
Is there a more recognizable carpet than the one at the Academy Awards? The red carpet has become shorthand for Hollywood glamour, and walking it is a career milestone.
The idea of a red carpet as an honor goes back a long way. In Aeschylus’s play Agamemnon, from around 458 BC, the returning king is welcomed home on a path of red cloth. In 1902, the New York Central Railroad rolled out red carpets for passengers on its 20th Century Limited, which gave us the phrase “the red carpet treatment.” Hollywood picked up the idea in 1922, when Sid Grauman used one for the premiere of Robin Hood at his Egyptian Theatre.
The Oscars didn’t add a red carpet until the 33rd Academy Awards in 1961, and viewers first saw it in color with the 1966 broadcast. ABC News has described it as filament nylon pile carpet, roughly 900 feet long. In 2023 the Academy tried a champagne-colored carpet, its first non-red carpet since 1961, and in 2024 the red carpet was back.
If you land at PDX and see people photographing their own feet, you’ve found the carpet. Portland International Airport’s teal carpet, with its small geometric pattern, became an icon for travelers coming home.
Portland architecture firm SRG Partnership designed the pattern in the late 1980s, based on the airport’s runway layout as air traffic controllers see it from the tower at night. After nearly 30 years of wear, the airport replaced it in 2015, and fans turned the old design into socks, T-shirts, and more. The #pdxcarpet hashtag has collected more than 20,000 photos.
The story has a second act. When the renovated main terminal opened in 2024, the original design came back in lower-traffic seating areas of the ticket hall and mezzanine and in Concourse E, while the busiest walkways got terrazzo and wood. It’s a lesson any commercial buyer can use: put the signature look where people linger, and match the flooring to the traffic everywhere else.
Every two years in August, the Grand-Place in Brussels is covered with a carpet made of flowers. The tradition dates to 1971, and each edition has its own theme.
Begonias were the traditional flower, and recent editions have used dahlias. The 2026 carpet, on display August 13 to 16, reimagined Hokusai’s woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa in more than 500,000 dahlias to mark 160 years of diplomatic relations between Belgium and Japan. According to the City of Brussels, it measured 70 by 24 meters (about 230 by 79 feet), and about 120 volunteers laid it in under four hours. A few days later, it was gone.
None of these carpets is famous because it was the least expensive option. Each one gives its place a look people remember, and your lobby, restaurant, or entertainment venue doesn’t need a museum piece to do the same.
Choose a carpet that reflects the image you want to project, then build it to last. For more on picking a look that performs, see our commercial carpet color and pattern guide.
Order free samples of novelty and patterned styles with free shipping and no obligation, or call 706-526-4800 to talk about a custom look. Competitive Commercial Carpet sells first-quality commercial carpet at up to 80% off retail, shipped nationwide from Dalton, Georgia.
The Ardabil Carpet, a Persian carpet dated 1539 to 1540 and displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is often called the most famous carpet in the world. The Oscars red carpet may be the most widely recognized.
Its teal geometric pattern, based on the airport’s runway layout, became a symbol of coming home to Portland. When it was replaced in 2015, fans shared photos under #pdxcarpet and bought merchandise with the design, and the original pattern returned to parts of the renovated main terminal in 2024.
At the 33rd Academy Awards in 1961. The ceremony was first broadcast in color in 1966, which is when TV viewers first saw the carpet as red.
Every two years, in August, on the Grand-Place. The 2026 edition used more than 500,000 dahlias to recreate Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
It’s Flying Carpet by artist Seyed Alavi, a 150-foot wool and nylon carpet on a pedestrian bridge that shows an aerial view of about 50 miles of the Sacramento River.
Yes. Novelty patterns give entertainment and hospitality spaces a distinctive look, and custom commercial carpet can carry your own colors and patterns on larger projects.
Mill-direct commercial flooring wholesaler in Dalton, GA, the carpet capital of America. First-quality goods at up to 80% off retail, with free samples shipped nationwide. Serving the commercial trade since 2004.
