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.

We have good quality laminate it's not cold on the feet but we also have a huge soft rug that cost £60. Much cheaper to replace a rug then a full lounge carpet.

Next door neighbour have laminated floors everywhere and you can hear everything too. You don't have that with carpet, at least it insulates the sound. I love carpet in the hallway ( I use several runners so that most of the footfall is covered by those). I can't stand laminate flooring.

All bedrooms are carpeted.

Whole house has laminate (upstairs) hardwood (downstairs). But both my living rooms have thick pile rugs that fit right up to the walls, so looks like it’s a fitted carpet. I got the carpet for comfort and that homely feel. Also, kids prefer the carpet to lay on and relax and play.
We got ours made to measure, and because they aren’t fitted we can remove and clean/wash if we need. Also means when they wear down (or the DC vomit on them,)you just get a replacement!

We have luxury vinyl wooden floor on our lounge and I love it but I think it only works because of a big rug we have with it.

In your situation is avoid carpet 100% given the lounge links to the outdoors and instead compromise with your husband with a big rug!

Compromise a laminate floor as easy to clean then large rug for cosiness.

A lot less mucky than LVT. We’re a shoes on house, if I walk around barefoot on the Amtico kitchen floor my feet are filthy, they’re clean on the carpet. it’s warmer, quieter and cosier too.

Apart from the fact that carpets downstairs are very dated nowadays

I think it's still the norm to have carpet in a living room.

Personally I like a nice big rug because I want warmth & softness underneath but not a cheap option.

We used to live in a house where the living room was the only access to the garden via french doors. We had 2 dogs.

Put parquet flooring throughout downstairs (other than kitchen) & had a large rug in the middle of the room. We had a carpet cleaner which we used several times a year on the rug.

It also helped to have a patio with drainage outside the french doors so mud & grass wasn't trailed straight in.

Thick heavy curtains at the doors minimised heat loss in winter.

We have oak flooring. I honestly hate carpet. Might look nice for a bit but it never lasts. A decent wood floor will outlive a carpet one by a long way. Big rugs look great and it’s SO much easier to keep clean!

I cannot think of a single person I know uber the age of 80 with carpet downstairs

Much prefer hardwood floors so can clean properly and look much nicer like solid oak. Not a huge fan of laminate but would still prefer over carpet for cleaning purposes. We wear slippers.

It has to be a warm material like wood or laminate, not tile, for warmth. I have a huge rug, which can be moved or rolled aside if necessary, though it's heavy. I have asthma and the carpet isn't an issue.

All these people saying carpets are manky honestly!!

Hard floor and a rug all the way. We have only got carpet in our bedroom now since moving and got hard floors in the kids room with a rug as it’s so much easier to clean. Since hoovering my room regularly and seeing how quickly the hoover fills up I can’t believe we actually had carpet in the living room for so long, it seems so unhygienic now

We have laminate through our downstairs. Thought it would be better for the dog, as we just have patio doors out to our garden from the living room, which it is, means we can clean easier, but it's not very cosy, and our baby is learning to walk and has taken a few tumbles. We're about to move into a fixer upper and will be having carpet in the living room. I miss the cosy feel. Our new house has a connected living room, then dining room, then kitchen into utility room. Likely will have laminate/Vinyl throughout the others for ease of cleaning but keep carpet in the living room.

It’s fashion. Carpets were fashionable for years and they were fine. These things go in cycles and I reckon they’re due a comeback whereupon they’ll be highly sought after and hard floors all over the country will disappear again.

If it opens out doors hard floor to be able to take outside shoes off when you get in and a large lush rug under the couch etc. no carpet where outdoor shoes hit.

Team Carpet here, we have LVT everywhere else on the ground floor but always carpet in the living room for cosiness and quietness. Most of my friends have them too, so much nicer underfoot. Hoover regularly, vax periodically and it stays clean and cosy. If you'll be using the back doors regularly get a hug rug or similar for just inside.

We have hard wood down on our living room floor with a big rug, as we have a cat and children and we also have to walk through our living room to get to the kitchen. If our living room was not used as a walkway to the kitchen then I’d have a carpet.

Eh? I'm 35 and can think of one person I know with a hardwood living room floor and rug. All my other friends live in houses they've decorated in line with current trends, most of them in large detached houses they can afford to spend money on - everyone has a carpeted living room.

The only people I can think of with hard flooring in their living rooms are all 80+.

It’s actually the opposite for me. The only house I visited regularly where there was carpet in the lounge was my 80 year old Mums, and she was talking about changing it

We're moving to a new build and I've requested carpet in the living room, stairs, landing and bedrooms. Karndean flooring everywhere else. That's my ideal set up

Blossomtoes - "A lot less mucky than LVT. We’re a shoes on house, if I walk around barefoot on the Amtico kitchen floor my feet are filthy, they’re clean on the carpet. it’s warmer, quieter and cosier too."

The reason you have doormats at entrances is to trap the dirt from your shoes as you walk in. A carpet or rug adjacent to a hard floor will work like that too; it will trap dirt walked onto it from the hard floor. So whilst the carpet seems to be cleaner, there will in fact be dirt from the hard floor within it. If your hard floors are grubby enough to dirty your feet, your carpets will be grubby too.

I think both look nice. Carpet is soft, insulating and makes a space less noisy. But its not great to walk in off a garden onto carpet and its harder hoovering. I think they wear quickly too so need replacing a lot to keep nice. We have carpet next to laminate and the laminatd still looks new but the carpet is wrecked and we are replacing with hard floor..