Thibault Van Renne
LEGENDS, Tenby, the 2026 anniversary collection carpet from Thibault Van Renne

Innovation

Innovation

We didn't set out to be first at things. But over the years, certain commissions called for techniques and tools that didn't yet exist, so we built them ourselves. Here they are, year by year, from 2008 on.

2008: Introduction of nettle fibre to hand-knotted carpets

In 2008 we introduced nettle fibre as a building block of hand-knotted carpets: drawn from the inside of the stem of a specific Nepalese nettle plant, boiled in tea water, and spun by hand. Nettle is undyed: its colour is the colour the plant gives, which means each thread brings a different shade of beige or brown into the carpet. The result is a natural abrash (soft, organic variations across the surface that no dyed yarn can imitate). We built the NATURE collection around this fibre. It became a quiet success and we still produce and sell it today.

  • World's first: nettle fibre used as a structural material in luxury hand-knotted carpets
  • Source: Nepal (only source, hand-spun on site)
  • Collection: NATURE, built around nettle fibre, still in production
  • See also: The NATURE collection →

2009: Custom size, custom design, custom colour, every carpet bespoke

In 2009 we made bespoke the default. From that year on, every TVR carpet is built to order (your size, your colour, your design, your pile height), with full transparency on the commissioning process. At the time, this level of customisation was unique in the hand-knotted carpet market, where designers and clients typically chose from stock sizes and finished pieces.

  • First in our category: complete customisation as the default, every piece bespoke
  • Service: custom size, custom design, custom colour, custom pile, per commission

2012: First carpet from a real-life photograph

Until 2012, hand-knotted carpets were woven from drawn or designed motifs. We changed that. Ceci n'est pas LANY, a hand-knotted portrait of the Belgian DJ Maxim Lany, was the world's first hand-knotted carpet woven directly from a real-life photograph. The technique required a custom translation pipeline from photograph to weaver chart, knot by knot. The carpet went on to become a Best Innovation Finalist at the 2013 Carpet Design Awards in Hannover.

Ceci n'est pas LANY, the hand-knotted portrait of Belgian DJ Maxim Lany, the world's first carpet woven from a real-life photograph.

  • World's first: hand-knotted carpet from a real-life photograph
  • Carpet: Ceci n'est pas LANY (portrait of Maxim Lany)
  • Recognition: 2013 Carpet Design Awards Hannover — Best Innovation Finalist
  • See also: All awards & recognition →

2013: First outdoor hand-knotted carpet

Outdoor textiles existed in tufted and woven form, but no one had successfully hand-knotted a carpet engineered for outdoor life: terrace, rain, sun, season after season. We did it in 2013, using weather-resistant fibres on a vertical loom. The result was knotted at the same density and feel as our indoor pieces, but engineered for a different climate.

  • World's first: hand-knotted outdoor carpet
  • Recognition: 2013 Carpet Design Awards Hannover — Best Innovation Finalist

2013: LEGENDS 2013 collection

Our first LEGENDS collection introduced a transitional design language, bringing classical motifs into a contemporary vocabulary, knot by knot. Several of its designs were later spun off into their own dedicated collections: Mystique, Kork Reintegration, Siena, and others.

  • Collection: LEGENDS 2013
  • Recognition: 2013 Carpet Design Awards Hannover — 2nd Place, Best Collection Transitional
  • See also: LEGENDS collection →

2014: First hand-knotted stereogram carpet

A stereogram is an optical technique that hides a three-dimensional image inside a flat surface, visible only when the eye refocuses in a specific way. Translating that to a hand-knotted carpet (where every knot is a fixed pixel of colour) required precision on a level that had not been attempted before in the trade. The piece went on to be Finalist for Best Innovation at the 2014 Carpet Design Awards.

Stereogram Ivory 103, the hand-knotted stereogram carpet, Finalist for Best Innovation at the 2014 Carpet Design Awards.

  • World's first: hand-knotted stereogram carpet
  • Recognition: 2014 Carpet Design Awards Hannover — Best Innovation Finalist
  • See also: Stereogram (limited edition) →

2014: Holographic authenticity label

To distinguish an original TVR carpet from any imitation, we introduced a holographic authenticity label (with a hidden message) sewn into every piece we produce. The label is unique to its carpet and unforgeable.

  • First in our category: holographic, hidden-message authenticity label per carpet

2014: Gold-leaf finished catalogue

We bound our first catalogue with gold-leaf-finished page edges, a printing technique borrowed from heritage book-binding, to mark the catalogue itself as an object of design, not a sales document.

2015: Carpet with extreme pixelated colour detail, with Koen Soberon

In collaboration with the Belgian artist Koen Soberon, we wove a carpet whose pixelated colour detail required more than 250 colour switches per weaving line: dozens of distinct colours interleaved across every single row. A single carpet took a full year on the loom. To our knowledge, this density of colour switching had never been done in modern hand-knotted rugs.

  • World's first: modern hand-knotted carpet with 250+ colour switches per weaving line
  • Time on the loom: one full year for a single piece
  • Artist collaborator: Koen Soberon (Belgium)
  • See also: Soberon collaboration (limited edition) →

2016: Great Barrier Reef carpet, with Brown Davis

With the architects Brown Davis, we designed and wove the world's first hand-knotted carpet rendered from satellite imagery, depicting the Great Barrier Reef as seen from orbit. Translating reef structure, coral patterns, and water depth into wool and silk required a colour-mapping technique we developed for the piece. The carpet was exhibited at a renowned art gallery in Miami, Florida.

Great Barrier Reef, hand-knotted from satellite imagery in collaboration with Brown Davis architects, exhibited in Miami (2016).

  • World's first: hand-knotted carpet from satellite imagery
  • Carpet: Great Barrier Reef
  • Architects: Brown Davis (USA)
  • Exhibition: Miami, Florida
  • See also: Brown Davis collection →

2016: Live production updates for the client

We introduced a live photo feed (automated emails as a client's carpet grows on the loom) so collectors could watch their commission progress, knot by knot, month by month. Before this, the production phase of a hand-knotted carpet was hidden from the client.

  • First in our category: automated weekly production photos to commissioning clients

2017: Drone-filmed production

In 2017 we filmed our production from above using drones, the first time hand-knotted carpet production was filmed this way. The footage gave designers and clients a view of the looms, the dye baths, and the weavers' hands at scale.

2017: Production in Virtual Reality

We captured our production process in Virtual Reality, so collectors visiting our showroom in Belgium could walk the loom floor from a headset: the first time hand-knotted carpet production was rendered in VR.

  • First in our category: Virtual Reality production walkthrough for showroom visitors

2018: The WonderCase, branded maintenance set with every commission

We were the first luxury hand-knotted-carpet brand to ship a branded maintenance set with every commission. The WonderCase (given free with every carpet) contains Stain Spray, Stain Wonder, and Miracle Water, the three TVR-formulated products and the tools needed to preserve a hand-knotted carpet for the long term. It has become a recognisable object in the trade.

The TVR WonderCase: Stain Spray, Stain Wonder, Miracle Water and cleaning tools, given free with every carpet commission.

  • First in our category: complimentary branded maintenance set per carpet
  • Name: The WonderCase
  • Contents: Stain Spray, Stain Wonder, Miracle Water, cleaning cloths and tools
  • See also: Carpet maintenance & care →

2018: Carpet in real 18-carat gold fibre

In 2018 we wove the world's first hand-knotted carpet using real 18-carat gold fibre, blended with wool and silk through a technique we developed in-house. The result is a carpet whose gold elements are not surface treatments or threads laid on top, but knots themselves, durable and integral to the structure.

2019: Move to the Knokke showroom

In 2019 we opened a new showroom in Knokke, on the Belgian coast: a private viewing space for interior designers, architects, and collectors visiting from across Europe and beyond.

  • Location: Knokke, Belgium

2025: Move to the Evergem showroom

In 2025 we relocated our principal showroom and design studio to Evergem, just outside Ghent. The new building combines studio, archive, and viewing rooms in a single space, hosting private appointments by reservation only.

2026: LEGENDS 2026 collection, for TVR's twentieth anniversary

For our twentieth year, we returned to the LEGENDS idea with a new collection: LEGENDS 2026. The design language is rooted in the 2013 collection but the carpets are new. One of them, Tenby, received a Special Mention in the Carpet & Flooring category at the 2026 Architizer A+Product Awards.

LEGENDS — Tenby, the carpet from our LEGENDS 2026 anniversary collection, recognised at the 2026 Architizer A+Product Awards.

— Thibault Van Renne, Founder