Do Not Disturb
New Zealand Sheepskin Rug
Over the last few decades, we’ve quietly de-natured our indoor spaces. We spend most of our lives indoors surrounded by petroleum-based synthetics and artificial textures that leave our sanctuary feeling cold and sterile.
Our pure New Zealand Sheepskins are a simple, beautiful way to re-nature your home. Sourced from local North Island pastures and hand-finished in Napier, each piece brings authentic natural warmth back into your daily routine.
There is a direct connection between what you touch and how you feel. Feeling raw wool fleece against your skin - under your hands, against your arms, legs, or beneath bare feet - isn't just luxury. It triggers a physical sense of calm that instantly grounds you after a demanding day.
Naturally One-of-a-Kind
Because our sheepskins are 100% natural and un-manufactured, no two pelts are identical. Natural variations in fleece texture, pile depth, subtle tone shading, and exact edge dimensions are a hallmark of authentic North Island wool. Product images serve as representative examples of each color family - your sheepskin will be uniquely yours.
Natural White
- The Look: Un-dyed, classic, and raw. Ranges from soft cream to warm off-white, reflecting the unrefined natural state of the fleece.
- Styling & Room Fit: The timeless classic. Brings subtle light and organic texture to dark hardwood floors, linen sofas, bedside touchpoints, or contemporary minimalist interiors.
Sand
- The Look: A smooth, warm neutral with gentle stone and beige undertones.
- Styling & Room Fit: Understated and deeply versatile. Pairs effortlessly with oak furniture, light timber flooring, travertine accents, and soft neutral upholstery without washing out the room.
Honey
- The Look: Rich, golden caramel with warm amber highlights.
- Styling & Room Fit: An inviting, autumnal shade that instantly warms cold spaces. Looks incredible draped over leather armchairs, placed by a hearth, or paired with terracotta, brass, and deep earth tones.
Grey
- The Look: A balanced, sophisticated mid-tone charcoal grey with silver flecks throughout the pile.
- Styling & Room Fit: High-impact and modern. Perfect for architectural homes, anchoring light-colored chairs, or layering across workspace seating and concrete floors.
Chocolate
- The Look: Deep, velvety espresso brown with rich warm undertones.
- Styling & Room Fit: Grounding and luxurious. Creates striking contrast against lighter bedding, neutral linen couches, or light timber floors, adding depth to cozy reading nooks.
Black
- The Look: Jet-black fleece featuring a rich, luminous natural sheen.
- Styling & Room Fit: Bold and dramatic. The ultimate accent piece for dark, moody spaces, monochrome bedding setups, executive office chairs, or modern leather loungers.
Because every New Zealand sheepskin is a 100% natural product, exact dimensions vary slightly from piece to piece, giving each item its unique character. Use our guide below to choose the right scale and configuration for your space:
Single (~90cm x 60cm)
- Pelt Count: 1 Single Pelt
- Best For: Armchairs, bedside touchpoints, and desk seating.
Single + Half (~130cm x 60cm)
- Pelt Count: 1.5 Extended Pelts
- Best For: High-backed office chairs, Lazy Boys, recliners, and bench seating.
Double (~175cm x 60cm)
- Pelt Count: 2 Paired Pelts
- Best For: Sofa drapes, foot-of-bed runners, and hearthside lounging.
Quad (~168cm x 112cm)
- Pelt Count: 4 Matched Pelts
- Best For: Living room centerpieces and bedroom floor statements.
Genuine New Zealand wool is naturally self-cleaning, dirt-resistant, and extraordinarily durable. Because wool fibre contains natural lanolin oils, they naturally repel dirt and liquid spills -meaning your sheepskin requires very little maintenance to stay soft, plush, and beautiful for decades.
1. Everyday Care (Shaking & Airing)
- The Weekly Shake: The easiest way to keep your sheepskin looking new is to give it a vigorous shake outside once a week. This releases trapped dust particles, loosens compressed fibres, and restores its natural loft and volume.
- Fresh Air: Hang your sheepskin outside in a shaded, well-ventilated spot periodically. Fresh air naturally reacts with the lanolin in the wool to clean the fleece and neutralize indoor odors. Avoid direct, harsh sunlight, which can dry out the leather backing over time.
2. Brushing (Restoring Plush Loft)
- Regular Brushing: Over time, sitting on your sheepskin or walking across it will flatten the fleece. Brushing gently restores its cloud-like pile.
- The Right Tool: Use a wire-bristled wool brush (or a standard pet slicker brush).
- How to Brush: Gently brush the wool in all directions, then finish by brushing in the natural direction of the fleece. You will see an immediate difference in softness and volume.
3. Spot Cleaning Spills
- Act Quickly: Because wool naturally repels liquids, most spills will sit on top of the fleece for a short time before sinking in.
- Blot, Don't Rub: Immediately blot the liquid using a clean, dry towel or paper napkin. Do not rub, as rubbing forces the liquid deeper into the wool fibre.
- Cleaning Stains: Sponge the affected area gently using a damp cloth, lukewarm water, and a tiny dab of specialized wool detergent (preferably lanolin-based). Avoid soaking or wetting the suede leather backing. Allow the fleece to air-dry naturally away from direct heat sources.
4. Deep Washing & Professional Cleaning
- Rarely Needed: Thanks to wool’s natural dirt-repelling properties, full washing is rarely required.
- Professional Dry Cleaning: For a deep refresh or tough stains, we strongly recommend taking your sheepskin to a reputable dry cleaner experienced with leather and shearling.
- Hand Washing (At Your Own Risk): If hand washing is necessary, use cool water and a lanolin-rich wool detergent. Never use standard laundry detergent, bleach, or enzyme cleaners, as they strip the wool's natural oils and cause the leather backing to shrink and stiffen. Always air-dry flat away from radiators, fires, or direct sun, and gently brush the fleece while damp to restore its natural texture as it dries.
Free NZ shipping on orders over $150
Free AUS shipping on orders over A$150
Flat rate shipping applies to orders below these thresholds. Shipping costs are calculated at checkout based on your location.
We ship across New Zealand and to over 100 countries worldwide using trusted freight partners.
Auckland customers are welcome to collect from our workroom, Mon to Fri, 9am to 4pm, excluding public holidays.
View full shipping details here
Every Do Not Disturb sheepskin is part of a local, closed-loop natural economy that turns agricultural waste into restorative home sanctuary pieces.
- Sourced from North Island Pastures: All of our sheepskins come directly from sheep farmed across the lush pastures of the North Island. They are a 100% natural byproduct of New Zealand's farming industry.
- Rescued from Regional Landfills: Without tanning and repurposing, these raw pelts would otherwise be sent to local landfills for disposal. Purchasing a sheepskin rescues a natural, high-value material from becoming waste.
- Supporting Local Farming Families: Reclaiming these skins eliminates costly disposal fees for North Island farmers, keeping economic value and resources flowing within local agricultural communities.
- Hand-Crafted in Napier: Each pelt is tanned and hand-finished by master craftspeople at Classic Sheepskins in Napier, preserving decades of authentic Hawke's Bay tanning heritage.
- The Wisewool Connection:
There’s a chance your sheepskin shares a direct lineage with the rest of your sleep sanctuary. The beautiful sheep that provided your pelt may have grown the Tairāwhiti Gisborne farmed premium wool fibre engineered by our good friends at Wisewool. That very same pure performance wool inside our duvets, pillows, mattress toppers and sleep masks.
It’s natural comfort, come full circle.
Why Bring Genuine Sheepskin Home?
Calms the Nervous System
Sinking bare skin into dense wool fleece triggers natural pressure receptors that lower cortisol, ease daily tension, and tell your body it's safe to relax.
Breathable Climate Control
Active wool fibres naturally absorb and release humidity - keeping your room/seating cool and dry through summer heat and deeply insulating during winter chills.
Natural Atmospheric Filter
Pure wool fleece actively traps airborne dust, neutralises indoor VOCs, and binds odorus to keep the air in your living space noticeably cleaner.
Tanned in Napier Since 1969
Every Do Not Disturb sheepskin is tanned and finished by Classic Sheepskins in Napier. The Callaghan family started the tannery in 1969, and today it is the only full-scale sheepskin tannery left in New Zealand.
The skins come from sheep raised for meat on local free-range farms, many just up the road from the tannery. No sheep is farmed for its skin. Each one is a by-product of the food supply chain, made into something worth keeping.
Every skin is washed, cured with a chrome-free tanning solution and softened with formaldehyde-free conditioners. It is then dried, ironed and polished to bring out the natural lustre of the wool. The whole process happens on one site, and each sheepskin passes through 23 pairs of hands. Classic adds no formaldehyde or arsenic, and has its sheepskins independently tested.
Real wool on real skin. Grown, tanned and finished in New Zealand.
FAQ
Because petroleum-based faux fur looks tired after a month, traps sweat, and adds more plastic to a world already drowning in it.
Genuine New Zealand sheepskin is a living material. It breathes, regulates temperature year-round, cleans itself, and feels incredible against bare skin.
Think of it not only as a luxuriously soft rug, but equally as a daily investment in your sensory wellbeing.
100% New Zealand, zero shortcuts.
Our skins come from sheep farmed on the open pastures of New Zealand’s North Island.
Every single piece is tanned and hand-finished in Napier by our friends and master craftspeople at Classic Sheepskins, keeping local artisan tanning alive in Hawke’s Bay.
It will be incredibly close in character and tone, but never identical - and that’s the beauty of natural wool.
Every pelt comes from a unique North Island pasture, meaning gentle variations in fleece density, curl, exact dimensions ( +/-5cm), and subtle color undertones naturally occur during the traditional tanning process in Napier.
Our photos capture the true tone and quality of each color range, but your piece is a one-off natural creation shaped by nature.
Full-circle comfort.
There’s a direct lineage between your sheepskin and the rest of your sleep sanctuary. The beautiful high-country sheep that provided your pelt may very well have grown the premium wool fibre farmed across Tairāwhiti Gisborne and engineered by our good friends at Wisewool.
That exact same pure, high-performance wool lives inside our duvets, pillows, mattress toppers, and sleep masks.
You're treating yourself to the very same natural wool ecosystem from head to toe.
Thanks to Classic Sheepskins' master tanning process in Napier, your luxuriously soft sheepskin arrives smelling like clean, pure natural wool.
Some people notice a faint wool scent when it is new. It fades within a week or two, and reminds you the sheepskin hasn't been (mis)treated with toxic chemicals.
Wool naturally repels liquids thanks to its natural lanolin oils.
If you spill coffee or wine, don't panic and don't rub it in. Blot the liquid immediately with a clean towel. For minor spots, dab gently with a damp cloth and a drop of wool detergent.
Give it a good shake outside once a week and a brush with a wire wool brush to keep it fluffy for decades.
Because sheepskins are a natural product, no two are the same - sizing is approximate:
- Single (~90cm x 60cm): Perfect for armchairs, desk seats, or beside your bed for warm feet every morning.
- Single + Half (~130cm x 60cm): The ultimate chair drape. Specially crafted to cover high-backed office chairs, Lazy Boys, and recliners from headrest to seat fold.
- Double (~175cm x 60cm): Ideal for hallway benches, two-seater sofa drapes, foot-of-bed runners, or hearthside lounging.
- Quad (~168cm x 112cm): The grand centerpiece for living room floors and spacious master bedrooms.
No.
Every sheepskin we use is a natural byproduct of New Zealand's local farming industry.
By tanning and hand-finishing these pelts in Napier, we rescue high-value natural wool from ending up in regional landfills.
It supports local farming families and turns what would be waste into an heirloom piece for your sanctuary.
