Carpet advice please!

[plasticpigeon]

Hello all. I need to buy a carpet for my front room. I have been told it will be beige (and no patterns) and the preferred texture is cut pile not loop. My only question is should I buy a wool carpet, or polypropylene? Wool is more expensive, but I've heard it wears better. PPP is bleach cleanable, does that matter? I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

 

[88v8]

Beige? Have you married an estate agent?

It depends how carefully it's treated. We put wool carpets into our previous house, the dining room was first in 1986. When we sold in 2012 it was still fine. Mind you in 1986 it was £30 a yard.
DO NOT buy a completely plain carpet. It will show every tiny spot. Buy one with a slight fleck.

Ivor

 

[mattice]

We have beige wool loop, it's very hard waring. It spends most of its time 'stained' by various kid related things. It does however seem to clean up well... but then takes an age to dry with labrador like undertones.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks Ivor, nope not an estate agent, although I'm sure the decision is slightly influenced by future saleability. I wanted pattern but have been put off by the £80/square metre cost for the patterns I like, so to keep my life simpler I am not making a fuss. I am also allowed to put a rug down which will hopefully cover a decent area, which begs another question. How big a rug? Should it go under the sofa or not? We were planning to get a "heather" which is slightly flecked so it was the wool or non wool question that was troubling me. Sounds like your carpet wore well, and my gut instinc is that wool must be better.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks that's goo to know Mattice.

 

[mims&pip]

Hi PP,

We were originally planning to put carpet in the bedrooms at our last house and found some very nice natural sisal effect wool carpet that came in a variety of neutral tones in John Lewis that wasn't ruinously expensive iirc. I wouldn't want real sisal as it's too harsh underfoot imho :wink: In the end we went with floorboards and rugs though.

For reception rooms I confess I prefer bare floors/rugs, but at a previous house when our son was about two and we wanted comfort/warmth in the main living room we went for a dark green wool Turkish fitted carpet that cost £££. When we were selling we decided that potential buyers would most likely rip it out when the house was theirs, so prior to marketing we changed it for a neutral flecked polypropylene type and took the gorgeous green one with us to our new home where it was cut down to fit the stairs

Here we have parquet/painted floorboards in two of the reception rooms which we have *softened* with rugs, one of which is a polypropylene I believe (the other a rather lovely wool example from Liberty ) and if going down the rug route I would recommend a decent sized rug and placing the sofa on the rug (even the front legs are better than nothing!) so that it looks anchored properly rather than floating on the outer area of the floor!

Mims x

 

[LadyArowana]

If you have fitted carpet and then put a big rug on top it will most likely 'creep', even if it's anchored in places by heavy furniture. Smaller rugs aren't so bad, and even if you get movement it's easy to flip them up and down so they are flat again. Rugs do much better on a hard flat surface like wood or marble, particularly if you use a mesh type rubberised underlayer with them. I've only had our rugs on carpet in one house and it was slightly annoying. Any chance of persuading OH to something nice like a plain wool Gabbeh of room size rather than fitted?

 

[jocelyn plummer]

PP, I have always used Ryalux velvet, preferably King weight, but their Queen and twist ranges are excellent. As an alternative, Westex do some excellent velvets and Twists. Huge colour choices in both ranges and made from British Wool. Weight 80/20. made in 2 or 3 different widths to help avoid wastage. I always have powder blue shades for the main rooms and a deep red/burgundy for the entrance hall. An investment with a good long life, 15 years in one of our houses.

To prove my point, although comparatively expensive per metre, carpets from both ranges have survived Labrador puppies, Border Collies, Grandchildren, senior aged Labrador accidents, red wine, tea and coffee stains--- sounds horrendous doesn't it, but I promise you we are a really civilised family!!

John Lewis also do a good range of twists and velvets keenly priced, not sure about the source of wool but my my Sister in Law swears by hers withstanding her 3 lively Grandsons.

 

[mims&pip]

If you have fitted carpet and then put a big rug on top it will most likely 'creep', even if it's anchored in places by heavy furniture. Smaller rugs aren't so bad, and even if you get movement it's easy to flip them up and down so they are flat again. Rugs do much better on a hard flat surface like wood or marble, particularly if you use a mesh type rubberised underlayer with them. I've only had our rugs on carpet in one house and it was slightly annoying. Any chance of persuading OH to something nice like a plain wool Gabbeh of room size rather than fitted?

Oh yes, Lady A, I wasn't for one moment suggesting that a large rug would be *anchored* physically by the furniture if the rug was placed on top of a fitted carpet :wink:

I was referring to *visually* anchoring the rug by it being large enough for the furniture to be placed upon it (or at least the front edge/legs/feet of said furniture). Rugs that are too small and just sit *floating* in the centre of the room look so wrong imho. I'm personally not a fan of rugs on fitted carpets, although we have done this temporarily both here and at a previous house - mainly to cover up less than perfect carpets till we are brave enough to bare all (floorboards, that is!) in the warmer months!

Currently, for example, we have a fitted carpet in our bedroom that we inherited from the PO - over which is laying a smallish wool rug. Only thus week I was deliberating taking up said carpet as we were planning a dump run, but Pip dissuaded me as he hates the prospect of bare floorboards in Winter.....bless :roll:

Anyway, back to finish today's task which happens to be painting floorboards in readiness for the laying of a rather large rug!

Mims x

 

[plasticpigeon]

This is interesting. We are going for carpet for warmth and comfort and since I don't want to tidy up the floor boards. I did go for wool as it seems people here have had good experience with wool carpets.

Now I would have been all for painting the boards, maybe black or dark brown or even graining but again, not a suggestion well received, so having boards showing would mean sanding staining and varnishing, which I don't fancy at the moment. I have a few books with historic photographs and paintings of Victorian and Edwardian interiors. Not unusually most are of larger homes, and many have patterned fitted carpets. One feature that is ubiquitous is a hearth rug, either on top of the fitted carpet, or on top of the larger room rug. In my little house the room is only 14" by 12 at the extremes, and 18" can be taken off the shorter side for the chimney breast, so once a sofa is in there is only about 4' to the hearth. A hearth rug would effectively be floating in the middle of he room anyway, and I think it is the way we are going to go (sorry Mims!). At least it has a some historic precedent, although in a humble place like mine it might have been a rag rug, and not a Wilton or elaborately pattered affair!

 

[mims&pip]

No need to apologise, PP

A hearth rug is a different animal altogether (not a Zebra one hopefully, don't think she'd like that!) and will undoubtedly look perfect in your home that you have lovingly researched and restored I was thinking more along the lines of adding a small *area* rug that sits immediately in front of the sofa etc but think that whilst it's not a look I'd choose personally, I've perhaps been spending too much time on a US forum I frequent where they are obsessed with huge room-sized rugs anchored by the furniture......

Can't wait to see the finished article btw!

Mims x