Bolon | Swedish Woven Vinyl Flooring

Background

Bolon started in 1949 with a genuinely unusual idea for its time: weaving flooring out of waste material. Three generations later, from its base in Ulricehamn, the company is run by sisters Marie and Annica Eklund, who took over from their father after growing up around the family loom room. Marie began by designing a rug collection in the early 1990s, at a point when Bolon still made rugs only and employed just nine people, and went on to become Creative Director; Annica worked her way through the factory floor, warehouse and administration before taking over as CEO in 2003. Today Bolon’s flooring and rugs are made with 68% recycled material and climate-neutral production — the same instinct that started the company, formalised into policy.

Design philosophy

Bolon’s stated aim is to give flooring the design status usually reserved for furniture and fashion, working with international designers, architects and fashion labels rather than treating flooring as a purely technical category. The company describes its own drive as thrilling the world with brave innovation for a sustainable design experience — an ambition that shows up as much in its willingness to keep challenging traditional boundaries as in the sustainability figures themselves.

Key collaborations

The most prominent name in Bolon’s collection is Bolon By Patricia Urquiola, a full designer collection launched in 2021. Luca Nichetto collaborated with the brand on Exodus, an installation at Milan Design Week 2025, and Monica Förster and Färg & Blanche have both featured in Bolon’s ongoing Collaborative Conversations series exploring new applications for woven flooring.

Recent work

2026 has brought a collaboration with Martino Gamper at Milan Design Week, following 2025’s Woven Connections exhibition with artist Katarina Löfström and the tile-only Riff collection, designed for repair, reuse and recycling.