Lifestyle Carpet Collection Part 2: Headlam Group

Following on from my last post looking at the newly launched Lifestyle Collection released by the Headlam Group, here are another handful of new ranges:

Rustic Retreat: This is a 100% wool berber made at a price. It’s definitely aimed at those on a budget who want the benefits of wool without having ‘wool money’. It’s available in 4m & 5m widths and comes in two different designs – the ‘Hobnail’ and the ‘Stripe’. Below we have the Stripe in Wheat:

As you can see it’s a very narrow ribbed stripe and not at all unusual for a carpet of this type.

One problem retailers may have with this one is its classification of ‘General Domestic’ on the label. I do understand why they’ve done this – it’s hardly likely to offer very heavy wear in reality, but until there is some realism in grading carpets then we will continue to see cheap and nasty budget twists being rated ‘Heavy Domestic’ while this superior effort is only ‘General Domestic’. To my mind, they are correct in saying ‘General Domestic’, but it just shows up the anomaly all the more.

Consequently there is ‘only’ a 5 year warranty on this. Honestly you should take carpet warranties with a pinch of salt if ask me.

Price for this one £9-£15 per square metre. If someone claims it has a RRP of £20+ then ask them just who is recommending they price their carpets like that.

Village Twist: This one is another fairly decent 100% polypropylene twist in the range. You could probably see it as big brother to City Twist.

It does have a superior feel to City Twist and is finished pretty well. I quite like it and its colours touch most popular bases. I especially like the inclusion of a nice and subtle ‘Silver’ as well as the ‘Rose’ pink, which we often struggle to find these days. Most colours in this range are subtle and muted and at the price it will be sold at (£10-£15 per square metre), I think it’s good value.

You can have this either 4m or 5m widths and it is worth considering if your budget is around £10-£15 per metre.

Royal Court: The standout carpet in the entire range is Royal Court. This is an 80% wool, 15% nylon, 5% meltbond twist that will impress. It’s available in 40 or 50oz weights and 4m and 5m widths. It also has a jute back, in line with many quality wool twists.

I’ve shown the ‘Apple Blossom’ colour here, as there does seem to be a dearth of green around right now:

Hopefully you can pick out the density and definition from the image. It’s a very very good range and I am glad they chose to include a good twist in the collection and not just look to roll out the cheapest thing they could muster.

It should sell at £18-£27 per metre – obviously the lower end for the 40oz and the higher end for the 50oz. Intriguingly they have decided to label the 50oz as extra heavy domestic just to set it apart from the heavy domestic of the 40oz. Not a bad idea I always think.

I really do think they’ve come up with the goods on this one though. It looks clean, well defined and the colours throughout the range are very very solid. It’s certainly far better than the other wool twist in the collection.

(Originally posted on the 1st September 2010)

Carpet For Mods: Carnaby by Brockway

While I was researching the ‘striped carpets’ stuff for this blog, I did come across a very lovely new range that I hadn’t seen before.

Brockway have launched the decidedly 60′s retro mod chic of Carnaby to the market and what an absolutely wonderful design it is – right on the money:

It’s a 100% quality wool berber that I am yet to have a physical sample of, so I am simply bowled over by the design alone at this point. Brockway will send you samples from their (very good) website. They do a whole host of excellent stripes on there – Carnaby is just the tip of the iceberg.

I expect an order from Paul Weller is pending…and if I can convince the wife, maybe from me too.

(Originally posted on the 20th August 2010)

York Twist by Associated Weavers

One of the additions to Associated Weavers’ range that we saw in the Spring was York Twist and it’s definitely a worthwhile contender.

It’s a decent 100% polypropylene twist aimed at those who perhaps want a ‘wool look’ but maybe don’t have ‘wool money’. It’s a decent stab at replicating the look of a wool twist and although the feel of it does not absolutely convinvce, it’s not bad for the money you are likely to be asked. I’d reckon on £11-£15 per square metre and it’s pretty good value at that.

It is available in 10 neutral shades, comes 4 or 5 metre wide and features the usual 10 year stain and wear warranties that AW like so much.

I think it will sell very well for Associated Weavers, although our experience is steady rather than a massive rush. That particular price point in that particular type of carpet is mightily competitive right now.

(Originally posted on the 18th August 2010)

Revolution Heather by Condor Carpets

Just as a footnote to my post last week about the very popular Revolution Heather by Condor Carpets, here is an image of the best selling colour for us, Damson 215. It’s available 4 metre and 5 metre wide and is very good value at between £8 and £12 per square metre. Anyway, here it is in all its glory:

(Originally posted on the 13th August 2010)

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)

Revolution Twist by Condor Carpets: New Colours Launched

Revolution has been selling very well (if we can get stock of it) for a couple of years or so now, but during that time there has been no change in the colours available.

I was glad to receive my new sampling and there are……wait for it……. a whopping THREE new colours available. I get the feeling that creativity is not a big part of life at Condor Carpets, but what they do, they do well I suppose. Good value stuff that sells fast, so who am I to moan?

The new colours are 78 ‘Platinum’ (very dark grey’, 76 ‘Steel’ (silvery grey) and 75 ‘Raffia’ (beigey fleck). The spec has not changed to my knowledge and I believe the pile weight is 26oz.

I do quite like this range and it is a good bet for landlords, those on a budget and quick makeovers. It’s way more durable than the cheap and nasty twists available and it looks way better than Condor’s other budget twist, ‘Wembley’, which does not handle or work anywhere near as well. It’s also 4 & 5 metre wide and stain-resistant.

It now has a major competitor at this price and that is ‘Balmoral Twist’ from Ideal carpets. I will write a short piece on this one in the next few days. For those of you in the trade, you might want to use this as an alternative – same sort of price, a couple of different colours and also 4m/5m widths.

(Originally posted on 22nd January 2010)

Stainfree Panache by Abingdon Flooring

I was fairly critical of Abingdon’s relaunched Stainfree Twist earlier this year, but another new launch of theirs, Stainfree Panache seems a lot more promising.

Shown above is the gorgeous Damson colour, which is clearly the standout colour of the range. Used in promotional literature and the top sample in the sample book, it’s today’s colour (apparently).

The carpet itself handles nicely, a sumptuous saxony – fairly dense and fairly thick made from 100% polypropylene. It feels smooth and comfortable and will grace the master bedroom nicely, I imagine.

One bonus here is that it is 4m and 5m wide and there is a shortage of saxonies available wider width, so this is a welcome addition on that front.

As usual Abingdon cover it with their 10 Year Wear and Stainfree Warranty (if you care about such things), but with reasonable care this carpet should perform well enough in the medium to long term. It will, like all longer pile carpets, flatten over time but that’s the price you pay for longer pile carpets!

It should go out between £17 and £22 per square metre, which is about right for this carpet in my opinion – decent value.

(Originally posted on 11th December 2009)

Shepherd Twist from Balta Carpets

Shepherd Twist from Balta has been with us now for several years and this is at least its third or maybe fourth relaunch.

One of the better man-made twists around, Shepherd does come close to the look and feel of wool, at least with customers. We have regularly had excellent feedback from customers over the years and have had quite a few customers buy it after moving house – repeat Shepherd Twisters!

One thing that Balta have always done with this carpet is to avoid reducing the pile weight from the near-perfect 45oz – instead they have simply put up the price when they needed to. After the last 18 months of recession and awful exchange rate problems however, I was worried about the new release. I do have some justification now in that the pile weight has been cut down to 42oz – still pretty good for a carpet of this type and still recommended by me. They have cut the price by £1 per square metre to retailers, so I would say that this carpet will find the £10-£15 per square metre price band.

One new additional benefit is that it finally comes in both 4 metre and 5 metre widths – that was long overdue.

The colours are very much a plethora of natural shades once more. Beiges and creams still dominate but the best-selling ‘Mocha’ shade is continued. I think around 8 or 9 of the shades are carried forward and we see some newcomers – a dark red, a dark grey and we see the blue disappearing along with the bright red. I’m surprised at the bright red being dropped as we are selling a fair amount of that shade right now.

I’d certainly continue to recommend this carpet. Yes, the pile weight has dropped slightly, and that is a pity, but it still outperforms many competitors of this type. It handles and fits superbly and at this price there is no doubt that is represents excellent value for money.

(Originally posted on 30th September 2009)

Colorado Springs by Balta Carpets

My period of inactivity is over – everyone needs a holiday. I can report that carpet fitting in the Balearics is shoddy from what I saw of it!

Back to business. Balta Carpets, the huge Belgian manufacturer, have launched a lovely chunky, shaggy carpet called ‘Colorado Springs.’ It is very sustantial, around 20mm thick and comes with a 10 Year Stainsafe Warranty and a 7 Year Wear Warranty.

Colorado Springs

It feels wonderful underfoot. Yes, it will flatten over time, but in the meantime you get a sumptuous, glorious luxury carpet for your money. The colours in this range are well thought out and on the button. Balta definitely seem to have their fingers on the pulse of current colour trends. My pick of this bunch has to be the lovely silvery ‘Dove 920′, and the simply stunning ‘Autumn 360.’ The latter colour is a gorgeous fleck of green on grey and I’ve tried to scan it in here and show it:

Colorado Springs: Autumn 360

As salesmen often say, “I’m thinking about putting this one down in my own lounge,” and I am – really.

I don’t yet have the official pile weight to hand but it is heavier than say Stainsafe Comfort and Covent Garden, two comparable products and certainly falls into the luxury bracket. If shops fit a display piece of this onto Cloud 9 Cumulus or Deepstep and ask the customer to take off their shoes and sink their toes in, the sale will follow swiftly.

I’d recommend it and I’d say you will most likely pay £18-£25 per square metre for it and it should be widely available. It comes in 4m wide rolls only.

(Originally posted on the 5th August 2009)

New Dimension Bedroom/Bathroom Carpet

Ideal Carpets have launched a new range in bedroom and bathroom versions (bathroom version is 2m wide, bedroom is 4m wide).

There has been a real shortage of bathroom carpet in recent times and nothing has come close to Cormar’s old favourite, ‘Four Star’, which sold large amounts for years. Of course nowadays bathroom carpet is well out of fashion and sales have all but died, however in recent months I have been asked more and more regularly for it and if truth be told, my selection to show customers was fairly poor.

In general shops will not put a lot of effort into bathroom carpet as you only ever sell a small amount and cannot sell accessories with it as it is not fitted with underlay.

This one is a ‘shaggy’ range in some excellent colours. The magenta seems bold and vibrant:

New Bathroom Carpet - New Dimension

Aside from that there is a black, a silver and some nice pastel shades in green, blue and lilac. Add the natural colours in and you have a decent colour bank.

It should sell between £13 and £17 per square metre and although it does not have much ‘body’ to it, it is perfectly adequate for the job. Bathroom carpet should not be seen as a long term solution, more usually it is a short term one. If you are looking for something long-lasting then just fit ordinary broadloom stuff on underlay. Bathroom carpet is pretty much disposable.

Having said that, many elderly customers like it and prefer a softer feeling underfoot. You gain comfort and warmth and you lose hygene and long-term wear – swings and roundabouts I guess. Elderly people also often worry about slipping on smooth floors so this can give added peace of mind.

Bathroom Carpet from Ideal

(Originally posted on 14th July 2009)

Abingdon? You’re Having A Laugh

At one time, Abingdon were one of our biggest suppliers of carpet. That was when they were known as Carpets International. We would stock many rolls of a lot of their ranges, take their display stands and do very well with them.

That now seems like a long time ago (it was only about 7 years back). Yesterday I acquired their new sampling for the revamped (?) Stainfree Twist, Stainfree Heather and Stainfree Tweed ranges they run and what a massive disappointment they are.

Used to Sell Well

First off, a word to Abingdon about their samples – display stands tend to be 18″ wide or 27″ wide. Nine inch wide samples fit on these stands nicely, look good and sell the product. However, if you make them nine and a half inches wide, they look crap and don’t sell the product. Very careless of whoever made that decision. Now they don’t look the best on our display racks.

So to the carpet itself. Well the colours are certainly plentiful and varied and Abingdon certainly still believe in colour – it isn’t all beige and brown thankfully. The feel of this carpet though is unimpressive given its price. I’d say it will retail between £14.99 – £18.99 per metre and frankly for that money it is poor value. Talk all you like about the warranty, but the fact is that most comparable companies now offer similar warranties and at a lower price.

Wilkies Carpets list the pile weight as being 35oz for Stainfree Twist and 33oz for Stainfree Heather and Stainfree Tweed. Compare that with Shepherd Twist by Balta at 45oz and likely to retail for less and Stain Defender by Domo at 40oz which will retail for way less. There are ranges aplenty that outscore these and Abingdon are merely trading on the brand name here.

One plus point is that it can be ordered 2m, 3m, 4m and 5m wide, but realistically the orders for us at least will be few and far between. I’ve put it out on the racks, but it looks well beaten by the other ranges either side of it.

It isn’t a crappy carpet, but it’s really not worth the kind of money you will be asked for it in my opinion. Oh and if you are offered Stainfree Style instead of these three ranges then I’d say avoid it – it’s a poor replacement and some colours are the same so be careful for unscrupulous traders trying to pass of the lightweight Stainfree Style (26oz) for the heavier weight Stainfree Twist.

At least it’s made in the UK though.

(Originally posted on 1st May 2009)

Stainfree Destiny from Abingdon

Abingdon have unveiled a couple of new budget twists (should sell between £10-£15m) in Stainfree Destiny and Stainfree Essentials.

Destiny is the cheaper of the two and is available in felt or secondary back (unusual for Abingdon). Here is an image of the standout colour for me, which is ‘Zebra’.

Essentials is a wee bit heavier and handles a lot better. We’ve priced it £2 per metre more than Destiny and it looks well worth it I would say. Neither carpet is especially ground-breaking, but Abingdon’s ranges seem to crop up in many retailer showrooms and are distributed widely by Headlam.

The samples we have say 4m wide only, but I’m not sure if they are available direct from Abingdon in multi-width cuts – as they do with most of the Stainfree range.

As per usual, they carry the now ubiquitous ’10 year’ warranty info as well as the new ‘Clean Air’ branding, to convince us that apparently after all carpet is way better for us all than smooth floor with regard to allergies. Forgive me if I’m not yet convinced of the science behind that claim.

Overall then a decent couple of low-mid price British made carpets in a saturated market for this kind of stuff. Personally I prefer the likes of Stainbuster and Weaver’s Twist from Domo, or Carousel from Condor Carpets.

(Originally posted on 14th April 2009)