Hallway runners: a practical guide

The hallway is the hardest-working stretch of floor in the house and, too often, the most neglected. A good runner fixes that in an afternoon: it softens footsteps, protects the floor, and carries the colour of your living room down the hall so the whole home feels connected.

Measuring up

Leave an even margin of bare floor on both sides of the runner, roughly 10 to 20 cm depending on the width of your hall. At the ends, stop the runner short of any door that swings over it, and leave a little breathing room before the hall meets a room. We cut our runners to the length of your corridor, so an odd-shaped or extra-long hall is no problem.

Width matters more than you think

A runner that's too narrow looks mean and gets kicked out of place. Ours come in widths from 60 cm up to 1.4 m, so we can match the runner to the hall rather than making the hall live with the runner.

Choose for the traffic

Because runners take the most wear in the house, we steer people toward denser, hard-wearing weaves in the hall, and toward patterns that hide the everyday. A design with movement and mid-tones will look good far longer than a plain pale one that shows every footprint.

Match the runner to your living-room rug and the hall stops feeling like a corridor and starts feeling like part of the home.

We can pair a runner to a room rug you already own, or start you fresh. Bring the length and width of your hall, or send them over, and we'll sort the rest. See our runners.