I Got Stripes: Striped Carpets Saturate The Market

As I walked along my street the other day, the temperatures had soared and many of my neighbours had chosen to leave their front doors open and let some air in. Little did they know that as I am something of a ‘carpet trainspotter’, I would be peering in as I walked – not for any reason other than to see what flooring they had fitted. I realise this behaviour is not normal, but I do it in shops, pubs, hotels, airports – I probably need therapy.

Anyway, I digress. What I wanted to say was that within 20 doors, 5 of my neighbours, whose floors I could see, had striped carpet in their halls or on their stairs. Now that’s an especially high percentage for my totally unscientific survey, but I use it to illustrate my point – stripes are now everywhere.

I’d better review a few then:

Beach Hut by Kersaint Cobb is a good place to begin. It’s a high quality, jute backed, 100% wool berber available in 6 striped colours, as well as 6 co-ordinating plains. This gives you the opportunity to combine the two on say, landings and stairs and create an attractive staircase.

As soon as you handle this carpet you cannot fail to be impressed. The wool used in its construction feels great to the touch and is firm and very heavy wearing. It really suits a staircase and I would definitely recommend it for that use. The colours are absolutely spot on and this range, together with Crucial Trading’s Mississippi are very big sellers nationally. I prefer this one, but that’s just a personal preference – both are excellent.

You will find Beach Hut priced between £35-£45 per square metre and you can order samples online here very easily.

Mississippi by Crucial Trading is very much in the same vein as Beach Hut. Again, this is a lovely 100% wool stripe, available 4 metres wide off the roll, but Crucial offer 17 colour combinations (though no plains).

The carpet itself feels a little more coarse than Beach Hut and that coarseness lends itself to a carpet like this – a lot of people prefer that feel underfoot on a carpet of this type. Again, I would expect you to be buying this carpet at £35-£45 per square metre, although Crucial say £54 per metre on their website. Either this or Beach Hut will do the job beautifully, look the part and certainly bring some admiring glances from friends and neighbours!

I’d recommend getting some brochures - Crucial make the very best brochures I’ve seen from a carpet manufacturer, complete with perforated pages so the customer can place them on the floor and the print quality of them is perfect. Top marks for that.

Tripoli by Georgian is considerably different. It’s a bog standard 80% wool, 20% polypropylene twist with the distinction of it being striped rather than plain or speckled as most wool twists are.

This one is not in the same class as Beach Hut and Mississippi, but that is reflected in the price. At £12-£18 per square metre depending on the weight, it is less than half of the price of the other two and if you feel that your striped stair carpet is more of a ‘fashion statement’ than a long-term proposition then this could be an option.

The standard weight is an underwhelming 27oz and the (surely someone at Georgian has a sense of humour) ‘Supreme’ weight comes in at a colossal 36oz – ahem. The 36oz would probably just about do the job and save you some pennies and it does look and feel fine. It’s good to look at, rather than great but it does do a job for a price.

It’s 4 metre wide only and is widely available. You can find samples here.

Okay so we’ve had a look at two nice ones, one mid-range one and are there any cheapies? Well, yes of course. Balta’s Funky Stripes is a wild and wacky one on a felt back, but it is pretty garish. Probably better suited to the bedroom and not really destined to last that long. Still, it’s sold for under £10 per metre, so that’s not too bad.

There is a newish similar, though slightly more subtle stripe in the Headlam Group’s new ‘Lifestyle’ collection, called ‘Cosmopolitan Stripe’. It’s quite shaggy and best suited to bedrooms and a fair few of the colours within the range are ….. weird. Just my opinion. You can get this one for around £8-£12 per metre.

Timzo have come up with a felt backed cheapie, a little closer to Beach Hut style with ‘Inca’. It’s a narrow stripe in more subtle and natural tones than the last two I mentioned. It’s selling okay for those on a budget and like most of Timzo’s carpets it offers decent value for money. You should be able to pick it up for under £10 per square metre and of the three cheapies, I personally prefer this one.

(Originally posted on the 28th July 2010)