Heather Nette King is a Melbourne-based interiors stylist and writer for many leading interior titles and newspapers. The hallmarks of her styling are colour and vibrancy, and she writes passionately about peoples’ homes and how they live in them.
From luxe to low-cost, how to budget for the right carpet for your project.
Selecting carpet is never going to be a one-size fits all decision. Are you looking for a luxurious, dream carpet for the bedroom or your forever home? Or are you looking for a sturdy, no-fuss flooring option for a rental property? Maybe it’s something soft, but not too hard on the wallet, for a kid’s room?
From the size of your rooms to the style and material of your chosen carpet, many factors will come into play when budgeting for carpet and estimating carpet replacement costs.Here is a guide to help you identify which carpet is best for your needs, and importantly, your budget.
Let’s start at the beginning – what are the different kinds of carpet? And for each of these, what are the costs, the benefits, and the disadvantages?
WOOL CARPET
Wool carpets are considered to be the premium carpet option for their look, feel and
durability. Wool is a 100 per cent pure, renewable resource and as well as being beautifully tactile,it is also highly insulative, making it a brilliant long-term flooring investment
Wool carpet has excellent hypo-allergenic qualities, meaning it is great for allergy-sufferers. It is also incredibly energy efficient, so what seems like a large initial investment, wool can actually have long-term financial benefits in terms of saving on heating and cooling costs. Wool, due to its natural oil content, is inherently stain resistant and easy to clean. Above all, what I love most about wool carpet is its luxurious feel it’s definitely the carpet that I aspire to have in my own home.
Wool carpet prices start from $49m2, for Carpet Court’s Australian made Prospect Valley, my personal favourite is deep Coal colour. For a luxurious touch, the Elson from $94m2 or the incredible Pandorea from $64m2 made from premium wool.
SYNTHETIC CARPET
Thanks to technological and manufacturing advances, synthetic carpets have come a long way
in recent years, and now it can sometimes be hard to distinguish them from wool.
Although less expensive than wool, synthetic fibres provide softness and comfort underfoot
as well as supreme performance and durability. Synthetic carpets can be quite resistant to mould and mildew, are generally more resistant to crushing and fading and are easy to clean. As a stylist, what I love most is that synthetic carpets can come in a range of vibrant colours can always find one in the colour my heart desires.
My top picks for synthetic carpets are Carpet Court’s Silk Essence from $72m2 (check out the sublime pastel hues) and the Silk Luxury range from $88m2. If you’re after a durable but stylish synthetic carpet for a rental or high-traffic area, consider Carpet Court’s Australian made Provino range from $23m2.
SOLUTION DYED NYLON
Once seen as the ‘cheap carpet’ compared to wool and synthetic blends, advancements in technology and manufacturing mean that nylon carpets no longer take a back seat to synthetics or wool.
While wool has natural stain and moisture resistance, many synthetic carpets are more sophisticated because of improved manufacturing processes. Solution Dyed Nylon carpet can have as many long-term benefits as wool carpet, and in the right environment they can be just as durable.
Because of its affordability, Solution Dyed Nylon is often the preferred carpet fibre for many Australian homes. Solution Dyed Nylon carpets are colourfast, fade resistant and have superior anti–stain properties. They are anti-static and have excellent memory, so the fibres hold their shape for longer. I like Carpet Court’s Autumn Mist range from $40m2, particularly the lovely Hawthorn colourway. For a fabulous, moody green scheme, look to the Valley Green hue in Carpet Court’s Rising Splendour range.
