THRESHOLD
The last piece of the street, laid just inside the door. Hand tufted in New Zealand wool by Katrina Bajoras, in three sizes that fit three kinds of door.
Where the street ends and the house begins.
Katrina names her rugs after streets. Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Savile Row, Ninenzaka, Montsouris. A door mat is the last piece of that street, the one you stand on before the house takes over. It is not an accessory to the collection. It is where the collection stops.
A cheap mat is bought four times a decade. This one is bought once, and it is the first thing a guest sees, before they even take their shoes off.
People give new homeowners candles, vases and champagne. A door mat is the one thing the house does not have on day one, and the one thing nobody buys well for themselves.
Honest note. A hand tufted wool mat lives inside the door, not outside. Keep a coir scraper on the step for mud and rain. THRESHOLD is what waits on the other side: it takes the last of the damp, protects the floor, and looks like a piece of the collection, because it is one. A non slip underlay is included, so it stays where you put it on wood, tile or stone.
Choose by your door, not by taste.
One rule covers it. A mat should be wider than the door leaf by roughly 10 cm on each side, so you land on it without aiming, and deep enough to take a full step. Standard interior doors are 80 or 90 cm. Entrance doors are 90 or 100 cm. Double doors reach 150 cm. That gives three sizes, and three is enough.
Apartment
A standard flat door and a narrow hall. The size that fits where anything bigger would run into the shoe rack.
House
The front door of a house and a proper hall. Two people can come home and take their shoes off at the same time. The size Katrina already weaves, and the one most people choose.
Object
Double doors, an office lobby, a gallery, a hotel. At this size the mat stops being a mat and reads as a rug.
| Format | Common standard | Where it belongs | THRESHOLD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra small | 40 x 60 cm | Back door, utility room. Too small to actually be stepped on, and it slides | not made |
| Single door, small | 45 x 75 cm | The UK standard mat. Fine for a narrow door, tight for two feet | not made |
| Single door | 50 x 80 cm | The most sold size in Europe. Apartment doors up to 90 cm | S, 80 x 50 |
| Wide entrance | 60 x 90, 60 x 85 cm | House front doors, wider halls | S or M |
| Large entrance | 75 x 120, 80 x 120 cm | Family entrances, two people at once | M, 100 x 80 |
| Double door | 90 x 150 cm | Double doors, patio doors, small lobbies | L, 140 x 100 |
| Commercial lobby | 115 x 175 cm and up | Offices, hotels, shops. Usually a barrier mat system | on request |
Any other size is possible. Katrina works to order, so a mat can be cut to a landing, a lift lobby or an odd shaped hall. That is a conversation, not a catalogue line.
Four compositions, drawn for a doorway.
Each one comes from Katrina's Hardtwist collection, redrawn for the proportions of a door. Hardtwist wool is spun tighter than a normal pile, which is exactly what a doorway needs: it takes weight, it springs back, and it does not flatten into a path.
Why wool, and not the softer one.
Katrina works in two fibres. Both are beautiful. Only one belongs in a doorway, and it is worth saying which and why.
New Zealand wool
Animal fibre, natural sheep wool. Soft, matte, classic. The same wool as the large art rugs.
- Very durable. Wear resistant and long lived, which is the whole argument at a front door
- Naturally stain resistant. Lanolin repels water and dirt before it has a chance to settle
- Absorbs sound. A hard hallway gets quieter the day the mat arrives
- Warm in winter, cool in summer. Wool regulates rather than insulates
- Easy care. Vacuum without a rotating brush, treat spots quickly, expect natural shedding for the first 3 to 4 months
- Renewable and biodegradable
Verdict. Wool is the only fibre here that gets better under a shoe rather than worse.
TENCEL Lyocell
Plant fibre made from eucalyptus wood. Silk like, with a light sheen that shifts with the angle of the light.
- Extremely soft, closer to silk than to wool
- Elegant sheen, beautiful in a bedroom or a living room
- Strong but sensitive to mechanical damage, which a doorway supplies daily
- Coated finish resists dust, but wants gentle care and no aggressive cleaners
- Hypoallergenic and antibacterial
- Closed loop production, 100 percent biodegradable
Lyocell belongs where feet are bare. Katrina's Osia, Nida, Giria, Rio and Pape are woven in it. See the full collection
The housewarming present that gets used every day.
Made to order takes 30 to 60 days, and a gift is usually needed sooner than that. So there are three ways to give one, and all three work.
Take one home today
A small number of S and M mats are kept in the gallery, in the calmest colourway. You can see it, stand on it, and carry it out the same afternoon.
From €400
The gift box
A boxed card with a woven swatch inside, so the gift is something you can hold. The person receiving it chooses size, composition and colour. Better than guessing their hallway.
From €400, valid 12 months
Their number, their year
One small mark tufted into the corner: the house number, or the year they moved in. Ten years later it is the only object in the house that remembers the date.
+€60, adds 10 days
Every mat is rolled, tied with a cotton band and stamped. The non slip underlay and a care card are already inside, and there is a blank card for whatever you want to write.
Katrina Bajoras paints first.
She works on canvas at the scale of a wall, then takes the same composition down to the floor. Every rug and every mat is hand tufted to order in Europe, in wool or lyocell, in any size and any shape. Nothing is stocked in a warehouse and nothing is printed.
The Hardtwist compositions, the ones THRESHOLD is drawn from, are already close to a doorway in size. Making them into mats did not require a new language, only a new proportion.
A rug is a painting that agreed to be walked on.