Runners, everywhere

A runner rug is a long, narrow rug, usually two to three feet wide, 60 to 90 cm, made for a passage or a working line: a hallway first, then the floor along a kitchen island, the side of a bed, a wardrobe passage, an entry. Good hallway runner ideas all start from one rule: leave visible floor on both long sides, so the passage still reads as a passage.

The hallway

A hallway runner should be narrower than the hallway and shorter than it, by a margin you can see: floor on both long sides and floor at both ends. Width is the decision people get wrong, and it is the one that cannot be fixed with furniture. Four checks, in this order:

1. Width. Measure wall to wall, then subtract a hand's width of floor on each side. What is left is your maximum width, not your target. If the wool reaches the skirting, the hallway looks narrower than it is.
2. Length. Stop short of the ends and of the doors. Leave floor at the far wall and at the threshold, and end the runner before a door that swings across the hallway rather than letting the door drag over it.
3. Pile. Short pile, 0.4 in / 1 cm, is what we recommend for a hallway: doors clear it, a suitcase rolls over it, and a hallway takes more footsteps than any other floor in the house.
4. Placement. Center the runner between the walls, not between the doors. A console or a bench stands fully on the wool or fully off it, never with two legs on. Where the hallway turns a corner, lay one runner per straight run with floor showing at the turn, rather than one runner bent round it.

The exact widths and lengths for each hallway size are worked out in hallway and kitchen sizes in the size guide, so measure once and read the chip that fits.

One thing that only shows at the loom: on a narrow field the finished edge is a much larger share of what you see. Our weavers close both long edges by hand, and on a runner those edges sit exactly where a foot lands, so the edge work is read at close range every day. On a large rectangle that same edge spends its life under a sofa.

In the kitchen

Lay the runner parallel to the island or the counter run, not across it, with a hand's width of floor to the cabinet feet. Short pile (0.4 in / 1 cm), so stools slide back without dragging wool and crumbs vacuum out. Wool earns its place here: it releases most spills when they are blotted quickly, and the method for that is in spills on wool.

Tadelakt is named for polished lime plaster, and it does the plaster thing: one unbroken ivory tone the length of the run, no pattern to interrupt and nothing to line up with the cabinetry. Ivory shifts from chalky by day to honeyed under lamp light. That is the quiet field of Dune at runner width.

Beside the bed

One runner along the side you actually use, ending level with the headboard, replaces the pair of small mats that never stay square. The whole side of the bed gets wool, so the first step of the morning lands on it. Medium (0.8 in / 2 cm) or shag (1.2 in / 3 cm) pile here, because nothing rolls across it and depth is the point.

Siroua is named for the massif between the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas, and one black outline of a small mountain range sits centered just above the middle of an otherwise open ivory field. So much ivory stays open around it that the line reads sparse rather than busy, which is what you want beside a bed, seen mostly from above and half-covered.

The wardrobe line

A dressing area is a place to stand, and standing is where a hard floor is felt most. A runner down the length of the wardrobe gives you a line to stand on while the doors open over bare floor. Short pile under a door swing, every time. If the doors slide rather than swing, the width can go to the full three feet, 90 cm.

At the entry

An entry is where a mat is usually too small and a rectangle is usually too much. A runner set back from the swing of the front door takes the whole arrival: coats, boots, the pause before the rest of the house. Leave the door clearance in bare floor and keep the wool where people stand.

Tadla is the Middle Atlas plain once irrigated by hand, and its squares sit like tilled plots along the floor. The pile builds in shag, so a bare foot meets ridge before it meets channel, and blush pink, chocolate brown and ivory cream pull warmer once the porch light comes on. Sculpted relief earns its place in an entry, the one floor people look down at while they take their shoes off.

Landings, not stairs

A landing is a room-shaped pause in a staircase, and a runner suits it: it marks the turn and softens the place where people stop. The stairs themselves are a different product. Stair carpet is cut, bound and fixed to the treads by a fitter, and we do not make it. A runner belongs on the flat.

Widths and lengths

Our runner sizes, in both units:

If your passage falls between two lengths, take the shorter one and leave floor at both ends. Any dimension outside this table is made to order at the same rate per area. The room-by-room proportions sit in the size guide, and the undersizing error that shrinks a living room rug shrinks a runner too, covered in the size mistake.

Every design exists at runner width, listed together as runner rugs in every collection. Timing is in how long will my rug take.

Made in any length.

• Tadelakt, Dune collection, runner. /product/tadelakt-ivory-moroccan-runner
• Siroua, Jibal collection, runner. /product/siroua-ivory-black-moroccan-runner
• Tadla, Terrain collection, runner. /product/tadla-blush-brown-beni-mrirt-runner