A year in the making
Monday, May 10, 2010 at 7:00AM Last year we replaced the carpet that was in our house when we bought it. The original carpet was a dingy beige plush style that had seen better days. We chose a cream colored Berber that was supposed to have an amazing stain warranty and high durability. We were happy for about a week and I showed a picture of the new carpet here.
However, after about two weeks the new Berber looked worse than the old plush carpet. It showed every stain, the fibers were fraying and it looked matted and worn down. At the time, we were hardly even using the upstairs level of our house because our bedroom was on the first floor and yet the stairs still looked incredibly dirty. Thankfully we used a local carpet vendor (Smiley Tile | Carpet One in Staunton if you're local). They came out and took a look at the carpet and were horrified. They immediately agreed that it would be replaced at no cost to us. Because we were going to do construction upstairs we decided to wait until our master suite was finished before replacing the "new" carpet. From the beginning I had wanted to use seagrass but I couldn't find anyone local who sold it and I didn't personally know anyone who used it so I chickened out and went with Berber. This time around I decided to go with my original plan. I found a seagrass vendor, Carpet One contacted them and bought the seagrass and it was installed last week!
We are in love. The carpet installer has installed carpet for 30 years in this area but had never had anyone request seagrass. I think he thought I was nuts at first but by the time they finished even he was in love.
I will say, the seagrass is very different from any other carpet I have ever walked on before so it takes some getting used to. You are supposed to glue it down directly to the floor so there isn't a rug pad. Plus, the grass itself is somewhat tough so it is a very hard surface. However, we only have carpet in our stairs, upstairs hallway, master closet and our guest bedroom in the basement. These aren't areas where we would sit on the floor so it doesn't bother us that it isn't a soft surface. If we were going to install it in a family room I would definitely layer a soft area rug on top of the seagrass. But I love the natural color and texture. It is a big improvement and definitely worth the wait!
Reader Comments (14)
Love it! Huge improvement from the carpet and looks amazing.
This looks amazing. so chic, really! We have cream berber and at the end of each week I want to get my carpets cleaned. What a great option, seagrass. I never would think to use it but it works!
Love it! Exactly what I wanted to use on my stairs. So glad you like it. Let me know how it wears. Still working on my painted floor in the dining room. Will keep you posted. Life with two little ones doesn't let me spend time working on it.
Perfect choice! I love the black border on it too.
Every since I toured a designer's home who had seagrass in their master, I've wanted to try it out in my house. However, I'm a bit timid to have it glued down directly to our wood floors. I hope you'll post an update about it's durability, so perhaps I can muster the courage I need! It looks absolutely wonderful, by the way.
~Erin
The seagrass looks great! I, too, love the black border going up the stairs.
Yuuum! But how does it smell? Weird? sea-grassy?
Hi Linda - it actually doesn't have a very strong smell. When they were installing it we could smell a little bit of a "grass" smell but it actually smelled nice and very natural. We went out of town over the weekend and when we returned my husband commented that he couldn't smell it at all anymore.
I will definitely keep everyone posted on the durability - we have a toddler and a dog so it should get a good test!
Okay, it's entirely fabulous. Any slipping issues? A guy in town told me no-go on seagrass on stairs, but I'd love to ignore him as it looks so unbelievably beautiful on your stairs...
Thanks Devon! I heard that it could be slippery on stairs too because it is so hard, but I don't think it is slippery at all so far. Although it is hard, it also has quite a bit of texture which provides a decent amount of traction. I have heard it is slippery if it gets wet but that shouldn't be an issue at my house. It is definitely not as slippery as hardwood stairs. Of course, I will probably slip and fall down the next time I walk down them now that I put this in writing :)
Amazing , gorgeous + stunning. Love! xx
Rachel-
We painted our steps black as well. I'm dying to paint the banister too. What type of primer and paint did you use and did you seal your steps?
Hi Sherry,
I used a shellac-based primer (Zinser, I think) to cover the bannister and then used a high-gloss latex black paint from Benjamin Moore. I did use a coat of wipe-on poly in high gloss when I was finished to protect everything even more but I probably didn't have to do that since that part of the steps doesn't get stepped on very often since we have a runner.
Thanks,
Rachel
Hi, I'll be installing a seagrass stair runner as well. Can you tell me the width of the black border?