We have been in desperate need of ridding ourselves of our truly revolting carpet in the front room since the day we moved in. When we got the keys to the house we hired a steam cleaner before we moved any of our furniture in and did all of the carpets, but the carpet in the front room was beyond all hope. I may have mentioned before there were a number of boy-children living here before we moved in and they pretty much trashed the carpets and walls.

I was really keen to take the carpet up in here and sand the floors right through into the dining room, but Jamie wanted the more cosy feel of wall to wall carpet, so we (eventually) compromised, and he got his way in here.

The carpet before was hideous. It was so stained and terrible. I really can’t overstate it this. Sorry to soil your eyes with these pictures, but you need to see to understand the horror… 

We have a beautiful antique rug, kindly bought for us by Jamie’s Mum when we lived in a flat in Hotwells, just over the river (the first place Jamie and I lived together). The flat had a beautiful original parquet floor in the living room (the flat itself was tiny and not at all posh but it had been really nicely built to high spec in the 50s) and the rug looked gorgeous in that room. We used that lovely rug to cover the worst of the carpet in this room, but still – every time the cat was being cute and instagrammable rolling around on the carpet, I’d go to take a picture and then have to delete it because the carpet she was rolling on look so freaking gross.

For Christmas, Jamie’s ever generous parents gave us some money and new carpet was at the top of the list. I was straight on it, getting quotes and looking at samples. Boom.

In the end we went with a soft grey 80% wool blend called ‘pewter’. The polypropylenes were so much cheaper, and apparently easier to clean, but I couldn’t get past the shininess they all have so we went for wool.

The colour we chose was in a sexy looking (read: not in the least bit sexy) sample booklet labelled ‘Shades of Grey’. Anyway, it was a colour we finally agreed on with some certainty (Jamie vacillated wildly between crippling indifference: ‘I don’t care what colour we get, they all look the same to me‘ and fiercely opinionated: ‘Ugh NO that one is disgusting’). Although of course once we’d paid for it and headed home I started having anxiety dreams about how bad the colour was going to look. I need to get a life.

The night before the carpet fitter was booked to come we frantically shoved all of the furniture into the dining room:

And then we pulled up the carpet of my nightmares and underlay (holy crap that felt good – it will feel even better when it’s not piled up in the garage aggggh).

The floorboards were in a way worse state than those in the dining room so I felt relieved that Jamie had insisted on carpet in here. It would have been a lot of work to get these floorboards good to go for sanding and varnishing.

Then I remembered I had planned to paint the skirting boards before we got the new carpet in. That wasn’t happening as it was about 11pm by then and the paint wouldn’t even be dry in time, so I had to give that a miss.

Carpet day dawned and I was EXCITED. Also, it was Friday and I had the day off work, so. 

Carpet dude turned up and got to it. It only took one guy a couple of hours. Fancy new underlay, new carpet.

Once he was gone I decided to tackle the skirting boards. I know that’s a bit crazy but I couldn’t see another time when we would have all the furniture out so I got to it.

I placed 2 inch thick masking tape on the edges of the carpet and slightly up the skirting board, then used a paint stripping tool to push the tape down into the edge of the carpet. This created a nice safe area to avoid getting paint on the new carpet.

The skirting boards weren’t too bad in here (well, they were very dirty and marked, but not too badly chipped like the ones I’m avoiding dealing with in the hall) so it didn’t take me long to clean, scuff with sand paper and slap on a coat of white gloss. 

And here we are – room put back together, lovely new, fresh smelling carpet that we can actually lie down on without gagging! Woo!!

I bought this sweet little cotton rug from B & Q to protect the carpet from sparks from the fire. I think it was only £7. Bargain.

The new carpet has ramped up the cosiness levels significantly in here. I’m really happy with the colour too. It’s neutral and works well with the all the green I end up having everywhere. I think I was freaking out that grey carpet was going to be too drab and ‘officey’ but I’m good with it.

I’m hoping it will stay looking good for a very long time. Shoes off mofos!!

Carpet or hard floors? What’s your preference? Leave a comment here or find me on instagram.