Hate new stair carpet

[ilkleymoorbartat]

Total first world problems I realise. Have attached pics. Gah, I hate it! I don’t know exactly what I’m asking but aibu, and if not what should I do!

I don't think you should do anything with the carpet or stair-case. The carpet looks fine, I'd say at the moment you are just looking downwards at it and not looking at the bigger picture if the entire house.

If anything, I'd say the stark white isn't doing any of the hall justice.

If you hang some paintings, prints, art-work on the walls, it will draw the eye upwards. A mirror hung in the hall, a piece of furniture, etc and the carpet will fade into the overall look.

I think it looks great, and you will get used to it.

Needs lightened up I think. We have white woodwork and a dark handrail, lighter carpet works for us with herringbone flooring

I think it looks too brown and clashes with the bannister wood. So stain wood darker or paint black and change or remove the trim? I think the dark brown trim is bringing out the brown in the carpet too.

As pp have said I think the dark brown edges aren't great in themselves and also don't really work with the black railings and wooden rail. Too much going on.

I think I would try painting the railings white to match the stairs and leaving the natural wood rail as it is.

I don’t hate it at all!

I’d have gone for more of a grey and less creamy walls (a white with a hint of blue rather than cream) but that’s just me!

I love the black spindles and newel posts. Don't paint them white!!!

@ilkleymoorbartat

I think it’s too brown, definitely wanted something neutral but with a bit of texture. It’s faux sisal, the feel is nice, but it’s just too brown I think. All the other were too warm which is why we went for this one.

I was going to say it is a very nice style, but I wouldn’t have gone for that colour, it might have been nice in say blue. This does indeed look very brown, I don’t know what you can do about it being brown though. 🙁

I think your easiest and probably cheapest move is to do something to the bannister rail (where you put the hand?). Either paint it or varnish a different colour

I think you could be on to something changing the edges. I wasn’t a fan of the green or the slate though. Can you photoshop the edges to be the same colour as the stairs (actual stairs not the carpet) and see what that looks like? That way it might not accentuate then colour of the carpet as much.

Here it is without taping and darker handrail

The edging looks smarter. It looks cheap and unfinished without it. I like the darker handrail though, it has taken the ‘orangey’ tone down considerably.

I would keep the edging and much prefer the darker handrail.

Do you think change the edging for a different colour though, I feel like the brown edging is the thing that's making it worse?!

My favourite so far is the black edging with the darker handrail, @ilkleymoorbartat

Definitely change the edging, it's too wide and brown! A contrasting colour or thinner bands of two colours might really work at improving the overall look of the runner and reducing the brownness.

If it were me I'd paint all of the woodwork white and have a stronger colour on the walls, although I appreciate that's a lot of work. Just changing the banister colour will help though as it's too orange

No taping is better than the brown taping but I think a different colour/width taping would be best of all

I think too many shades of brown. Light flooring, dark handrail and the carpet. How about painting the handrail black to match?

Like the darker handrail. I’d suggest getting in and doing this, plus putting up pictures/plants etc to make it more lived in. Then reassess.

A lot of the photos you’ve put up as guide photos, you seem to have taken elements of, but what you’ve taken doesn’t quite work together. So one of them, the carpet goes all across the stair and looks fine, in another there are stair rods which you’ve not used. There are things you can do to make this look better which are less drastic than immediately ripping it all out.

The taping makes is very elegant.

I like the darker handrail. I think I actually prefer it without the taping too though I can see why others don't.

Much better without taping

I really like it a lot better minus the taping.

I think the darker handrail does help but I think you should take a photo from just inside the front door but with the front door closed so it isn't in the photo, and photoshop that as well. You need to take into account the warm colour of the wooden floor, @ilkleymoorbartat. There is no point making the staircase look beautiful if the staircase doesn't look good with the hallway flooring.

I still think you should think about the other elements first - the artwork, rugs, furniture, plants etc. That said, the no tape option will work with anything so it won't make things worse, but it might be an unnecessary cost.

It's a lovely staircase. It is brown but I'm sure you'll get used to it. You must have liked it originally but I think it takes a few days to get used to something new.