Bolon (flooring company)

Bolon was founded by Nils-Erik Eklund in Stockholm 1949. Eklund began to use textile waste to manufacture woven rag rugs from a nearby factory. Later on in the 1960s Nils-Erik's son Lars and his wife Monica took over and continued developing the concept of the rag rug and also began to awn mats for caravans.[5][6]

In 2003 the third generation of the family, the sisters Marie and Annica Eklund, took over the enterprise. With the sisters running the company Bolon repositioned themselves as a global design brand with projects all over the world including Australia, China, Japan, Italy, the UK and the US . Its clients include brands such as Google, Mercedes and Armani.[7][8][9] During the last couple of years Bolon have collaborated with several designers and architects such as Missoni[10] and Jean Nouvel[6][11][12]

In 2011 Bolon won the Elle Decoration International Design Awards for their Botanic collection.[13] Marie and Annica Eklund were awarded with "Näringslivsmedaljen" from The Royal Patriotic Society, Kungliga Patriotiska Sällskapet in 2015.

The company's name is a combination of the first and last letters of the Swedish words for cotton (bomull) and nylon.[2]