If you bought a rug at Wal-Mart or Home Depot in the last three years, there's a good chance it was designed by Tressa Kosowicz, a work-from-home mom from Hopkinton who left New York City's fast-paced world of fashion design eight years ago.

After three years as a product developer for a major rug manufacturer, Kosowicz decided to bring her custom designs to Main Street. She and her father, Gerry Carrier, bought Little River Oriental Rugs on Dec. 28.

The handmade wool and silk rugs, made by weavers in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Turkey, Iran and India, still have many of the tribal designs that the shop has become known for over the years. But modern, contemporary styles are popping up in the traditional inventory, and soon customers will be able to custom-order Kosowicz's own designs.

"They're not going to find it anywhere else," Kosowicz said in her shop on a recent Monday.

The shop was closed, but passers-by kept walking through the unlocked door, squatting to sort through stacks of long Oriental runners and larger room-sized area rugs. Carrier tended to the customers as Kosowicz showed computer print-outs of her new sample designs.

Cornflower blues and deep lavenders, stripes and concentric circles revealed just a sample of her ideas. Kosowicz said she can work with an interior designer or a home owner with just a little bit of inspiration - a piece of fabric, a pillow, a child's artwork. Rugs, she said, are a centerpiece and should be a starting point for designing a room.

"If it doesn't bring a smile to your face when you walk in in the morning, it's time to change the rug," she said.

Kosowicz graduated from Concord High School in 1992 and went to New York City, where she earned degrees in textile business and fine arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She soon turned her eye for fashion trends to rugs.

In 2000 she started designing area rugs for Company C, an upscale home furnishings company in Concord. And three years ago, she took a job designing machine-made Oriental rugs from home for Natco Products Corp., a Rhode Island-based manufacturer that sells to major retail stores across the country.

But working for the past few years as a product developer gave little opportunity to work closely with customers.

"As a designer, you hardly ever get to see what your work does for other people," she said.

The customers at Little River Oriental Rugs offer an immediate reaction and feedback, she said. They also give Kosowicz a chance to help them find their own style, even if they don't know what they want when they come in.

Kosowicz's former co-worker had bought the shop from previous owner David Levine only a few years ago. But when she decided to pursue other opportunities, she started talking to Kosowicz about taking over the business. Gerry Carrier had retired from Verizon after 33 years as an engineer and was working as a consultant. He decided to partner with his daughter on the new venture.

They now work side-by side and are joined several days a week by Kosowicz's 14-month-old daughter, Andess.

"How many dads can say they have the opportunity to work with their daughter and their granddaughter?" Carrier said.

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