Stair runner! Carpet! Help!

[tigerpug]

We have an old house with two staircases and a long hallway on the 1st floor which connects them. We want to have a stair runner fitted which will go on both staircases.

I have fallen for Sudbury Brick, thank you Roger Oates and your stair runners woven with real gold thread (surely thats why they are so expensive??)
www.rogeroates.com/products/runners/red/

Anyway, I am still looking around for other alternatives because I know the quote will send Dh a funny shade of green when i tell him.

BUT I have my heart set on having the same design along the upstairs hallway, which will need to be a fitted carpet. Have any of you lovely mumsnetters done the same thing - i.e. a matching stair runner AND carpet.

I cant help but think if i go for different designs on the stairs and hallway then its going to look a bit shit.

I think you can have a runner cut from carpet and the edges bound. With the right width of carpet you can probably cut one piece of carpet into two runners the correct width, pattern permitting.

Hi Fudge, i thought that might be the case and spoke to the man in the carpet shop about this. BUT I'm struggling to find any carpet which would look good as a stair runner - and i really cant find anything that looks like the Roger Oates one.

Yes I am making life harder then it needs to be. I just LOVE the design.

I hope you don't have cats - when the claw flatweave carpets it causes 'pulls'

I really wanted a Roger Oates stair runner, but when I made a comment about cats they very honestly told me that flat weave carpets don't go well with cats!

That's an interesting point as I've had carpet sales people tell me that about cats too. We found that our cat preferred scratching cut pile carpet as she didn't like catching her claws. Consequently it was the cut pile hall carpet she wrecked and not the flat weave or looped pile ones!

No cats, just 2 small boys. will keep their claws trimmed regularly!

I've had looped and cats and the problem I found is that if they do claw it, it pulls..and then runs. But cut pile carpet just seems to go fluffy, imho.

I love Roger Oates as well - why don't you continue the runner upstairs on the landing - they do various widths if it needs to be a bit wider than the stairs? The other alternative is oriental runners - we bought some turkish ones and used those up the stairs as runners - DH did it himself.

hi bilbo, I've spoken to roger oates (not himself, i dont think he needs to answer the phone anymore) and they cant supply the runner with enough width for the hallway. Id love to have the runner going straight up and along, but the floorboards are awful on the hallway and so fitted carpet is our only option.

they did say they could custom make something but even they said it would be an expensive option so i hate to think what it would cost.

off to google oriental runners now, but again i dont think this would work because one of our staircases curves so anything that goes on the stairs would need to be cut and stitched to fit the curve

Could you go to your independent carpet shop and explain that you want something like the Roger Oates Sudbury brick, but less expensive and with the option of various widths to carpet the landing?

I did this when I was looking for a particular type of carpet and they were really helpful in sourcing what I wanted even though they didn't usually stock it.

Ive just found this who do something similar and it looks like it can be carpet and runner. I will ring them tomorrow
www.hartleytissier.com/inspiration-residential

thanks snowgirl, but I've already asked the question and the local (but very good) carpet shop owner couldn't think of anything that was similar. perhaps i should try another place, although we are quite limited around here

Could you have a runner down the hallway?

Yes - I agree with a runner down the hallway too. I think they look best when everything is the same width