Talk to me about stair runners

[jimmyeatworld]

There is so many and my mind is blown. I like the beige ones. Also grey. Do we have to have the same carpet on the landing or is a similar tone okay?

When we had one, we carried it along the hallway. I’m sure there’s are different ways to do it, though.

And it’s a pain in the arse to keep white paint clean besides the runners, far worse than the skirting board.

I DIY'd this.

It looks great. Points :

i) It takes ages to prepare the stairs, sand, fill in all the gaps, paint.

ii) They don't get any more dirty than normal carpets. But the dirt shows up more at the sides, so you need to clean more.

iii) Its generally pretty cheap. I think it cost me £500 to do two flights of stairs myself. You can get loads of runner rugs and cool patterns. I got mine from Dunhelm. I think your "greige" style runners you have there are a missed opportunity. A runner rug with a coloured border against white looks really good to me. Just google for some ideas.

iv) The biggest issue is finding a way to terminate neatly. You can get aluminium profiles that fit over the top bullnose or I guess you can extend the runner over the top stair. I got the profile. The bottom again can be tricky. I made up a wooden bar to hide the finish behind.

v) You will need a stapler and I used that in conjunction with strong double sided carpet tape. A pair of carpet scissors comes in useful too.

v) Finish off the look with stair rods !

This is a great reply, thank you !!
Any pics of your stairs ? If you don’t mind sharing that is.

I have an original terrazzo floor in the hallway, would this ochre runner look good with it ?

I think with that floor the entire place is very white/light coloured so something with a strong dark colour to contrast, both on the door mat and the runner border would look good.

I am not the best at picking colours though.

We opted against one as my mum had one and said it’s a pain to keep the stairs clean. Dust gathers on the white sides and you have to hoover or wipe it daily.

I'd pick out the 'ochre'/greyish? colour from the lovely terrazzo floor and go for a similar tone. I think the one you've shown is a bit insipid and more yellowy. But that could be my screen display. :)

I think daily is maybe a bit over the top.

Unless you are a family of ten who refuse to take your shoes off indoors and are tramping mud all the way up the stairs on a daily basis.

I definitely clean mine more than I used to, but probably once every 2 weeks is about right.

I have a strong dislike for stair runners because of the dirt and dust and hair that gathers at the sides. Do factor this in. If it's white paint then you will see every speck.

gah it’s driving me insane 😆

Right, what colour for the landing carpet would work with this?!

The last one you posted is better imo, @jimmyeatworld, although I'd still want to pick something with a more 'interesting' colour border, iyswim? Of course, that's probably just my particular taste, but I think with your lovely terrazzo floor you could go - a bit - wild on the stairs!

In 2013, we DIY fitted a stair runner in our semi-rural house. We painted the stairs in a darkish cream (probably Craig & Rose Pale Oak as that was our go to neutral back then) and added a flatweave runner - and bronze coloured stair rods - from Roger Oates, that I managed to pick up for a bargain price on eBay. It was fiddly to lay as we had typical cottage-y winding stairs, but it looked great.

Our runner was in natural shades but had an orange/brick red border stripe. We had contrasting persian rugs/runners on the stripped and waxed floorboards in the adjacent hall and landing. It had an eclectic, country house vibe which is obviously not the clean lines/contemporary look you're intending. No photos unfortunately as we sold that house so long ago.

I'm currently in the process of doing the stairs in our Georgian cottage. The stairs are going to be Little Greene Lamp Black with a vibrant runner...once I've found something that ties in all the other colours we have going on!

If you have a pattern, I'd pick out the darkest colour for the paintwork; if not, any strong colour that matches the walls and shows off the colour of the carpet. Absolutely not white, it looks awful unless you clean to showhome standards.

@jimmyeatworld Just had a chap around to quote for stair carpet and landing. We were chatting about different costs, I'd have thought whipping the carpet edge would be dearer than taping but apparently not in the case he showed me. But anyway we also chatted about to go with a runner or not. So funnily the first thing he said was about the 'dust piles' you get on the stairs at the edge from the carpet. Made my mind up, we're going full width! :)