Carpet expert tips on keeping carpet clean

An expert in carpets has revealed her top tips for keeping these important home items clean. Johanna Constantinou, a communications director for a carpet retailer, suggests starting with a doormat to decrease the amount of dirt brought into the home by up to 60%. Regularly shake the doormat to remove any accumulated dirt, but avoid using rubber-backed mats on hard floors as they can leave stains.

Don't wait until a carpet looks dirty before cleaning it, as some carpets can hide ingrained dirt. How often you should clean a carpet depends on how frequently the room is used. Most carpets need to be vacuumed at least once a week, but fluffier and softer carpets may require cleaning twice a week or more. Even if a room is not frequently used, dust can still settle on the carpet, so a quick regular clean is still necessary.

For loop pile carpets, use only the suction head of the vacuum, but for more common cut pile carpets, the beater brush head is recommended. Stains should be removed promptly with specialist cleaning solutions.

Keeping carpets clean not only makes a home more hygienic, but may also extend the life of the carpets. North Wales homes and businesses choose carpets for the warmth and cosiness they bring to rooms. They may need a little extra maintenance than hard surface floors, but a good-quality natural fibre carpet adds luxury to any room and should last a long time even in busy households.

Ten carpet colour trends for 2023

Carpet and interior design experts have identified ten top carpet colour trends for 2023:

1. Yellow: Recommended by carpet expert Punam Chada to create a sunny space and elevate the feel and look of a room.

2. Natural Shades: Carpet sales manager Andrew Gicquel suggests that natural colours bring a sense of nature into a room, creating a calming effect and a feeling of warmth and safety.

3. Pink: According to flooring buyer Jemma Dayman, light pink carpets make a room appear larger with extra height, though they can show stains more easily compared to darker shades.

4. Teal: This deep and dramatic colour lifts a dark room or adds a design statement to lighter rooms. Despite its drama, teal also makes a room feel calm and cool.

5. Grey: This colour complements most interior colour schemes. A wide grey check pattern carpet can add drama to the décor.

6. Red: This is particularly suitable for hallways to make a dramatic red-carpet entrance. Red is vibrant and makes a floor statement.

7. White: White textured carpets look great in both traditional and contemporary room designs.

8. Aubergine: For a warm and cosy carpet, choose Aubergine. It is a rich and inviting colour which is ideal for a home office or small snug spaces.

9. Stripes: If you’re undecided about the carpet colour, go for a multi-coloured striped carpet.

10. Cream: Warm, inviting and easy on the eye, a quality cream carpet provides a luxurious feel.

To see carpets in these colour trends, visit a local carpet retailer in North Wales or Chester.

What is the best flooring colour to go with grey walls?

Although it is sometimes dismissed as a dull colour, grey is actually a surprisingly popular choice for the walls of both homes and businesses. In fact its status as a ‘neutral’ shade is a big part of the reason why so many people choose to have plain grey walls. That neutrality means that it is able to blend with furnishings of different colours within a room, making it a highly adaptable choice.

One of the parts of a room that has to work well alongside the walls is the floor. That means you need to choose a type and shade of flooring that will not clash with your grey walls, so what are the best floor colours to pick for that?

Warm or cool grey?

You may have heard about warm and cool colours. The terms refer to the place a shade has within the colour spectrum made up of primary and secondary hues. The colours classed as ‘warm’ are brown, red, orange and yellow, while neutral shades like white or grey can also be warm if they have hints of any of those four hues in them.

The ‘cool’ colours are blue, green and purple and, again, neutral shades with a hint of any of these are also classed as cool. As a neutral colour, grey can be either warm or cool and whether you select a warm shade of grey or a cool one will have an impact on what floor colour works best. It is possible to mix up warm and cool colours, but most people prefer to stick with one or the other.

Floor colours that work well with warm grey walls

Light brown

Brown is a warm colour and light brown floors are most likely to be made out of treated or natural hardwood. They are an excellent complement to warmer grey wall tones and will give a room a country, rustic sort of feel that many find appealing. Furthermore, if the room in question is quite small, light brown flooring will help to create a sense of space.

It also shows fewer scratch marks than a dark brown wood floor – which is great if you have pets.

Dark brown

If you do not have pets and have selected light, airy grey walls with hints of yellow, a dark brown floor will provide an ideal contrast. It will balance out the wall colour and create feelings of security and safety. Another plus point of dark brown wood is that it absorbs the sun better than light wood, so there is less risk of it fading over time.

Avoid dark brown if you have darker grey walls though, as that will make the room feel like it is closing in on you.

Black

A floor made out of a warm-toned black marble will work particularly well alongside light but warm grey walls. Again, it will provide valuable contrast and add to the character and depth of the room. It is best chosen if the room is fairly large though, as dark-coloured floors have the visual effect of making rooms seem smaller. That can be cosy in a big room, but claustrophobic in a little one.

Floor colours work well with with cool grey walls

Blue

A blue floor made out of either carpeting or another material like vinyl tile will be a great choice if you have cool grey walls. Make the blue a deeper shade than the grey, because the floor colour should always be darker than that of the walls. This helps to add a sense of space to the room and makes it feel more prominent than the opposite.

If you are opting for either blue carpet or tiling, you could choose patterning, but be careful to avoid a clash between the walls and the floors. A pattern that blends the blue with white or grey will be an ideal choice.

Grey?

Yes, it is absolutely possible to combine grey walls with a grey floor! Just make sure that the tone of grey you pick for the floor surface is a cool one with a hint of blue or green in it to match up with the walls. Make it a slightly darker shade too, so that the walls and floor are separated visually and avoid a feeling of blurring and blandness to the eye.

Again, carpets or vinyl tiles will work well if you want to have a grey floor alongside the walls, and both can potentially add some texture through patterning, or through the pile if it is a carpet.

There is no one set colour that you have to pick for your floor if you have grey walls. The best colour will depend on whether they are warm or cool grey, but always choose a floor colour that is darker.

What kind of carpet does not show vacuum marks?

When it comes to choosing floor surfaces for a home, carpeting is a perennially popular selection. That is particularly true when it comes to areas of the home such as the living room and the bedrooms.

There is more than one reason why so many people like to have carpets fitted in those rooms. The first of them is the fact that carpeting makes the floors softer to walk on without shoes, which is something people will often do in their living room and bedroom. A second reason is the role carpets play in retaining heat within a room. They keep the warmth in and help to reduce energy costs.

Carpeting can also be prone to marks and other damage caused by appliances like vacuum cleaners though, so what type of carpet will be the best choice if you want to avoid that becoming a problem?

The best types of carpet for hiding vacuum marks

In actual fact there is no one single type of carpet that is best for this. There are several choices on the market that will allow you to enjoy the insulation and comfort of carpeting without any unsightly damage caused when you vacuum it. The one you pick is most likely to depend on what room in the home you are fitting it in.

Carpets manufactured with pile that is curled, twisted or long will be more effective at concealing vacuum marks or damage from other methods of maintenance. Beyond that, though, you have plenty of choice available to you, so read on to learn more about what the options are.

Frieze pile carpets

These are carpets made with a twisted pile, and the result is a surface with a curly and thick finish. The loose manufacturing method leads to a floor choice that is extremely soft and comfortable to walk on in bare or stocking feet, as well as for providing a layer of insulation that keeps warmth in and noise out.

They are also among the best choices for concealing marks from a vacuum cleaner, because of the lengthy fibres that twist in multiple different directions. A frieze pile carpet will make for an excellent choice for a bedroom in particular, although for a living room where more dirt will be picked up, it can be awkward to keep clean.

Twist pile carpets

If you want a carpet that will cover up any marks from a vacuum cleaner but is also ideal for high-traffic parts of the home such as the living room, consider a twist pile one. This type of carpet has the advantage of looking really good while also being very hard wearing and practical. That is because of the manufacturing process, which involves the yarn being twisted tightly before it is treated, using heat to make sure that the twist effect remains in place.

Not only do twist pile carpets cover up the inevitable marks created by regular vacuuming, but they are really easy to keep clean and provide a floor surface with texture that blends with single shades.

Shag pile carpets

Although available as a full-size carpeting choice, shag pile is more typically deployed for creating smaller rugs that lie on top of the main floor surface. These still have to be vacuumed though and shag pile is another type of carpet that will not show the marks from that very clearly. It has ultra-long fibre piles that work to conceal such damage and therefore is ideal for rugs in the living room, bedrooms or hallways of a home.

Berber loop-pile carpets

Another excellent carpeting choice if you want to make sure the effects of frequent vacuuming are not visible is a Berber loop-pile one. All Berber carpets are manufactured from either a synthetic fibre or wool and involve looped piles, all of which are exactly the same in length. Again, these are long enough to cover up the marks that can be created by vacuum cleaners and that makes them a smart and a popular choice for any rooms suitable for carpeting in a home.

Berber cut-pile carpets

Finally, the cut-pile carpets from Berber are worthy of consideration. These contain a mix of straight fibres and looped ones, and the final effect of them is softer underfoot than other types of Berber carpet. That makes them a useful choice for bedrooms in particular. They are just as efficient as the loop-pile ones in concealing marks from a vacuum cleaner because the fibres they feature are still a good length.

Carpets with shorter piles are the ones to avoid if you want to be able to conceal the slight damage that can be caused by vacuuming. Speak with experienced flooring specialists about this before buying if it is a concern for you.

Carpet waste turned into architectural signage

Carpet waste is being repurposed into architectural signage, thanks to the Danish Modulex Group. The company has launched ReBond, a new material that has been developed in partnership with Danish carpet manufacturer Dansk Wilton.

The manufacturing process of this material involves recovering scraps of carpet waste and shredding them to create fine fibres. These fibres are then combined with melting binding fibres to produce panels to be used as signage. The sides of the panels retain a hint of the former carpet's colour, creating a link to the former carpet's life. The launch of ReBond follows a successful pilot project to develop the new material.

According to Ketil M Staalesen, the CEO of Modulex,

"Modulex strives and will continue to innovate, adapt sustainable business practices, and bring eco-friendly material alternatives to our customers."

The carpets used by Modulux are mainly from hotels and ships.

In the UK, around 30% of worn carpets end up in landfills. However, households and businesses that dispose of carpets from their Chester and North Wales premises can arrange for them to go to a carpet recycling scheme. Carpets with unworn areas can be cleaned and sections made into carpet tiles. Materials from carpets can also be extracted to make a variety of products, including carpet backing and underlays. ReBond has created an additional use for waste carpets, giving them a renewed purpose as building signage.

The carpet industry aims to create a 100% closed recycling loop in which all carpets are recycled.