Shirley Shivhon, an interior designer in Los Angeles, was working on a house in Maui in 2008 and planned a home office with a red chinoiserie desk and a rug decorated with cherry blossoms. But in designing the rug, she rejected the look of traditional Chinese paintings.

"They're typically very busy looking, a layering of the flowers, the leaves and the branches, and not a lot of negative space," she said. "The colors are bright Chinese red, and awful greens, almost like jewel tones -- way too bright."

So she designed Cherry Blossom, a rug with the airy, light look of spring.

The rug comes in four color schemes, including Sky, left, with red-pink blossoms on a pale turquoise background. It is 70 percent wool and 30 percent silk, sells for $80 a square foot and is available in custom sizes. Information: (310) 463-0007 or shivhon.com.

First Published: February 17, 2011, 5:00 a.m.