Because every runner is one of a kind, many designs sell once and are never available again. The one you wanted went to someone else, and it cannot be rewoven exactly.
Or your corridor measured 4.6 metres and nothing on any website reaches it. Or you are covering a staircase, where the length you need exists in no catalogue on earth. Or you found a runner you love and the size is simply wrong.
This guide covers what you can specify on a custom Moroccan runner rug, what handweaving genuinely cannot promise, what it costs per metre, how long the loom takes, and when you should skip all of it and buy from the shelf.
The 30-Second Answer
Price: per linear metre at your chosen width. Flatweave from €350/m at 60 cm, from €440/m at 75 cm. Hand-knotted from €390/m at 60 cm, from €490/m at 75 cm. Shipping included.
Time: typically 6 to 10 weeks from approved design to delivery.
Size: any length and any width, woven as a single piece. No joined panels, no seams.
Payment: 50% confirms the order, 50% once weaving is complete and approved, before shipping.
What this guide covers
- When not to commission
- What you can specify
- What handweaving cannot promise
- Measuring for a commission
- What it costs per metre
- The twelve steps, and how long they take
- How payment works
- A commission from start to finish
- Four myths about commissioning
- What to ask any workshop
- Before you send your enquiry
- Who weaves your runner
- Frequently asked questions
First: When You Should Not Commission
Starting here because most guides never will. Commissioning is slower and costs more than buying a finished piece, and for plenty of people it is the wrong choice.
When to buy from the collection, and when to commission
Three notes on the left column. Ten centimetres is invisible on a floor — do not commission over it. Handwoven pieces land within 2 to 7 cm of target, so if a fitted alcove needs exactly 250 cm this is the wrong product entirely. And if you are unsure about colour, ask us for a swatch before you commit, not after.
What You Can Specify
A made-to-order Moroccan runner is not a colour swap on an existing product. Every decision is made before the first row exists.
Length. Any length the design calls for. This is why most people are here.
Width — with no seam. Many Moroccan workshops are limited to a 60 to 80 cm loom and join panels edge to edge to go wider, which leaves a join you can see and feel. Ours are built to carry the full width and weight, the same way they carry length, so your runner comes off the loom as one continuous piece whatever the dimensions. Tell us the width your space needs.
Weave. Flatweave kilim sits 3 to 5 mm thick, slides under doors, and is reversible. Hand-knotted pile runs 10 to 25 mm, warmer underfoot and softer to stand on. If you are undecided, the full comparison of kilim and knotted weaving works through it.
Wool. We work with Siroua wool, from sheep grazing the volcanic slopes above Taznakht, and with premium Moroccan wool from the wider Atlas region. Which one goes on your loom is your choice — they differ in handle, lustre and price, and we will explain what each does for the design you have in mind. More on how this wool behaves.
Dye. Plant dyes — madder root, indigo, pomegranate peel, walnut husk, henna — or high-quality synthetic dye. A real choice with real trade-offs rather than a purity test; the cost section explains what each does to the price. How the plant reds are made.
Palette and motifs — no limits. Send a colour direction, a photograph of the room, a fabric, or a rug you already own. Motifs can come from the cooperative's archive — the diamond for protection, the zigzag for water, the comb for the loom itself — or from something you bring us. If you can describe it, the weavers can generally put it on a loom.
Flatweave ground with knotted motifs — one piece, two techniques
Alternating flatweave and knotted squares — a design brief, not a catalogue option
What Handweaving Cannot Promise
This is the section most workshops leave out, and the one that decides whether you are happy in three months.
Dimensions to the millimetre. A runner grows row by row. Wool tension moves with humidity; the weft packs differently on a cold morning. We weave to your target and it finishes within roughly 2 to 7 cm of it. We measure the finished piece and give you the real number before it ships. If your space has a hard maximum, say so at the enquiry stage and we build the tolerance into the target.
An identical copy. Every runner is made by hand, so no two are ever 100% the same — not even two woven from the same design by the same weaver. Motifs vary by a few millimetres down the length. That is the difference you are paying for, and if perfect repetition is what you want, a machine-made runner will give it to you for a fraction of the price.
Mid-weave: every band is set by hand, and no two runners repeat exactly
A colour matched to 100%. Neither plant dye nor synthetic dye reproduces a reference colour exactly — not from a screen, a paint code, or a photograph. What we can do is get as close as wool allows, and then prove it: no weaving begins until you have seen and approved the colour. If the first attempt is not right, we dye again. The loom waits.
Measuring for a Commission
Get this wrong and everything downstream is wrong, because there is no returning a piece woven to your number.
Hallways
Measure end to end along the longest unobstructed line, then subtract 60 to 100 cm so 30 to 50 cm of bare floor frames each end. Measure width at its narrowest point and subtract 20 to 40 cm. The full runner sizing guide works through short, medium and long corridors with examples.
Staircases
The commonest mistake in the category. A stair runner's length is not the height of your staircase — it is the developed length: every tread depth plus every riser height added together, plus a margin for landings.
Worked example
13 steps, 28 cm treads, 18 cm risers: (28 + 18) × 13 = 598 cm. Add roughly 10% for landings and settling and you are commissioning about 6.5 metres. Choose flatweave, or knotted pile under 1 cm, so the runner bends cleanly around each nosing.
Galley kitchens
Measure the aisle, then check how far your oven, dishwasher and under-sink doors project when fully open. The runner must clear all three. In a 100 to 120 cm aisle, 60 to 70 cm usually works.
What a Custom Runner Costs
Priced per linear metre at the width you choose, because length is the variable you control. Shipping is included in every figure below.
| Width | Flatweave kilim | Hand-knotted pile |
|---|---|---|
| 60 cm | from €350 / linear m | from €390 / linear m |
| 70 cm | from €410 / linear m | from €455 / linear m |
| 75 cm | from €440 / linear m | from €490 / linear m |
| 80 cm | from €470 / linear m | from €520 / linear m |
| Wider | Quoted to your dimensions | |
Three worked examples, so the arithmetic is visible:
- A 3 m hallway runner, 75 cm flatweave — from €1,320
- A 4.5 m corridor runner, 75 cm flatweave — from €1,980
- A 6.5 m stair runner, 70 cm flatweave — from €2,665
What moves the rate above the "from" price
- Motif density. A field of fine repeating symbols takes far longer than an open ground with a simple border. The single biggest lever.
- Dye choice. Plant dyeing costs more — small batches, longer processes, an indigo vat built over days. Quality synthetic costs less and repeats more reliably.
- Wool. Siroua and premium Moroccan wool are priced differently.
- Width. Wider means more wool and more loom time per metre.
Knotted carries a modest premium over flatweave — not because loom time differs enormously on a runner, but because pile uses close to double the wool by weight, and that weight travels in the freight we include.
On duties
International shipping is included. Import duties or VAT, where your country charges them, are assessed by your own customs authority and are not part of these prices. We would rather you knew now than at your front door.
The Twelve Steps, and How Long They Take
Typically 6 to 10 weeks from approved design to delivery. Longer runners and knotted pieces sit at the top of that range. Every commission runs through the same twelve steps, in the same order:
Your vision → we reply → 50% deposit → design together → you approve the swatch → weaving begins → weekly photos → you learn her name → finishing → final approval → balance paid → ships to your door.
The weaving itself is the variable. A short flatweave moves quickly; a long knotted piece with dense motifs is the work of many weeks. You get a date range with your quote, and we tell you if it slips.
How Payment Works
You are sending money to a workshop in another country for an object that does not exist yet. Two stages are how that stops being frightening.
50% confirms the order and pays for the wool and the dyeing — after you have approved a written specification, and before you approve the colour. 50% falls due once weaving is finished and you have approved the runner, before it ships. By then you have watched it being made, week by week.
A Commission From Start to Finish
He found a runner in the collection and wanted it — the palette, the motifs, all of it. The problem was the size. The piece he had fallen for measured 75 × 150 cm. His hallway needed 80 × 250 cm: a metre longer and slightly wider. No amount of styling closes a gap like that.
So we wove him his own. Same design language, his dimensions. He approved the dyed colour before the loom was warped at the end of June, then watched the runner grow over five weeks of photographs arriving from Taznakht — the empty warp, the first rows, the motifs appearing one band at a time. It came off the loom at the beginning of August.
Because it was made by hand it is not identical to the original. The motifs sit slightly differently, the colour has its own depth. That is exactly why it is his and not a copy of someone else's.
This is the most common commission we take. Not people inventing a rug from nothing — people who have already found the design they want and need it in their size.
Four Myths About Commissioning
Myth 1
Myth: "Custom means a huge premium."
Reality: A commissioned runner runs modestly above a comparable stocked piece — dedicated warping, a dye batch mixed for one client, design revisions, and an order that cannot be resold if it falls through. For a 4-metre corridor there is no stocked comparison to be premium to.
Myth 2
Myth: "Plant dye is always the better choice."
Reality: It depends what you want. Plant dye ages beautifully and shifts subtly between rows. Quality synthetic is more even, more repeatable, reaches colours plants cannot, and costs less. The real divide is good dye versus cheap dye — cheap dye bleeds when damp, whichever family it belongs to.
Myth 3
Myth: "I can send a photo and get that exact rug."
Reality: A photograph is a strong starting point for palette and mood, and we can build a design from it. What it cannot be is a promise of identical output — screen colour is not wool colour, and a handwoven piece is never a copy. We tell you which parts of a reference we can hit before you pay anything.
Myth 4
Myth: "You pay everything up front and hope."
Reality: Half confirms the order; the balance is not due until weaving is finished and you have approved it. Between those two points you approve the dyed colour and receive photographs from the loom every week. There are four checkpoints before your money is fully committed.
What to Ask Any Workshop Before Commissioning
- "Will my runner be woven in one piece, or joined?" Many workshops max out at an 80 cm loom and stitch panels together to go wider. The seam is visible and it is a weak line. Ours are woven whole, at any width.
- "What dye are you using, and is it plant or synthetic?" Either answer is fine. No answer is not.
- "Do I approve the colour before weaving starts?" If dyeing and weaving happen in one uninterrupted run, you have no way to correct a colour you dislike.
- "What tolerance should I expect on the finished length?" Anyone claiming millimetre precision on a handwoven piece is describing a machine.
- "Will I see photographs during weaving?" If updates are a favour rather than a process, you have no checkpoint before delivery.
- "Who is the weaver?" The answer should be a name.
- "Is shipping included, and what about duties?" Get it in writing before the deposit, not at the door.
The wider version of this problem — telling handwoven from factory-made before you pay — is in our guide to what goes wrong buying Moroccan rugs online.
Before You Send Your Enquiry
Send these six things and you will get a quote and a date in one reply instead of four.
What to include in your first message
- Your measurements in centimetres — hallway length and narrowest width, or developed stair length. Not "about 4 metres."
- A photograph of the space, taken in daylight. It tells us more about your light and floor tone than any colour name.
- A design you like, if you have found one — a link to a piece in the runner collection is the fastest possible brief.
- Your weave preference — flatweave or knotted — or tell us the doors are tight and we will advise.
- Your deadline, if you have one. A renovation date changes what we can promise.
- Your budget range. Not a haggling position — it tells us honestly whether to quote plant dye or synthetic, Siroua or premium Moroccan wool.
Who Weaves Your Runner
Every commissioned piece is woven in Taznakht, in the Anti-Atlas region of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. The villages around it are known for Ait Ouaouzguite carpets, named for the Amazigh tribe indigenous to the area, and traditional carpets made up close to a quarter of Morocco's artisan exports in 2022 according to government figures reported by Agence France-Presse.
The Iznaguen Women's Cooperative was founded there in 2009 by Safia Iminotras — my mother — and now brings together 64 Amazigh women. They shear and wash the wool, hand-spin it, dye it, and weave on vertical looms unchanged in design for centuries.
When you commission a runner, it is not distributed across a workshop floor. One or two named weavers take it from the first row to the last — which is why "you learn her name" is a step in our process and not a marketing line. On the certificate that ships with the runner, the weaver is named. You can read more about how the cooperative works and how the women are paid.
How TazRugs Handles Commissions
- 100% natural wool, never blended — Siroua or premium Moroccan wool, your choice.
- Your choice of dye — plant or high-quality synthetic, stated in writing on your specification.
- Colour approved before weaving. The loom does not start until you are happy with the dyed wool.
- Photographs from the loom every week, as a standard part of the process.
- 50% to begin, 50% after you approve the finished piece. See all twelve steps.
- STEP fair-trade and Label Artisanat Maroc certification — independently audited.
A commissioned runner is the only rug in your home that exists because you asked for it. Measured against your corridor, dyed for your light, woven by a woman whose name you know.
Long after you have forgotten what you paid, you will still be walking across something that was made for one home, by one woman, to fit one space — and there will never be another like it.
Keep Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Per linear metre at your chosen width. Flatweave from €350/m at 60 cm and from €440/m at 75 cm; hand-knotted from €390/m at 60 cm and from €490/m at 75 cm, shipping included. A 3 m runner at 75 cm flatweave starts from around €1,320. Motif density, dye and wool move it from there.
Typically 6 to 10 weeks from approved design to delivery, covering design, dyeing and colour approval, warping, weaving, finishing and freight. Long runners and knotted pieces sit at the upper end. You get a date range with your quote.
As wide as your space needs. Our looms carry the full width and weight, so the runner comes off the loom whole at any dimension.
Yes — this is the most common commission we take. If you have found a runner you love but the size is wrong, we weave the same design at your dimensions. Because it is handmade it will not be 100% identical to the original, but the design, palette and motifs carry across.
There are no limits on palette or motifs. Send a colour direction, a photograph, a fabric or a rug you own. Motifs can come from the cooperative's archive or from something you bring us. No weaving starts until you have approved the dyed colour.
Plant dye — madder, indigo, pomegranate, walnut, henna — gives softer colour that shifts between rows and costs more. Quality synthetic gives even, repeatable colour and costs less. Neither reproduces a reference to 100%; we get as close as wool allows and you approve it before weaving.
50% confirms the order and pays for wool and dyeing. The remaining 50% is due once weaving is complete and you have approved the finished runner, before shipping. In between you approve the colour and receive loom photographs every week.
Handwoven pieces finish within roughly 2 to 7 cm of target, because wool tension moves with humidity. We measure the finished runner and give you the real number before it ships. If your space has a hard maximum, say so at enquiry and we build tolerance into the target.
Yes, international shipping is included in every price on this page. Import duties or VAT, where your country charges them, are assessed separately by your customs authority.
If a stocked runner is within about 10 cm of your target, buy it — faster and cheaper. Commission when your corridor passes roughly 4 metres, for stairs, for awkward widths, to match a piece you own, or when you have found a design you love in the wrong size. Browse the runner collection first.
Know your measurement already? Send it to us and we will come back with a quote and a date.
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