Vintage Wilton by Balta Carpets

As promised in my recent post on Classique Wilton by Balta Carpets, I’m now going to take a look at its ‘bigger brother’, Vintage Wilton.

Once more we see Balta continue the theme of creams/beiges/browns across a full range of Wilton. It’s a real difference from the ‘traditional’ Wilton ranges that were prevalent a few years back. Whilst Balta are happy to be pushing colour in a lot of their new plain carpet ranges, they seem to be heading in the opposite direction with their Wilton.

Like Classique Wilton, it has a heavy domestic/general contract rating, but weighs in at an almighty 2520gr per metre, significantly ahead of Classique’s 1650 gr per metre and has a pile height of 10mm, as opposed to Classique’s 8mm – as I said it is the ‘big brother’.

At that weight it feels a lot more ‘meaty’ and handles beautifully. It’s dense, sharp and impressive. It’s 100% ‘B-Tron’ (Balta’s fibre) Polypropylene and comes in 4 metre wide rolls.

The designs are varied across the range. My favourite is the slightly ‘art deco’ looking ‘duo’ design pictured above. Aside from that, most of the popular bases are covered. A tidy pindot, a nice, subtle small square motif, a couple of floral sprays and an impressive panel. If you like this kind of thing then you ought to be able to find something you at least like and possibly love. Most of the designs are each done in three shades – so I believe that’s around 24 options in the range.

The price of this is obviously going to be higher than Classique and is likely to set you back around £25-£34 per square metre. Overall a high quality product and ideal for heavy wear. It’s heading towards wool axminster price-wise, but it is realistically quite a lot less than most of those and if you want a very high end man-made Wilton then this is a real option.

(Originally posted on the 12th August 2010)