Transforming The House With fibre

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I’ve talked about the importance of flooring many times before, and that it really is the foundation that sets the tone for any space. And alongside paint, its transformational power really is truly astounding.

I consider myself to be pretty great at visualising spaces, so I knew what a big difference replacing the old worn carpet would make, but was reminded again of its superpowers when I was blown away at just how big that difference is when our new  fibre carpet was laid a few weeks ago.

Some of you will remember that I painstakingly stripped, sanded and painted the stairs last summer, with the intention of installing a runner eventually. However, it soon became apparent that despite all my hard work, that our old stairs just weren’t in good enough condition to stay exposed no matter how much sanding and filling I was prepared to do. Though they looked brilliant initially, no amount of filler would stop the cracks from reappearing which was driving me mad, so the decision was made for full width carpet, that would continue right up throughout, including the much newer stairs up to the loft too.

These had only ever been painted, and although they looked great, I really wanted to unite the two flights of stairs which had previously always felt completely at odds with each other, and not even part of the same house. This plan has definitely worked, and for the first time since the loft was built eleven years ago, the top and the bottom parts of the house feel like they belong together which makes me very happy indeed.

The old carpet in the back hall, TV room, landing outside the new bathroom and the bedroom was already very worn, but as you might know we had some pretty major work done on the middle floor of the house last year, relocating the bathroom and breaking up and re-purposing the old one, including new tiled floor in both spaces, and a new doorway created for a storage cupboard off the back hall, so as you can image it was really beyond saving. The thresholds remained unfinished for several months - and really didn’t show off all the finished work well, in fact it totally distracted from it. But as as soon as the new carpet went in, it finally looked finished and so smart!. I went for matt black transitions which are approximately one billion times nicer than the awful shiny gold ones I had last time. These details really do matter!

I knew I wanted sisal on the stairs, back hall and landings, as I love its natural look and texture, and the fact that its super hardwearing, and really easy to hoover are major bonuses too. However, I definitely wanted something much softer and cosier in the bedroom and TV room so I decided to mix it up. fibre has a brilliant selection of products that fitted all my criteria and it was a total breeze to come up with my final choices that not only worked together as they’d be seen side by side, but are also complementary to the other flooring, including the parquet throughout the ground floor, as well as the tiles in the new bathroom and utility room.

The sisal I chose is Sumatra in 'Bali' , which is a very neutral tone and sits perfectly next to our parquet flooring, and the wool is Arcadian in 'Helligan' , which is subtly flecked due to the fact it’s undyed and is the perfect off-white / pale cream colour, with enough variation in it to not feel like a scary ‘white white’, but just looks wonderfully luxurious, and feels it underfoot too!

You will have to wait for the full bedroom transformation to see how the wool looks in there, but how fabulous does it look in the TV room contrasted with the rich dark chocolate walls. I didn’t think this room could be any cosier, but it totally is!

My mission to unify the different floors of the house has been well and truly accomplished, and I really couldn’t be happier with the new carpet and the fresh look that has come with it. In fact I did say to Ed that the house felt too smart for us, and it honestly feels like the icing on the cake after the chaos of the last year.

Do check out the fibre collections, they have so many beautiful sisal, seagrass and wool options, and you can also get them to make area rugs with a choice of cotton, linen, suede or leather borders too.