01 — The reading room
Bark & bouclé
Everything here is woven from a plant — jute, seagrass, hemp, and the coarse bark fibre the brand takes its name from. It goes on the floor, on the wall, and in the corner where a room usually falls apart.
We photograph rooms rather than objects because a basket on a white background tells you nothing about whether it will work beside your sofa. Every piece below is listed under the room it was shot in.
In this room
On weaving
An open weave lets light through and casts a pattern; a tight weave blocks it and reads as a solid mass. That is the whole difference between a basket that disappears into a corner and one that becomes the corner. We use both, and the listing says which.
Jute sheds for about a fortnight and then settles for years. Seagrass smells faintly of hay when it is new and stops within a month. Neither is a fault, and we would rather tell you here than take the return.
Twelve pieces
$12 anywhere in Australia, $25 for rugs and floor pieces. Dispatch 2–4 business days.
Photograph it within 7 days and we replace or refund. A broken weave or a failed handle stitch is a fault.
New jute sheds and new seagrass smells of hay. Both pass. Neither is covered as a fault, and both are said here on purpose.
About a fortnight of regular vacuuming, sometimes three weeks on a large rug. Vacuum without the beater bar. After that it settles almost completely. Any jute rug that never shed was coated with something, and the coating is what fails later.
No. Jute, seagrass and hemp are all plant fibre and all of them mildew if they stay damp. A bathroom with a window and a fan is usually survivable; a wet floor is not. Nothing here is rated for outdoor use.
Vacuum or shake. For a mark, blot with a barely damp cloth and let it dry fully in air — never soak, never machine wash, never steam. Water rings on natural fibre dry lighter than the surrounding weave and do not fully disappear.
Close, not exact. These are handwoven from a natural fibre, so the weave tension, the colour of the crop and the finished dimensions all move slightly. Sizes are listed as nominal and can vary by up to two centimetres.
The coiled and stiff-woven pieces do. The soft-woven ones slump a little when empty and that is intended — it is what stops a row of baskets looking like storage tubs. The listing says which is which.
Dispatch is 2–4 business days. After that it is standard parcel post — usually 2–5 business days east coast, longer to WA, NT and regional addresses. Rugs go by road and take longer.