How to choose a carpet when you hate carpets!? Please share inspo!!

[adaisy1394]

So, I have just got the keys to my first house - a Victorian terrace with lovely high ceilings.

When buying the seller noted the humungous corner wardrobe was built in, I argued this as it was just a free standing piece of furniture, it was clearly just surplus to his requirements. Well it turns out he wasn't bluffing, the carpet was fitted around the monstrous thing which means we have a huge chunk of carpet missing (not something coverable by anything other than the wardrobe which is so hideous it would ruin the room). We therefore thought, lovely, lets sand off the floorboards and put a lovely rug down.

Wrong.

The floorboards have signs of historic woodworm and have been patched up and taken out etc over the years. We would have a lot of work on our hands fixing/ replacing/ insulating/ sanding/ staining and have enough on removing the wallpaper from the flaking plaster. We have accepted defeat and decided its far easier to just stick another carpet down and forget what lurks beneath.

But I hate carpet. I'm already heartbroken that it will be on every floor in our house but as a starter home I just cant justify the time and money of installing wood floors. I hate that carpets seem to cling to dust and muck and I hate that they make a room feel quite dark and how they wear down in high traffic areas or get dinted by furniture. I've also never bought a carpet before but do like the looks of a Berber loop style I think.

Can anyone share ideas or even inspo from your own home, the room is big - 4m x 6m and we are going for timeless (dulux) on 3 walls and stiffkey blue (F&B) on the big wall behind the bed, facing the window. Also need a carpet for the spare room which will be denim drift (dulux).

Help appreciated - we do have a v tight budget, id even watched youtubes on how to fit the carpet but decided its like plastering - an art form best left to the experts!!

Thanks in advance!

back in the 40s and 50s people used large, almost room sized rugs/carpets before fitted carpets were a thing and then painted or varnished the area round the edges. If you put good underlay under the carpet this would cover the bad bits of flooring. For the carpet you could try and find some cheap off cuts or end of range? Or look for second hand oriental rugs. Could look very good.

Thanks bilbodog, I go like a good oriental carpet, also love berber rugs and Gabbeh carpets but they do all look so lovely on a wooden floor rather than atop other carpets :(

Why put down carpet if you hate carpet? What about that wood-a-like Karndean?
whatever flooring you end up choosing, make sure you put down some super thick underlay, that goes for carpet or any other flooring. It will make the world of difference in sound and temperature to your house.

Cloud 9 underlay is awesome.

Could you consider painting the floors? We did this in our old house as they weren't really in good enough condition to be left but we don't really like wall to wall carpet either. They ended up looking really good painted with a rug over the top - a combination of thick paint and the rug meant that while the damaged bits were still there, they weren't really very noticeable.

Another carpet hater here - I feel your pain! We are facng exactly the same with our new house, although only upstairs, thank god. I am looking at this sea-grass style as it sort of side-steps the horrid carpet look and is nice and hard wearing. Quite a nice alternative I think.

www.sisalandseagrass.co.uk/ranges/sisal-carpet

What is inspo please tell me?

...cancel, I've just googled. Another ridiculous "word" Grrrr.

Every day's a school day hairyscarey!

I like having carpets upstairs and in living room but hard floors in other living areas - saves every corner getting dusty too. And rugs corners always turn up.

Also share your pain. The floorboards on our landing are in terrible condition but I hate carpet especially in a high traffic area like that. If we had more money I'd got for good cork flooring, it feels lovely and is great for absorbing sound. In a bedroom, painting the boards and putting one of those huge rugs could be a good solution.

Second the above suggestion for sisal/seagrass/coir type carpet - can look lovely, often cheaper, just avoid in any areas where spillage likely as it’s a pain in the arse to clean. Is v hard-wearing though.

Yep, sisal! We have sisal in our bedrooms and on the stairs - much more hygienic than carpet, looks nice, very hardwearing.

I too hate carpet.

I have laminate but I did consider lino.

You can get some really nice lino and create beautiful patterns. You can then put a carpet square on top if you want.

I also agree with painting floor boards, but little tip, use bathroom sealant between the boards first, it will stop drafts.

I also dislike carpet.
We're trying to figure out how to remove carpet in the upstairs hallway, but I'm a bit worried about wooden flooring being too slippery and sending the kids flying down the stairs!

Agree with Sashh We have similar rubbish floorboards but have good quality laminate on them, which is very easy to keep clean. Another benefit is that the underlay helps reduce the noise.

What makes sisal more hygienic n0ne? Curious as we need to do something about our stairs.

Thank for all suggestions! Relented due to budget and went for a light beige Berber loop carpet which has a sisal kind of look to it, also kindly being given some unwanted engineered wood flooring by a colleague whose room is huge by means we can floor our tiny dining room!

Also hate carpet - just made similar move to you OP and have uncovered mostly decent floorboards, which we'll paint white in a couple of rooms but will need large rugs on top. Have you considered an engineered wood floor?