Carpet on staircase - Yes or yuck???
We are considering getting runners for the stairs btw top 2 flrs & from the garden flr to Parlor. The advantage is we don’t have to rebuild our staircase putting in new treads given the old ones are worn and won’t look good just varnished. I imagine that it will also be good to dampen…
We are considering getting runners for the stairs btw top 2 flrs & from the garden flr to Parlor. The advantage is we don’t have to rebuild our staircase putting in new treads given the old ones are worn and won’t look good just varnished. I imagine that it will also be good to dampen sound and help grip for kiddies running up & down. My wife is concerned that the carpets will be dust collectors & hard to clean. There is also the aesthetic question for a house that is a mix of carol gardens Italianate and plain modern with otherwise new wood floors.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
No doubt that the hardwood staircase is a centerpiece in your house. This is what you see first when you enter the house. Hardwood staircase is considered as an upgrade, as well as granite countertop or hardwood floor, when you buy brand new house. People pay additional thousands of dollars to have hardwood staircase versus carpeted, because it is attractive, durable, classical and increase home value.
However, there are disadvantages to hardwood stairs – they are very slippery and wear out. Likely, there is a great solution to this problem – stair mats! Your stairs will look great with the unique design and appearance of STAIR MATS. They are available on http://WWW.STAIRMATS.COM in very wide assortment of decorative designs and colors. Stair Mats is an excellent alternative to stair runners and stair carpets and is great opportunity to represent hardwood staircase in its most attractive outlook. Stair mats do not cover the beauty of your hardwood staircase, they look very attractive next to wood stairs, and they accentuate and drag attention to it.
I generally hate carpet but LOVE our stairs, which are carpeted, though nothing else in the house is.
Here is a photo:
https://www.homeexchange.com/extraimages/536636009:71785.jpg
The previous owners put in the carpet; I don’t know what kind it is, but got made of sort of multitextured material that is very good at concealing dirt and stains. I’m sure it wasn’t very expensive (because nothing those guys did was).
I put carpeting on my center hall staircase because the original lower staircase was replaced with ugly pine and the upper staircase is still the original oak. In
addition, some of the treads had been painted. I covered both the stair and tread from edge to edge with a berber pile which is easy to sweep or vacuum. It has multiple earthtone colors which compliment the oak details throughout the house. I would as a previous poster suggested, have it installed after major renovations on the upper floors. We don’t wear shoes in our home and when workers need to access the upper floors I ask that they cover their boots/shoes with blue disposable covers that I purchased from janitorial supply store.
I carpeted the center hall staircase in my home from the double parlor up to the third floor because the lower stairs, which are pine and not original to the house looked odd with all of the other wood detail and the upper staircases being all oak. In addition to the mismatched stairs some of the stairs were painted. The carpet that I chose is a berber pile and the earth tone colors compliment the decor. The carpet unified the space and also prevented my kids and pets from slipping on the stairs. I covered the entire stair and tread instead of using a runner. I just sweep or vacuum from top to bottom at least once a week to keep it clean. We don’t wear shoes in our home and I have shoe/boot covers for any workers who may have to come upstairs but it would be best as previous poster stated, to wait until you complete your work upstairs before installation.
Yeah, patterns are a good idea, 11:37. We chose a darker solid color and it’s showing lint too much. To do it again I’d choose a dot or a harlequin pattern. Some English companies make amazing striped stair runners, in fantastic vibrant colors.
I definitely understand why some people go “yuck” over carpet on stairs, but after I slipped and fell 3 times on our wood stairs in the first few months here (I’m well coordinated, I swear I am!) and even my cat kept slipping and falling, we installed carpet. We chose the kind that goes from edge-to-edge because we also wanted to reduce noise. We love the carpet. It absolutely works in all respects I mentioned. Safety and noise reduction both. We had the matching hallway runner made too, like the other poster.
It’s a pain to vacuum but it can be done in 15 minutes. No biggie. Lastly, get your carpet at Better Carpet Warehouse on Atlantic. Best prices all around, and they have lots of huge 100% wool remnants priced very well you can cover your stairs with. Get the edges edged in tape that’s sewn on, if you want the runner down the center look, with bars. Carpet doesn’t have be made and marketed as a runner. Any carpet works. I also make area rugs that way. Buy a wool remnant and have them cut it to size and finish the edges.
ABC Carpet has some William Morris carpets that we are thinking of putting on our stairs, we are thinking of carpeting the whole stairs, not just a runner like in the pic. I think the William Morris patterns work really nicely with brownstones with lots of original details. We haven’t actually put the carpet in yet; we have heard from our contractor that you should finish any work you are intending to do (we are planning to redo our second floor bathroom) before adding the carpet as the workmen going up and down the stairs will ruin the new carpet. Once you decide what you are doing and have it installed, please post the pics, would love to see. Good luck!
We used individual treads like the link below and it looks great. Although our place is a bit more modern inside. Some of their patterns are a bit much, but they have solid colors as well.
http://www.lizaphillipsdesign.com/index.html
I hate *this* carpet, but I think you need to have something or you’re going to round a corner in your socks and slip down the steps and crack your frickin spine. Poly’d wood stairs just plain ain’t safe, for the old folks or the tots.