Are bathroom carpets making a comeback?

Recent photographs of celebrity couple David Harbour and Lily Allen’s home have caused a bit of a stir, as they featured a bathroom with a vibrant coloured carpet. They are not the first celebrities to show off their bathroom carpet, however. In 2020, Demi Moore shared a photo of a carpeted bathroom in her home. With these trendsetters in mind, does this mean that carpeted bathrooms are making an emphatic comeback?

Carpets in bathrooms became unfashionable after the 70s and 80s. The main reason for this was practicality. There is a risk of health-damaging mould appearing on carpets in the humid conditions of the bathroom. This can be prevented by installing a new subfloor and a highly efficient extractor fan. If a sink, bath or toilet overflows, a carpet can be ruined. Many who love carpets in their North Wales living rooms would not dream of having a carpet in the bathroom. However, as Lily Allen demonstrates, there are no hard and fast rules against having wall-to-wall carpets in all rooms.

Darren Jett, a New York-based designer, is a supporter of bathroom carpets. He says:

“If there is a clawfoot tub on a raised plinth or dais, or if the tub is inset into a tiled niche, then a carpeted floor outside of that is the ultimate luxury.”

Carpets in bathrooms are not going to be a trend that has a mass following. Provided they are used with care, carpets can be laid in bathrooms, but perhaps should not be installed next to sinks or baths.

Does LVT increase a home’s value?

A luxury vinyl tile (LVT) Chester floor is often seen as durable, good looking and is easy to clean, but does it add value to a property?

A luxury vinyl tile floor may not add significant financial value to a home, but it does improve the appearance of rooms, making the home more attractive to potential buyers. The value of installing luxury vinyl tiles is to make the home easier to sell.

The Karndean LVT brand provides a long guarantee which can be transferred to the new homeowner, who has the same guaranteed rights as the person who bought and installed the floor.

There are many ways that vinyl flooring adds value to a home. LVT flooring is suitable for both contemporary and traditional décor styles. The tiles are made to last a long time and the flooring comes with a long guarantee. LVT is water resistant, making this flooring type ideal for wet areas like kitchens and bathrooms. LVT is easy to clean, simply requiring regular mopping and sweeping. Quality vinyl tiles are comfortable and soft, with acoustic-insulating properties that reduce noise.

LVT is available in a wide range of colours and patterns. Tiles that look like natural stone or wood are extremely popular, but more unusual styles and patterns are worth considering.

Installing luxury vinyl tiles requires a high level of skill. A flooring company in the Chester area will supply the tiles and arrange for them to be fitted by flooring experts.

Top interiors that feature bold statement carpets

Carpets can make a bold statement in a room, as well as add texture. Top architects and interior designers are using bold colour carpets in their designs.

The Arches Apartment in Barcelona, designed by the PMAA architecture studio, has white arches, walls and ceilings with sea green carpets providing contrast to the stark white features.

A Mexico City mansion is used by Masa gallery to exhibit artworks. It makes a bold design statement with bright red walls and a red and gold carpet. A New York apartment designed by Harry Nuriev and Tyler Billinger of Crosby Studios also makes a bold statement with a heavy pile purple carpet. Billinger said:

"We wanted a space that was not only elegant but also liveable – we wanted to create a cosy sanctuary, which is why we used a warm grey as the base colour and a vibrant purple as the supporting."

A London townhouse by Studio Hagen Hall has a sofa upholstered in orange velvet, with a bright peach carpet that also covers surfaces and a large round footstool.

A bright magenta carpet and a deep blue sofa feature in Casa Lana, Milan which was designed by Ettore Sottsass.

These bold designs show that carpets don’t have to be in neutral or muted shades. A bold coloured carpet can be the main feature of a room. If you love brightly-coloured décor, visit a carpet retailer in North Wales or Chester and ask to see their selection of carpets in bold shades.

What is the recommended thickness of engineered wood flooring?

Wooden floors are always a popular choice, but there are two wood options available. You can choose to have a solid wood floor or an engineered wood floor.

The former is what most people think of when they imagine wood flooring, as it is a purely natural product made up of wooden planks. It is the simpler choice for that reason, whereas engineered wood floors typically involve more issues that must be considered before they are fitted.

One of the most important of those is the thickness of the flooring. So what thickness is recommended if you are thinking about going for floors made out of engineered wood?

What is engineered wood flooring?

First off, let us look briefly at what engineered wood actually is. While a solid wood floor is simply made up of planks or one piece of wood, an engineered one sees boards, fibres or strands of wood bound together using either an adhesive or some other method of binding. It then has a veneer made of a wood such as oak put over the top of it. This veneer usually measures between 3ml and 6ml, depending on the overall floor thickness that you have chosen.

Engineered wooden floors look just as natural as solid ones, but also have a number of real practical advantages. The biggest is that the backing made of the pieces bound together offers greater stability and less movement due to the fact that it can cope better with temperature changes and moisture than a solid wood floor. That makes it a very effective choice for areas where weather conditions and temperatures are changeable – such as Chester in the North West.

How thick should it be?

Engineered wood floors vary considerably in thickness, but an average of around 13.5ml is what can be found in most homes or commercial premises. It is possible to get floors with thinner wooden boards that will be a cheaper option, but doing so will prove to be a false economy over the longer term. Opting for floors with very thin wood just means that the surface will wear down more quickly when it is sanded. That is something you will inevitably have to do at some points to keep the finish of the floor looking good.

Beyond this basic information, there are some key questions that come into play when considering the thickness of floor needed. The answers will determine what choice you make.

1. Will the floor experience heavy footfall?

This is probably the most important issue when choosing engineered wood flooring. A floor that is going to be walked over a great deal will also have to be sanded more often to keep it looking good. Therefore, both the boards and the veneer must be sufficiently thick to be able to handle more frequent sanding and refinishing without wearing away. Examples of rooms that attract heavy footfall are living rooms, kitchens and hallways.

Any thickness below 13.5 ml would certainly not be advisable for one or more of those rooms.

2. Does the room have under floor heating?

You may not realise it, but under floor heating is another important issue to consider when fitting engineered wood flooring. It will be pointless to have this if the floor does not let the heat penetrate through to the room above, so the thickness of the floor matters a lot. While it is possible to get engineered wood floors as thick as 21ml, that level of thickness will make it more difficult for the heat to get through and warm the room.

Again, a floor with thickness of around 13.5ml will make it much easier for the warmth from the heating to come through the floor into the main part of your room.

3. Is the subfloor in good condition?

The subfloor means the bare surface that your engineered wood flooring will be going on top of. When it comes to the recommended thickness, it can depend on whether this surface is in a good condition or not. If the subfloor is not very even or has other damage such as holes, it will be better to choose the thickest possible grade of engineered wood floor. That could mean 21ml.

On the other hand, if the subfloor is still fairly smooth and in a reasonable overall condition, that sort of thickness will not be necessary. In that sort of situation, a more standard engineered wood floor of around 13.5ml will be an effective covering for the subfloor.

Hopefully this has given you some idea of what exactly an engineered wood floor is and what the factors are that you need to weigh up when considering how thick you want it to be. Unless your subfloor is seriously damaged, the standard degree of thickness will provide a fine flooring solution.

Experts recommend the best flooring for home gyms

Design and architecture experts were asked about creating the ideal home gym and what type of flooring is best.

A well-designed home gym that looks good as well as being functional increases the chances of it being regularly used as a way of keeping members of the household fit. Most design experts agree that the ideal gym should have plenty of natural light and enough space for gym equipment. Add plants for a sense of being connected to nature and hang art on the walls.

Designer Kendall Wilkinson says:

“When it comes to flooring, absorbency is crucial for joint wellness and maintenance, especially for floor workouts like yoga or Pilates. If you have the space, zone a water/sweat-resistant vinyl flooring.”

Architect Rachael H. Grockowski from RHG Architecture+Design recommends softer floors for weightlifting and wood or vinyl for exercises like yoga and Pilates.

Stephen Brockman, a partner of Deborah Berke Partners, says that rubber mats or tiles help dampen noise from impact exercises.

Designer Wendy Word suggests marking the gym area in zones. Vinyl tiles can be laid in patterns that mark distinct areas with layered mats added to eliminate sound.

Many homes already have vinyl flooring in their Chester and North Wales homes, and these are suitable for converting into gyms. Soft carpets are not ideal so should be replaced with a hard floor. Professional gyms use specialist gym flooring materials, but these are not necessary for home gyms that don’t have a high number of users.