Is a cream carpet and a toddler asking for trouble?

[Jennisaurus]

We are going to recarpet the downstairs of our house (living room, dining room, hallway and stairs) after Christmas and I have been looking. Fallen in love with a beautiful beigey/cream carpet but I am concerned that my nearly 1 year old will trash it.

DH thinks it will be fine, but he would happily live in a soil pit and thinkg its fine

What do you think?

Message withdrawn

When you say cream do you mean a carpet of the almost white fluffy cream variety? If you are really looking for neutrality and practicality then have a look at the natural flooring (sisal, jute etc). As I said ours is a wool/sisal mix - it is still quite hard and firm underfoot but the wool makes it not quite as hard as pure sisal. It is probably more beige than cream but still quite light and the natural fibres make it a bit flecky which is more forgiving.

Jennisaurus - I have a friend WITHOUT kids who totally regrets having a cream carpet. We have a sort of beige/camel colour - it's very neutral and has coped with most spills pretty well

Jennisaurus - I'd like to know what would be a good alternative too - I need stair carpet - I am wondering if I go for something expensive and scotchguarded, whether I'd get away with something that's not too dark (but not cream).

reading this through I'm glad that we have wooden (hard when you fall down) floors!

We have sisal carpets in the playroom and up the stairs etc. I don't recommend it. It's slippery on the stairs and very hard on small feet and knees.

As for the white/cream carpet - well what is really asking for is a contract cleaner once a month and an industrial measure of carpet cleaner I think!

Good luck.

Just had an idea - how about a wooden floor with some of those foam jigsaw mats (available various toy shops) where children can play and will be safe if they are tumbling about?

We actually have lovely wooden floors, but they are too much of a hassle, DD bangs her head on them and mostly they are completely covered by rugs.

I have looked at the sisal, and it does seem very rough and scratchy...

Oh no, I am worrying about carpets too... I was looking at that same square-embossed waddly stuff.

What colour CAN I go for? Links to samples please! Can't afford wooden flooring - too pricy innit really?

In our last house we had a caramel sort of colour with flecks in it which hid a multitude of sins! It was a high wool percentage & quite expensive.

I have a new fluffy cream carpet in my ensuite. It has been down since June & I am the /only/ person who uses the room, /without/ shoes, & already it's looking a bit grubby

(OK, the italics don't work!)

DONT JUST DONT..........I WANT CREAM IN MY NEW HOUSE......ALL THE WAY THROUGH.........cos it will go with all the paint colours we have chosen!!!!

Go for it....cream all the way through. Just buy a load of plastic sheeting to put down on top of it!! LOL

It would make me shudder every time someone went in with a glass of red wine or a toddler with chocolate pudding on his hands! Aaarrgh!!

DONT DO IT

keep the cream carpet for YOUR bedroom. That is what we have done!

In our old house we inherited a grey mottled carpet. Sounds disgusting BUT it did not show the dirt. Only ever noticed how dirty it was if you lay down on the floor!!!!!

All my kids had grown up (youngest 15) so I bought 2 very large, very comfy VERY WHITE sofa's. Gransdon recently came to live with us and one now has a permanent tea-coloured stain on one arm. Lovely, certainly add something to my colour scheme.

Yes.

We've got a cream carpet and an 8 month old, but I'd class ours as more of a natural colour. It's got speckles in it, so any marks don't realy show up....!
Here ya go, I've taken a quick pick of it for ya....!
img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/francesong/DSCF1483.jpg

I like that jellybabe, where is it from? I have looked at speckly ones, but they all seem very pink/grey and I want more of a beige/gold tint.

DD smeared yogurt into my rug this morning, so that sort of confirmed that maybe cream would not work for us!

We have cream carpets in both the lounge and sitting room - and have 3 kids!

The lounge carpet had just been laid before we moved in, the sitting room had an awful patterned carpet which we replaced with cream after decorating.

Both have survived the kids - they were 3.5, 18 months and I was 6 months pregnant when we moved in.

Like Donbean, we also have a "no-shoes" policy in the house (not sure why this caused arguments in previous threads - most of my friends/family have a "no-shoes" rule).

You might not be asking for trouble, just constant shampooing of same carpet. Perhaps you like shampooing the carpet?

pay whatever it costs to get it protected! we didnt much to my sorrow! and many cans of vanish!

We have a very pale yellow carpet and a 2.4 year old plus 7 month old, and yet the carpet is still pristeen.

How? - no shoes policy, no eating in the sitting room, and non spill bottles for my dd to have her drinks from. I don't think any of this is particularly repressive and yet its done the trick.

Also, get the carpet scotchguarded.

jennisaurus - The carpet was from Carpetright, but I wouldn't recommend using their fitters, because we had a big problem with them... lets just say, three colours, and third time round they got it right.....!
Fran
xx