When you’ve lived for a very long time with very old carpet, you simply cease to notice it. Like you don’t notice your nose. It’s just there, doing it’s job; your eyes can see it but your brain chooses to ignore it.
Same thing with old carpet – you’re so used to it, you simply stop seeing and feeling it. Stop noticing how horrible it is.
Ripping out that skanky old 1980’s peach carpet was liberating. It was so old that the rubber backing (not even any underlay!) disintegrated in our hands, and shed carpet crumbs all down the stairs.
So we had changed the walls, and ooh-ed at the stunning impact the new colour had.
We had added the blind and admired the sleek stylishness of the new window shape.
But I’d got used to the now bare floorboards, and didn’t even think about the effect a new carpet would have.
Now I know nothing about choosing a carpet. The way I’d judge would be to run my hand across it – if it feels nice to my fingers, then it’ll feel nice to my toes. Other than that, I think about colour, and possibly I’d check recommended rooms for use (though I don’t recall actually doing so last time we bought a carpet). So I asked Cormar to guide our choice for a suitable carpet for a child’s bedroom. They suggested that any of their Sensation ranges would be perfect, and sent sample books for me to choose from.
Obviously I carpet-shopped like a pro (ran my hand over them to check how they’d feel, and picked the nicest colour…) and chose a lovely pale biscuit colour to maintain my principle of keeping the tiny space as light as possible. But when we had showed a distraught-at-changing-her-room Bear the Cormar samples books she had politely mmmm-ed at my carpet choice and flipped her eyes straight at the more colourful Sensation Twist range.
“Please may I have the purple one please? please? The purple is loveliness. PLEASE?”
*sigh*
But the purple was nice, and it did fit with the pink and white scheme, so bearing in mind her absolute horror of the room change, we decided to go with her decision and asked Cormar for the wild cherry instead.
A few weeks ago a local carpet fitter (Bartletts Carpets – if you’re looking for a carpet fitter in Dorset, we TOTALLY recommend these guys) had come out and navigated on tiptoe around her room, managing to measure up between walls, playmobil, bookcase and built-in cupboard.
Once we had the walls completed we gave him a call, and he managed to fit us in around another job. He brought the necessary underlay, and took just two hours to utterly transform her room.
And I do mean transform it.
The new walls looked fabulous; but the new carpet absolutely made it into an entirely new room.
The carpetfitter (who knows far more about such things than we will ever do) declared it a great quality carpet; lovely to fit, and of a quality that would last until she leaves home (she’d best not get tired of purple!).
And now, when you walk into the room and your toes sink into that deliciously firm soft purple loveliness, you most certainly notice the carpet.
It’s beautiful.
I love that it’s a rich purple when brushed one way, and a soft silvery lilac when brushed the other way against the light.
I love that it makes the whole room softer, the walls warmer, the pink prettier…
And most of all I love that it feels wonderful to walk on in bare feet.
In the end, I know nothing about carpet. Nothing at all. When they’re all on the rolls in the shop, how do you know which one will last? Which will still feel nice five years from now? Unless you do a lot of research it’s a tricky thing for us plain old homeowners to understand and make a good judgement call on.
But I have a short cut. It’s the same short cut I use in the rest of the house, so it makes sense. For certain products, I’m brand loyal. Baked beans, ketchup, washing powder… it’s not about choosing the best ever. It’s about removing the buyer anxiety. It’s about knowing that if you pick this one, you can be sure it will be exactly what you need.
I shan’t fuss and worry about future carpet purchases – I’ll simply pick from the Cormar ranges. Job done.
30 July 2014
the title of this post reminded me of when my mum got a pedicure for my wedding day (15 years ago tomorrow!) and she chose PURPLE – I found myself in shock. Her excuse was that her outfit was purple so it matched (her outfit was a very light shade of lilac and NOT purple). Anyway, your purple carpet looks lovely. x
31 July 2014
Love that colour!
9 January 2017
Hope those trainer soles were clean! Have a rule in our house, friends are the same, no shoes on indoors, just clean slippers or socks at door,really saves so much work and nicer to tread on, most Scandinavians have same rule. Plus get back machine for deep clean once a year.