Superflat, from Tokyo to the world

Takashi Murakami, born in Tokyo in 1962, trained in nihonga, traditional Japanese painting, earning a doctorate in it before turning to contemporary art. In the late 1990s and 2000s, he developed a style he called Superflat: bright, flat colors and crisp outlines that drew on centuries of Japanese art as well as anime, manga and consumer culture, erasing the line between high art and pop. His smiling flowers, with rainbow petals and cheerful cartoon faces, became some of the most recognizable images in contemporary art. His studio, Kaikai Kiki, produces paintings, sculptures and collaborations with fashion houses and musicians, including a famous album cover for Kanye West in 2007 and a long collaboration with a Paris luxury house in the 2000s.

A Takashi Murakami-inspired rug brings that joyful Superflat spirit onto your floor. Ours are printed into short velvet, so flat, saturated color and clean outlines come out crisp, and they go in the washing machine. To be clear from the start: these are independent designs inspired by the style, not official Murakami or Kaikai Kiki works or products, and they don't reproduce his flowers or characters.

Smiling flowers

A field of bright, cartoon-faced flowers, each with a ring of rainbow petals around a happy face, is the image most people picture when they think of the style. Our inspired designs use the same ideas, simple, flat flowers with friendly faces, many colors and a sense of overflowing happiness, drawn in our own way. On a round rug, a single big smiling flower fills the circle; on a rectangle, a dense field of flowers covers the floor with color. Our round rugs come from 2.6 to 5.9 ft (80 to 180 cm) across.

Flat color and crisp outlines

The Superflat style avoids shading and depth. Everything sits on the same flat plane, with bold black outlines and pure, saturated color, the way a woodblock print or an animation cel does. That makes it perfect for printing: a rug in this style looks like a giant screen print on the floor, bright and bold from every angle of the room.

Japanese art roots

Superflat isn't only about pop culture. Its flatness echoes Japanese painting traditions going back centuries, from folding screens with gold-leaf backgrounds to the flat color and strong outlines of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. A rug inspired by that lineage can mix modern cheerfulness with classical Japanese composition, a lovely choice for a room that celebrates Japanese design.

Palettes

Palette	The mood	Pairs with
Full rainbow	Joyful, maximal	White walls, simple furniture
Black and white with one accent	Graphic, gallery-like	Black metal, concrete, minimalism
Pastel	Soft, kawaii	Bedrooms, dorms, nurseries
Gold and bright color	Rich, folding-screen inspired	Dark walls, lacquer, brass

The full rainbow of smiling flowers works best in a room with white walls, where the colors can take the lead.

Museums and palaces

Murakami's work has filled some of the world's most famous spaces. A major retrospective opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2007 and traveled on to the Brooklyn Museum, and in 2010 his bright sculptures were shown inside the Palace of Versailles, a striking clash of Superflat color and gilded French baroque. That mix of the playful and the grand is part of the appeal: a flower rug can feel just as at home in an elegant room as in a teenager's bedroom.

Characters and cuteness

Alongside the flowers, Murakami created cartoon characters in the 1990s that explored cuteness, consumer culture and something darker underneath. That interest in the power of cute connects his work to kawaii culture. For original cute designs, see our cute rugs.

In the living room

In a living room, a Superflat-inspired flower rug under a white or grey sofa and a simple coffee table becomes the room's artwork. Keep the rest of the palette calm, with one or two accent colors pulled from the petals, and let the rug do the talking. A 5×7 ft rug is our largest standard size; custom sizes go up to 5′11″ × 10′. Our living room rugs page has more layouts.

Dorms and small spaces

In a dorm or a small apartment, a single round flower rug, 3.3 or 3.9 ft (100 or 120 cm) across, adds a big dose of color without taking over the floor. Choose Standard there for its grip on hard floors, and wash it at the end of the year before it goes home.

Choosing a size

A round flower rug from 3.3 to 4.6 ft (100 to 140 cm) suits a bedside, a desk area or a reading corner. A dense flower field works best at 4×6 or 5×7 ft, where the pattern has room to repeat. A flower-shaped rug is charming from 2.6×2.6 ft (80×80 cm) beside a bed up to 5.2×5.9 ft (160×180 cm) as a centerpiece.

Colorful bedrooms

A flower rug in this style is one of the happiest things you can put in any bedroom. Keep the walls and bedding simple, white or a single soft color, and let the rug bring all the energy. For a teen's room, add a few art prints and a shelf of figures; for an adult's room, a single rainbow flower round rug beside the bed is enough. For the softest feel underfoot, choose Premium, 7 mm plush velvet on a bamboo and cotton back, about 700 g/m². Our bedroom rugs page has more layouts.

Studios and creative spaces

In an art studio, a design office or a creative workspace, a Superflat-inspired rug brings a burst of color and optimism. Under a desk chair, choose Standard: 5 mm crushed velvet on a non-slip faux leather back, about 500 g/m², which stays put and lets wheels roll freely. A 3.3 to 4.6 ft (100 to 140 cm) round flower rug under the chair is especially cheerful.

Streetwear and collecting

Murakami's collaborations with fashion and music made his flowers a lasting fixture of streetwear culture, and many collectors display his prints, figures and plush alongside sneakers. A flower rug ties a collector's room together. For more, see our hypebeast and streetwear rugs, our KAWS-inspired rugs and our BAPE-inspired rugs.

Kids' rooms and nurseries

Bright, smiling flowers are naturally child-friendly. A pastel flower field suits a nursery; a full-rainbow flower suits a playroom or a child's bedroom. Choose Premium for floor play and tummy time, and Standard's non-slip back once your child is running on a smooth floor. Every rug goes in the washing machine. Our kids and nursery rugs have more ideas.

Pop art company

Murakami is often compared to Andy Warhol, who also blurred the line between art, commerce and mass culture. If you love that crossover, see our Andy Warhol-inspired rugs, pop art rugs and Keith Haring-inspired rugs. For anime and manga, which shaped Superflat, see our anime and manga rugs.

Shaped flower rugs

A rug cut to the outline of a single round flower, petals and all, is one of the most playful rugs we make. Our shaped rugs come in sizes from 2.6×2.6 up to 5.2×5.9 ft (80×80 to 160×180 cm). For more flower shapes and floral styles, see our flower rugs.

Your own design

If you've drawn your own smiling flower or character, our custom rugs can print it in any size up to 5′11″ × 10′, or cut it to shape. Please only send artwork you're allowed to use, which rules out another artist's flowers and characters; your own drawings are all fine. Custom rugs are made just for you and can't be returned.

Standard or Premium

Standard is best under desk chairs, in hallways, playrooms and on hard floors, because its non-slip back stays put. Premium is softer and warmer, best in bedrooms, nurseries and lounges. Both are printed the same way, so colors stay saturated and outlines stay crisp, and both go in the washing machine.

Sizes, shipping and returns

Rectangles come in 2×3, 2.6×3.9, 3.3×5, 4×6 and 5×7 ft. Round rugs come from 2.6 to 5.9 ft (80 to 180 cm) across, and shaped rugs from 2.6×2.6 up to 5.2×5.9 ft (80×80 to 160×180 cm). Custom sizes go up to 5′11″ × 10′. Every rug is printed to order in 1–3 business days and ships from Turkey; US delivery usually takes 2–5 business days after that. Unused rugs can be returned within 30 days on US orders; custom rugs can't be returned.

Gifts

A Superflat-inspired flower rug is a great gift for an art lover, a streetwear collector, a design student or anyone who needs a little more color in their life. A single rainbow flower round rug is the safest choice; a dense flower field is the most joyful.

Care

Machine wash on a gentle, cold cycle and let it air dry flat. Vacuum on a low setting between washes, and blot spills with cold water right away. The design is printed into the fibers, so every petal stays bright and every outline stays crisp, wash after wash.

A note on the artist

Kaikai Kiki, Little Boy and an album cover

Takashi Murakami runs his art like a studio-company. In 2001 he founded Kaikai Kiki, which produces his work, manages other artists and organizes art fairs in Japan, much as Andy Warhol's Factory once did in New York. In 2005 he curated an exhibition in New York, Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, exploring how postwar Japan poured its anxieties into anime, manga and cute characters.

His influence reaches far beyond galleries. In 2007, he designed the cover of Kanye West's album Graduation, with a cartoon bear launched from a colorful, dreamlike city, and he has worked on fashion, sneakers, toys and animated films. The line between fine art and pop culture, for Murakami, barely exists.

A rug inspired by his world doesn't need to copy his famous flowers or characters. Original designs work better: a cheerful field of simple, round flowers in flat, bright color, a candy-colored cityscape in the sky, or a scatter of tiny smiling shapes on a white background. They capture the superflat spirit, bright, playful and a little overwhelming, in a way that suits a kids' room, a studio or a colorful living room.

As with all artist-inspired designs, we create our own compositions in the style rather than reproducing the artist's work, so the rug carries the feeling of superflat without borrowing a single flower.

For collectors of colorful art toys and prints, these designs make a bright, cheerful floor beneath a crowded shelf.

Murakami often fills every inch of a canvas with color, which suits a rug that covers a whole floor.

Padrift is an independent studio. Takashi Murakami is named only to describe the style our designs are inspired by. We are not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Takashi Murakami or Kaikai Kiki, and these rugs are not official Murakami works or products.