There are myriad tricks for alleviating stress and anxiety, whether it's low-tech tactics like aromatherapy, or digital interventions like iPhone apps inspired by Tai Chi. Designer Charlotte Jonckheer went the haptic route and wove a plush rug that eases tension by walking barefoot across it.
The name of the design, Pas Perdus, is derived from a French term that describes the nervous back-and-forth pacing that occurs in courthouses as the accused wait to hear their fate. (Or Woody Allen's trademark move in all of his films.) Keeping the body in motion is a common strategy to distract the mind and Jonckheer's rug offers a platform to do so, but she adds a little twist: using horsehair, wool, cotton, and chenille to create different textures to yield unexpected sensations underfoot.
Some of the piles are high, like a '70s shag carpet, while others are shorter and more dense, like a freshly mowed lawn. While the horsehair tufts are coarse, the chenille sections feel like more like velvet. Jonckheer, whose work centers around the way people interact with their environments, dyed everything black to make the textural shifts less perceptible to the eye. "Pas Perdus invites you to feel what is more difficult to see," she writes on her site.
So while the rug probably won't replace a Xanax prescription, it's an unconventional way to think about the potential bonus functionalities of home furnishings.