I’ve been living with cruddy carpets for the past two years. They were battered old seagrass ones that were covered in paint, builder’s dirt, plaster dust and a large splosh of red wine. Then in a manic race just a week before Christmas – stressssss!!! – I had them ripped out and in their place I had the most beautiful lush carpets put down on my landing – YAY, and in my two bedrooms – DOUBLE YAY.
This is my carpet makeover post which is filled with lots of juicy before and makeover pictures. Look how excited Teddy is to be my fabulous carpet model
Let’s start at the top – well, top of the stairs to be exact.

Before: Dull, dark and dangerous

Look how beige the carpets make my landing. If I’m being honest, the carpets were actually in good nick when I bought the house – not my taste but you know, okay. They did make the space feel really gloomy and they were so slippy too (I felt down the stairs more than once).

Look at them skinny 70s banisters – thank god they went in this makeover.  

It took me less than six months to trash them completely. I’d burnt them when I heat stripped the banister, I’d got spots of paint all over them, they were marked and stained by wine and cups of tea. When the radiators were replaced, they got marked by rusty water

I’d started to rip the carpet up off the stairs after a heavy night of partying. The results you can see here.
They had gone from beige to black from all the builder’s grime.
You had to wear slippers upstairs all the time as there was exposed floorboards, carpet coming up at the corners and I hate the rough texture of the seagrass.

I couldn’t even think about replacing them until EVERYTHING was done upstairs.  And when I say everything, I mean everything. My summer went in a blur of electrics, damp course, stripping the banisters, re-plastering and decorating the two bedrooms, installing a new window, putting up light fittings, painting all the woodwork and walls….
I’ll never be short of content on this blog.

Grey Carpet Makeover

Anyway – in classic Maxine-crappy-timing – a week before my epic two month Christmas holidays – I was suddenly at carpet ready-stage.
After months of looking at samples, I went for Axminster’s Devonia Plain in French Grey in the bedrooms, then a herringbone pattern from their new Hazy Days collection called LeapFrog Limestone on the landing.
It took me months to narrow it down to these exact two. Save time by reading my edited pick of Top 10 Grey Carpets
Grey carpet felt like a practical yet modern choice. My hope was that the grey would hide the worst of my daily wear and tear.

The night before my fitters turned up, I had to empty all the bits and bobs into my living room and my bathroom. My bath was filled with my furniture and stuff (so much stuff).
My carpet guys moved furniture from room-to-room as they worked in each space. My job was to make lots of cups of tea.

That’s my French bed placed on its’ side so they could heft it about my room. Can you see all the nails there?
It took them a day and a bit to do all three rooms so my home was only upside down for a bearable amount of time.

My carpet had been stuck down by someone who lurrrrrrved nails. The guys had to bang each one down into the hardboard, then bang down the underlay, then bang down the carpet on top. My poor long-suffering neighbours.

Here is the before of my spare room. Vile.

Now look…..!

This is the before of the landing. Now, close your eyes…

Ta daaaaaaa! How good does that look, Mr?

J’adore le pattern.
I wanted to do something fun with my landing. I’d even tried painting the ceiling a dark blue. In the end, after much pinning on Pinterest, I decided the most stylish thing I could do was put down a bold carpet to go with my (not so) secret staircase project which will be revealed shortly.



My carpets were fitted, then I rushed off on my holidays. When I came back home – I’d sort-of forgotten about them. And how much they have changed the upstairs of my home.
I love padding around upstairs now. What I love more than anything is how these wool carpets are so…bouncy. Oh, and the space does feel so much lighter and brighter.  The upstairs rooms feel so much  more finished off. Thank god. **dusted shoulders**Even the dog cheered up by the end of my shoot.
To give you a rough idea of costs, I paid £500 for the labour and the underlay. And it took two men a day and a bit.
I’m going to reveal my bedroom makeovers and my landing/staircase secret project very soon – so this is just a quick show and tell right now. I’m going to get better photos taken – one where the dog doesn’t look so depressed! Ha ha!

Have a great week.

** Disclaimer. This was a collaborative post. I was given product in return for a blog review. All opinions and photos are mine shot on my Olympus Pen