Browse Forums Interior Decorating Lounge 1 Dec 31, 2008 5:36 pm Hi Michelle, I am yet to finish my hallway (I am yet to move in!) but I am wondering about colours of rugs and runners.
This is a photo of someone elses hallway, mine will look very similar when finished. I am just wondering how you 'tie in' a rug or runner. Have they matched it, in this instance, with the painting on the wall? What would be some other good runner colours for a hallway like this, or more importantly, what should I avoid? Thanks again Michelle! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Runner for hallway 2Jan 01, 2009 8:39 pm I’m so sorry Colsy, I totally missed this post!
Are you having the timber floors also? Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: Runner for hallway 3Jan 01, 2009 8:49 pm This is a good colour for a hall runner, as it hides the dirt really well.
If your walls are neutral like in the photo, colour on the floor is a good thing. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ You can also complement the runner colours with artwork on the walls. I like wool for this sort of thing, so either an 80/20 or 100% wool runner would be the best. BUT…..this depends on the other colours you have in your rooms also. You can get runners made of normal carpet, so if the bedrooms off the hall have one colour carpet, you can use the same carpet as the runner. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: Runner for hallway 5Jan 02, 2009 7:03 am Michelle This is a good colour for a hall runner, as it hides the dirt really well. ..... I like wool for this sort of thing, so either an 80/20 or 100% wool runner would be the best. BUT…..this depends on the other colours you have in your rooms also. You can get runners made of normal carpet, so if the bedrooms off the hall have one colour carpet, you can use the same carpet as the runner. Sorry Michelle, but this statement is one of my pet hates. "Hiding the dirt" is never a good thing. It means that you are prepared to live with dirt. Which ever soft floor covering you purchase, think of it's cleanability as well. Vacuum regularly with a quality vacuum cleaner and treat spots and spills quickly to reduce permanent staining. Have them cleaned professionally on a regular basis to remove the gradual build up of oily soils from sweaty feet and cooking fumes etc. If buying rugs, you have the choice of machine made or hand made. You will rarely get an 80/20 in either. The 80/20 blend is generally only offered in some fitted carpet such as Brintons Wiltons or Axminsters. Wool is certainly a good choice for a runner as it is easy to keep clean and wears exceptionally well. Machine made runners (the one in the photo appears to be machine made) can last just as well as a hand knotted oriental and be a fraction of the cost, and will clean just as easily. A good quality upright vacuum cleaner will help with that job. A suction cleaner needs six passes to be as effective as just one pass with an upright. Just keep the vaccum away from the finging on any hand knotted rugs as this can tend to unravell them. For spot cleaning, think of the physics not the chemistry. Don't reach into the cupbord for all the bottles of chemistry. If you spill anything water based, blot it up, quickly. If there is any remaining colour, dilute with a bit of water and blot again. When you have finished blotting and diluting and blotting, spray with a mixture of 1 part white vinegar to 10 parts water and blot the excess. This helps stabilise the dyes. By the way, this is the best first aid trick for nearly any carpet or fabric. But always pretest the white vinegar mix on an inconspicuous are before you need it. There are some fabrics out there that have pH sensitive dyes that can change colour with the white vinegar mix. But that is another story. The white vinegar is mainly to keep the natural fibres (such as wool) in the carpet pile or even jute and cotton in the carpet backings, in an acid state which is more natural. Rain is slightly acidic and that is where natural fibres grow (out in the rain). Some spills and certainly most detergents and soaps are in the alkaline range and this is not good to leave in a carpet. The white vinegar is acetic acid and is there for pH correction. Hope this helps. cheers Col Nation For information on caring for wool and other carpet and upholstery go to www.woolsafe.com.au Re: Runner for hallway 6Jan 02, 2009 8:01 am Col Nation Sorry Michelle, but this statement is one of my pet hates. "Hiding the dirt" is never a good thing. It means that you are prepared to live with dirt. No Col….it means when you have a busy life with children running everywhere and you don’t get time to vacuum and clean EVERY day, the colour of the runner will make life easy! I am in no way suggesting that people live with dirt! But I think Colsy knows that. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: Runner for hallway 7Jan 02, 2009 11:35 am Yep, I understand the 'hide the dirt' statement.
Michelle means that you can get colours that will not show a mark/stain every time you walk in from the outdoors. And believe me, that is what I need! Re: Runner for hallway 8Jan 03, 2009 7:20 am I thought that might provoke a reaction, and that's good.
With a couple of grown up kids of my own and a border collie that looses hair by the handful, I know what you mean when you say you want to hide the soil. It's just that the longer the soil is there, the more damage it does. When people say they want to hide the soil it usually means they want to diguise it with a pattern so that they can ignore it for a little longer. Okay, dry soils are not that big a problem. Sure the grit may do some damage over a long period of time. But the longer it is left on the carpet the more it is impacted into the carpet and the more difficult it will be to remove. When soil is hidden it just gets ignored more. It is the liquid soils that are the real problem. Unless you spill distilled water you will be leaving some form of residue of either fats, oils, sugars, starches or minerals. Anything in the water based range will cause more damage, not due to the water itself, but what was disolved in the water that can turn alkaline as it oxidises from the very air that we breathe. So hiding the soil just gives these chemicals more time to react with the fibres and the dyes themselves. Colsy you mentioned the soils coming in from outside. Typically these will be dry soils (unless it's raining of course) and some times oily soils from greasy carparks at work or the local shopping centre. Some good entry matting will usually stop this. A grit stopping mat outside and an electrostatic mat inside is the best arrangement. This way you leave the majority of the external soils at the door. By far the biggest cause of soiling on soft flooring is the kitchen, followed by sweaty feet and then outside pollution. It's the oils that tend to bind the dry soils to the fibres. If the carpet doesn't hide the soil then you are more aware of it and will tend to address the problems before they cause long term damage. If you can remove the soil before it gets squished into the fine layer of oily build up, then your home will be cleaner longer and your beautiful decor will always look fresh. I'm sure Michelle you have heard the term "ugly out". This is where carpets and fabrics just look bad before they have actually worn out. This 'ugly out' is just colour loss or colour gain in areas where you don't really want them. Colour loss can be from fading or from chemical breakdown of the dyes and fibres. Colour gain can be from stains or the bonded soils that we have let build up in our decor. If we want to keep our homes looking good for longer, then just a bit of quick maintenance can save the heartache of permanent damage. If the spills or soil are hidden or disguised, then we will tend to just leave it till tomorrow or the next day or the next day and by that time, you now have a real problem to work with which is going to take even more time (and money) to fix, if it can be fixed at all. So please think of "hiding the soil " as the enemy of good looking decor, and think of " ease of maintenance" or "preventative maintenance" as we teach in health care facilities, as the way to decorate a home in a way that they will always look good and remain healthy. By this I mean things like, choosing wool because it resists the absorption of water based spills long enough for you to grab a paper towel and blot it up, before it gets a chance to soak in and start to cause damage. Polyester rather than linen, because polyester is more resistant to the chemical damage from spills and the fibre is tougher if you are going to have kids on the lounge. Staple fibre yarn rather than continuous filament to avoid pilling in satin weave areas of the pattern of a sofa. A few seconds of blotting up a few spills, is a lot better than the time and cost it takes to rip up carpet or tiles or timber flooring because they have been permanently damaged by the neglected 'hidden' soils. I'm sorry if I am getting a bit carried away here. I'm in the business of looking after decor. I just get a bit passionate about keeping beatiful art pieces such as a quality hand knotted oriental rug in as good a condition as possible. Interior design is no less an art form. Hiding, or ignoring soils is really one of the worst thing that can happen to detract from this. cheers Col Nation For information on caring for wool and other carpet and upholstery go to www.woolsafe.com.au Re: Runner for hallway 10Jan 03, 2009 12:18 pm colsy we had a hallway very similar to the pic you posted.
I wouldn't worry too much about matching your hallway pictures. Most people don't have a lot of furniture or artwork in their hallway anyway but even if you do most runners will match almost anything. Pick the best quality runner you can afford as it gets a lot of traffic; particularly people coming in with not quite dry feet in winter from the front entrance. From memory ours was from Czech Republic and was hand tufted 100% wool. In terms of colour the one Michelle posted is a good one. Our runner was mostly reds with some sage and a small amount of creame around the border. After 12 years and 2 rottweilers skidding up and down the hallway it still looked terrific. You really can't go wrong - especially the classic or traditional designs. Make sure you get them on special . Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ sigh... I miss our runner . Re: Runner for hallway 12Jan 03, 2009 1:23 pm btw you can join them together so you don't have to get one large runner.
Ours was two large hall rugs that were cut and joined and you could never tell the difference. The big issue for most ppl is how long to make it i.e. should it run the length of the hallway, or should there be a 1/2 metre gap before you step on the rug from the entrance. good luck with whatever you choose and we'd love to see a final pic of your runner when you get it . Might cheaper to changer your idea of what makes a home, have you considered building a porch? 2 51794 at most it will have a short lintel which could be moved up just below the ceiling or even above. Above means you need to patch the cornice and might need to deal with… 2 61372 What? It's a lighting question, the control joint is only needed at 12m centres, a bulkhead or change of direction will suffice as a 'break' in the ceiling, just make… 8 8572 |