Carpet in the living room - debate

[Jamjarcandlestick]

We live in a fixer upper and currently renovating downstairs. Our house is a funny layout but adjoining rooms (utility, downstairs bathroom & kitchen) will be tiled but now we’re looking at decor for our living room that opens onto the back garden.

DH is very laidback and doesn’t really have much of an opinion on the decor as a whole but seems firmly set on that living rooms have to be carpeted. Honestly he’s horrified at the idea of a hard floor (was looking at wood but due to budget probably laminated) as apparently carpet is homely, and all living rooms are carpet.

As there’s only been a couple of things DH has an opinion on I’ve gone with just as I’m making 99% of all decisions but I don’t know why I can’t seem to agree on it.

I’m not sure either. I’ve got laminate down at the moment and like how you can completely clean it. I would like a cosy carpet but worry about dust and fibres as I’ve got asthma

Carpet is much warmer underfoot obviously. The compromise might be a hard floor with a really good rug.

What's your objection to carpet?

I have LVT in my whole house apart from the stairs.
It’s hoovered 2 or 3 times a week and mopped twice, we are a no shoes past the hallway house too.
If I walk round barefoot my feet get grubby - imagine how mucky carpet would be?

I have carpet in my living room at the moment and everyone comments on how cosy it feels. I'm about to move house at the moment though and considering getting laminate floors in the living room there even though I love having carpet in the living room, just because laminate is so much easier to keep clean.

I'd worry if your living room opens to the garden as it may get dirty as people come in if it's been wet outside. Although you could get mats by the door.

I lifted hard floor and replaced with good quality carpet. My DP loves comfort and hates being cold. Even though our house is always warm he 'feels cold' if walking on hard floor. In our kitchen, where we spend more time the room is bigger and all wood floor but he never feels cold there. I think it's perception. It meant alot to him so we changed and I prefer the living room with carpet now.

Especially in your case, where living room opens to back garden, I'd definitely go with hard flooring. And even more so if you have kids/ pets (dogs). But I don't get the point of carpet, especially coming from people that mostly wear shoes indoors 😏

My lounge is carpeted (only room that is downstairs) and has French doors that open onto the back garden patio. But no one ever enters the garden from the lounge. Our kitchen side door opens onto the same patio and everyone enters and exits via this door. It is also where we store one set each of our outdoor shoes to go outside. If someone is very dirty from being outside they enter the house via the utility.

If the only doors directly onto the back garden are via the lounge I would put down LVT which would be better for wetness than laminate.

Carpet floors get quite grubby so I'm with you on that OP. Could you compromise on some really nice area rugs that also help accentuate the room?

As to alternatives, I hate laminate with a passion honed by years in rental properties - looks artificial as hell and is glacial underfoot. My preference would be wood (or an avant-garde polished concrete) - neither was an option in my current 19th century cottage due to slanted floors. Went for an eco LVT in arctic wood optic and am reasonably happy.

Living in cooler Scotland with a north facing living room and a concrete floor we prefer nice thick underlay and carpet. It would be a cold room and/or require more heating without it. We have hard floors everywhere else in the house but living room, stairs and upstairs hallway we stick with carpet.

We have wood floors and rugs downstairs and carpet going up the stairs and in the bedrooms. I'd prefer wood everywhere, but dh likes carpet in the bedrooms. You can't clean carpets properly though. I hate them and I think they smell.

I got rid of our carpet and put flooring down with a big fluffy rug.

I love carpet but I would never spend ££££ on one as we tend to redecorate every few years and get new ones to match, that way they always stay quite new and fresh too. I know people will say that’s wasteful but oh well.

We have carpet in the lounge but we are a shoes off household.

Apart from the fact that carpets downstairs are very dated nowadays, they give me grubby vibes. We have a wooden floor in our sitting room with a large rug. This rug is mostly white (a stupid style over practicality choice on my part) and we have to 'Rug Doctor' it regularly - about 4x per year. The water we empty from the machine is disgusting.

I did a mental scan of all our friends' houses and can't think of one that has downstairs carpets. Years ago, we all did. We do have carpet on the stairs and in all of the bedrooms.

We used to have carpeted rooms downstairs because the floors were chipboard. As soon as I moved into a house with decent floorboards, I wanted hard floors everywhere. At one point, we did end up carpeting one room and it made a huge difference to how warm it felt in winter. Now we have hard floors with large rugs in sitting room and dining rooms.

I would only have carpet now if we had no pets - carpets and family life are not a good mix.

We moved in new house and its carpet in living room. I am not a fan, i prefer flooring but its brand new carpet. I do have allergies so i did buy a carpet cleaner machine and plan to clean the carpet every two months or so for now.

Carpet nowadays are bleach cleanable and we have a vax carpet cleaner run that over it once a month looks fine
any marks or mishaps no big deal vax literally takes minutes no more hassle than hoovering it

Hard floor and he gets to choose the rugs

In a previous house we had tiles all downstairs. Hideous for warmth and cosiness, it always felt cold and you always had to have thick socks or slippers on.
Couldn't wait to move and have carpet in living room.
If I moved into a house with hard floor living room it would be thr first thing ripped up.

You can do nice with a good rug. But hard floors everywhere are an acoustic disaster for one.

Downstairs we only have carpet in the living room. We are a shoes off family and don’t have pets. The carpet doesn’t get dirty and feels soft underfoot and cosy in the winter.

Not a fan of laminate. Particularly the open plan, bifold door laminated from front door to back look.

I decorated on a room by room basis. Kitchen and bathroom tiled. Hall laminate. Dining room laminate. Stairs runner Ed with carpet. Landing, bedrooms, sitting room carpet.

I’m with your DH. I really don’t like laminate much. Our living room carpet is lovely and soft underfoot and the room feels warm. DH wanted laminate originally but now loves the carpet and is glad we went for it.

We have a hardwood floor we put down a few years ago. We only have carpet on the stairs, upstairs landing and a couple of bedrooms. So much easier to clean the floors.

We ripped up all the carpet downstairs and put laminate down. It was ruined and we preferred the look of laminate and also have kids so much easier to clean up etc.
It is however a lot colder now in the winter.
I'd still choose laminate even though it's colder due to ease of cleaning up.
You can always put a rug down for warmth/comfort.