Friday 18 April 2008

am I completely crazy...

If this photo was a true indication of the colours, I'd go far left, but in reality, it's quite yellow. My fave is the Aged Driftwood (second from right).

...wanting a light carpet in my house with small children? We're just about to pull up our ancient cream carpet that is not only painted in places (we didn't bother being careful when we knew it was coming up!) but was laid over even older, grosser carpet and which shows through some cut-outs where the old wall was in our bedroom (we ripped it out to take it back to its original size). Now I always thought I'd go a medium brown similar to the colour of my couch - I hear a dirt colour is best as it doesn't show up the, well, dirt! But I'm worried it will date or I'd get sick of it or have to put a sign up warning people there is a LOT of dark brown in this house... So I was thinking something lighter. Like cream. Or latte. Or mocha. Damn, all the carpet-colour talk is making me hungry...

But carpets seem to have come a long way from the time it was last laid in this house which was probably about 20 years ago. There is such a thing as solution dyed nylon which one place I visited today claims is so good, even bleach will wash out of it. And they guarantee that for 15 years. That's a pretty big call. So if bleach is cleanable, I'm guessing mashed crayons and playdoh are also likely wash out. Eventually!

I braved the rain and Zak's hate of shopping to visit a few carpet places today. I thought it'd all come down to the feel of the carpet, but it turned out I was much more fussy about colour! There were not many I really liked - too yellow, too dark, too grey, too flecky. In the end I grabbed a sample pack of Godrey Hirst Campaspe with a view to get the colour second from the right (it's called Aged Driftwood), but now I'm worried about two things: is the colour I really love too light for relatively high-traffic areas (it'll be in Zak's room as well as our room and the hallway) and is it not soft and plushy enough? I thought the really soft plushy stuff that feels awesome underfoot is what I'd choose, but it shows up every footprint and vacuum mark and isn't quite as hardy. My points to talk me into going with this particular choice - colour and texture - are this:

- If the house had had new carpet when we bought it, we couldn't have chosen it anyway!
- I won't be rolling around on the floor all day and so the feel of it won't really matter. It's not like it's in the living room.
- Anything is better than what we have now.
- I can create the soft feel with lambskin rugs near my bed where my feet first land anyway.
- Zak's room will have the zebra-print rug in it anyway and only the edges of his room will be exposed to his baby messes.
- It's not going to cost me an arm and leg to install.

Um, are these silly reasons to buy a carpet? I don't know. I'll be studying the carpet guide that will be in our next issue, but also was curious for your thoughts. Has anyone bought the thicker textured stuff before and then regretted it cause it wasn't so soft? Any other advice? What do you think about the colour I chose?
x

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, so I just read your post and thought 'I'm not alone!' I wanted medium brown carpet also - and thats all I cared about - the feel or type of carpet did not concern me as much. They were all too grey, too murky, too yellow or too purple. I FINALLY found one that was perfect from Harvey Norman. It had to wear quite well (its laid on our stairs, and down the hallway, as well as in the bedrooms), and not be wool, as my husband is asthmatic. We ended up with quite a long pile, that is very cushy, with a SUPER thick underlay (it was hilarious the first time our puppy walked on it. We had lived with concrete floors for 4 years, and she couldn't figure out what it was - she looked like the was walking on the moon! LOL!). I love how soft it is, and don't think it matters that you can see a few footprints in it - better that then seeing dirt or wear. I also honestly think that the woven weave/textured carpets that you are looking at show the wear MORE, because the pile doesn't move about, so it just wears down in the same spot! JMO though. The colour you are looking at is pretty light, but if it washes well, I don't think that is an issue. We went with a dark colour to 'ground' the place a bit. I still love our carpet, every single time I look at it...and its been in about 6 months! HTH!

Anonymous said...

I have honestly never thought about carpet in my entire life... I love the colour you picked, it would go well in all your rooms. You have a love of rugs so I wouldn't be surprised if you covered the carpet with one in the end. Happy hunting :)

belinda graham said...

Thanks guys - I think the colour is ok, but the texture is wrong the more we thought about it and walked on it etc. Back to the shop we go...