Six months ago, I didn't think that we would be moving into a new house, moreover choosing new carpet. I hate carpet. Or, I thought I did because I've been accustomed to the cheap, scratchy, always-stained-no-matter-how-many-times-you-steam-clean apartment carpet.
We bought the house knowing that we would have to replace the existing carpet, which was heavily stained. The stairs and second floor were carpeted, while the first floor recently had engineered wood floors put in. Our initial thought was to put in hardwood floors, but putting it in throughout the house would be expensive and felt a little bit wasteful since the main floor flooring was still fairly new. Even though the current main floor flooring isn't the wood tone that I would choose, we'll probably make some significant changes to the floor plan downstairs, anyway, so we might as well save money and live with that flooring for a while.
Since going with hardwood floors on just the stairs and upstairs would still be almost as expensive as getting the entire house down, and the flooring wouldn't be cohesive, I started seriously considering our other option: replace with carpet.
I had recently read a post about Stainmaster carpet on the Chris Loves Julia blog, and that seemed like the ideal solution. I am not at all a fan of cheap apartment carpet, but a pretty, textured, low pile carpet with quality carpet padding seemed like the best option. With two boys (one toddler, one baby), carpeting on the stairs, especially, felt like the safest option to reduce the likelihood of accidental slippage. Since writing this, Noah has already toppled down three stairs while chasing our dog, so I'll take all the extra cushion I can get. I like the feel of carpet in bedrooms, and we'll still be able to layer in smaller accent rugs.
A free deluxe installation deal at Lowe's sealed the deal. With the purchase of carpet and padding, carpet removal, haul away, and installation was free. Done and done.
I already have an idea of what carpet I wanted: textured, low pile with a light, neutral color, and had bookmarked a few on the Lowe's website. My goal was to find some options that were soft underfoot and would be easy to clean. After heading into the store to see some swatches in person, I decided on three Stainmaster samples to order online ($15 which would be credited to our carpet installation): Secret Dream PetProtect Berber Carpet in Tortoise Shell and Medford Active Family Cut and Loop Carpet in Seed Pearl and Notable Neutral.
Seed Pearl looked too bright, Notable Neutral was pretty, but looked like it would show dirt easily. Both of the Medford carpets felt a little rough, and Dave wasn't a fan. The Secret Dream in Tortoise Shell was by far my favorite. It has a subtle pattern, is a nice, light colored neutral, and feels soft despite being low to the ground.
Our carpet arrives and will be installed next week! In the meantime, we're still working on getting the upstairs and stairway painted and ready. More on that progress, what we've spent on materials, and our experience with getting new carpet installed in another post.