BRINGING BEAUTIFUL RUGS & TEXTILES TO DENVER SINCE 1976

BY SHALEEN DESTEFANO

Through a shared love of travel, and a mutual respect for local tribal art, Shaver-Ramsey was born from Paul Ramsey and Carolyn Shaver. Denver has benefited from their exquisite taste since 1976. We recently talked with Co-Owner, Elizabeth Vehko to learn more about this iconic, local boutique and how it has grown from their original showroom, to their now expansive space in Cherry Creek. More than simply a rug store, they have lent their voice and expertise to museums and universities around the country in an effort to promote the art of rugs, and related textiles. Some of their collections have even been featured in the Smithsonian Institution, the Textile Museum, and the Denver Art Museum. 

Shaver-Ramsey came to fruition in 1976. Can you tell us a bit about Paul Ramsey and Carolyn Shaver’s origin story? 

As a result of a rather spontaneous trip to Afghanistan and the Middle East in 1975, Carolyn Shaver and Paul Ramsey began buying and selling textiles, carpets and other handicrafts in Denver. The 1970’s were an ideal time to travel in this part of the world and traveling to the countries of Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan was safe and easy. Previously  Carolyn had experience traveling and importing handicrafts such as clothing textiles and jewelry from South America. But now Asia opened up a colorful and even more vast world of business. A year later they opened Shaver-Ramsey, an import shop in Cherry Creek, with goods ranging from antique furniture and jewelry with a heavy emphasis on rugs and textiles. Over nearly five decades the business expanded and more and more rugs became the dominant part of their enterprise.

It is clear that each piece in your collection has been handcrafted with love and you have a real appreciation for the education behind rug making. Can you tell us a bit about the makers of your rugs?

All of our rugs are handmade.   Making a hand woven rug is quite a complex process.  There are many steps in the process aside from the knotting.  It starts with shearing the sheep, carding the wool, hand-spinning the wool, washing the wool, dyeing the wool, knotting the carpet.  Once the carpet is woven, then it gets finished, by clipping, shearing, and washing it many times.  Many of our room size rugs would have about three weavers and take from nine months to a year from start to finish to make.  

The makers of our rugs are from many different rug-weaving countries mainly, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Iran and Pakistan.  We tend to specialize in one-of-a-kind rugs that are hand-woven in villages.  We also have many antique and collectible carpets as part of our collection, some dating to the early 18th century.  

We love your involvement with the community. What can you share about your events, exhibitions and films?

We have always viewed Shaver-Ramsey as a place for community to gather.  For example, we hosted Cherry Creek Theatre in our prior Cherry Creek North location for ten years.  We loved the idea of bringing live theatre to Cherry Creek North.  We would clear out one of our whole galleries for an entire month for weekend performance three times a year.  Cherry Creek Theatre approached many venues prior to us that wanted to charge them upwards of several hundred thousand dollars to rent their space and we gave them our showroom to use for free!  

Other events we host at our showroom are an annual four week rug class and foreign films.  Neighborhood groups and other non-profits host countless events throughout the year as well in our showroom.  

From a designer’s perspective, what inspires your team? 

We are inspired by antique and collectible rugs that inspire designs woven today.  Fabrics and color drive a lot of our inspiration for hand selecting every rug we have in our store.  While we have many neutral rugs, we absolutely love color. 

Your rugs are beautiful statement pieces that add character to any room. Can you tell us about a favorite place or home that you’ve had the opportunity to style? 

One favorite place that we featured our rugs, was at The Denver Art Museum when we paired rugs for the floor with the paintings of the “Matisse and Friends: Selected Masterworks from the National Gallery of Art” exhibition.  Another favorite event that we styled was on the northern California Coast at a wedding.  We used fifty contemporary flatweaves to decorate the wedding.  We have designed rugs for hotels from Curacao to vineyards in Napa.  Those are fun projects to be involved with and make site visits to!  

The Denver design community is one that from an outsider’s perspective, seems wide-ranging and supportive. What does your process look like when it comes to working with interior designers, or individuals?

Our process for working with designers or private clients, is to listen and educate.  There are so many rugs in the marketplace today that are poorly made, with bad wool and dyes.  So, it is important to steer clients towards rugs that can last for decades if not a lifetime.  A rug with good wool and dyes will be durable and cleanable. When designing a space, it is easiest to start with the rug and then select paint, furniture and fabrics.  Buying rugs is like buying art.  Once you buy your rugs and paintings then there are so many paint colors and fabrics to choose from.  We encourage clients to buy something they love.  Good rugs are investment pieces.  

As long time Denverites, you’ve seen the city change over the decades. What do you love most about Denver?

I love Denver’s neighborhoods, the sunshine and the vibe.  Having grown up on the East Coast, I enjoy the pace here.  Our store has been in and around Cherry Creek North for close to fifty years.  We love the community and even though it has grown and changed, we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.  

What can we expect from you in the future?

Bringing the most gorgeous, unique, high-quality, hand-made rugs from around the world to Denver for a long time to come.  We hope to continue to educate people, curate shows for museums with textiles and rugs and lead classes on design and rugs. You can expect that we will continue to open our doors for our neighborhood and broader community to host events that are meaningful to improving Denver in small and big ways. 

We appreciate you sharing your story with us, Liz. To learn more visit Shaver-Ramsey at 589 Fillmore Street or online at shaver-ramsey.com.