Sisal carpet in living room - thoughts!

[Bamboopole]

Need a sense check - old draughty floorboards, need to warm up the room. New hardwood floor would be very expensive due to original intricate skirting and panelling (and mounted electrics). I think sisal/natural carpet could be a good and much cheaper alternative. DP thinks I'm insane and that it's not possible due to wood burning stove.

Struggling to find images as obviously more common for stairs but I'm sure I've seen some elegant examples. Is it a bad idea?

Like this?

No way. We had some in the previous house and couldn’t afford to replace. So so uncomfortable - either cosy carpet, or proper hard wood/good qual laminate but can’t stand the feel of sisal and it’s a nightmare to clean too.

it was in the living room of my mum's house (installed by previous owners). not nice on kids bare feet (or even in socks) but otherwise it is OK if you then have lots of thin decorative rugs on top (ideally antique persian ones like in the picture above).

it is a bit warmer than floorboards or stone.

This is one of the worries - I was warned off ever putting it on stairs due to someone's child falling and hurting/cutting themselves badly.

it’s a nightmare to clean

Absolutely. All those ridges that collect dirt, crumbs, etc.

Picture looks lovely though. And it's a fab natural material. Not for this climate though.

It’s a no from me too. We rented somewhere once that had it and was so rough to walk on!

My parents had a lot of that when I was growing up and I must say I would never want it myself. Very uncosy, doesn’t wear particularly well, not nice to walk on in socks, hard to clean. We have a large square rag rug on our Victorian sitting room floorboards and it has worked well for making it more cosy (I didn’t want carpet), soft enough without being carpety, thick enough it doesn’t ruck. It wasn’t ruinous either, think it was £300 or £400?

I was warned off ever putting it on stairs due to someone's child falling and hurting/cutting themselves badly.

Well, there you go then, that's a no-no.

It was in the living room of our current house when we moved in. Awful stuff. So rough on the feet and gets grotty quickly too. We replaced it with engineered wood.

Unbearable on naked feet.

Ok, this was the sense check I needed! Thanks all.

Take a look at Unnatural Flooring Co's faux sisal carpets.

They look great, easy to clean and are so much nicer underfoot than sisal.

We stayed in a place that had it. Excruciating to walk on in bare feet. Plus, how do you clean it? Horrid stuff.

never Would I ever

Oh god no. Infuriatingly difficult to clean! It's basically impossible.

Remember someone mentioning how difficult sisal would be if someone was sick on the floor. I wasn't keen on it beforehand and that finished off any desire I ever had to consider it.

Impossible to clean and horrible underfoot. Never again for us

I've got it in my new house. I like it and just vacuum as normal

I had sisal with deep underlay in my bedroom - thought it would be OK in a low-traffic area. It felt fine, looked lovely - impossible to properly clean, even water stains it. I had to buy a product from America to get a water stain out and even that didn't get a second one out. Way too impractical.

You could get a large sisal rug and see how you feel with that.

It's not very cosy I it?

I've loved the look for years, before it ws everywhere last time, but doesn't seem practical. I've just looked at faux ones thanks to the poster above. They look fab, especially the herring bone. Hope it's something you can consider OP.

If you like sisal, what about a very large jute rug? Easier to live with but a similar look.

We had a large jute rug once, the cat loved to use it like a litter tray.

There are some lovely very soft wool textured carpets in that barley/wheat colour that makes sisal seem appealing.