Our Wall To Wall Carpet In The Farmhouse Bedrooms

When we first bought the house the bedrooms were carpeted, but like most older homes the carpet wasn’t exactly salvageable (from the ’80s which turns out is no longer “twenty years ago” and instead is now FORTY YEARS AGO). We had hopes that underneath the carpet was beautiful original wood flooring – perhaps a herringbone or parquet pattern, but it was just a strange laminate and a weak little subfloor. We thought about installing wood flooring, of course, but after having carpeted bedrooms at the mountain house we were very excited to just do it again. My 27-year-old self is so confused at future Emily for being so enthusiastically a wall-to-wall carpet lady, but when it’s done nicely in a bedroom (and you don’t have hazardous pets, which we don’t) it’s just so cozy. At the time we were also looking to shave money off labor and we deemed the kid’s bedrooms as the place to do it 🙂 Full disclosure, this carpet is not a “budget” carpet (Stark is high-end and high quality) but we fell in love with this one at the mountain house and after shopping around a lot, decided to do a similar but different version here. Brand loyalty I suppose 🙂

This room was the beginning of my love affair with wall-to-wall carpet. Not only was it super cozy, but it really simplifies the room in a lot of ways, and with that slight pattern we didn’t feel the need to add a rug (we still might here, btw). We did the same carpet pattern but a different colorway in the guest room.

Both floors have held up so well for our family. It’s been 4 years and the kid’s room and play attic have gotten a lot of action (rarely shoes), the lighter guest room less so. Both are on the second floor so less access to the outside (which I think is a good thing to think about). And with the memory foam pad underneath they are remarkably cushy (seriously, everyone remarks on it).

Deciding on the carpet for this house felt harder. We love the idea of keeping it light, to work with the Scandi vibe upstairs. I definitely thought about doing the navy blue again, in all three rooms, but that felt like quite the color commitment and would lock us in design-wise. Initially, we wanted their performance carpet, Davis, and placed the order, yay all set! Then we found out that there were delays and it was 5 months out. So after stain testing this one (with raspberry jam) and having it fully come out, we went for the wool version that had the same vibe. And now that it’s installed we are SO happy. TBH I’m still new to the wall-to-wall carpet game, having only done it in a few rooms. But when I have there is nothing like a fresh, cozy, wall-to-wall carpeted room in the colder months.

But quickly some memory lane, to really hit the before and after story hard.

When we first bought the house…

Then after a year of construction, it looked like this:

Install Day!

The week before we were to move in (and live here) the carpet arrived and boy was it a transformation.

First, we put down the memory foam carpet pad (see above). Now I want to call something out that has nothing to do with the wall-to-wall carpet itself. At the mountain house, we used memory foam underneath and I remember thinking that we did this special thing nobody had before. Then when I was shopping for a memory foam carpet pad for this room at the carpet place I found a thick memory foam pad and assumed it was the same. We asked the salesperson and he said, “Yes, this is the thickest memory foam you can get”. So we bought it and checked that box. Now the sad thing is that after installing it and the carpet we realized that it’s not the same. At the mountain house, we either used double memory foam or (and this is what I think) a 1″ rug memory foam rug pad, cut to fit. This one is still cushy (1/2″ + carpet) but not the “padded room” experience we were expecting. That has nothing to do with the carpet, it’s what you install underneath. Now it’s too late (the carpet is literally stapled down). But, if you are about to install carpet consider going rogue and getting as close to a 1″ memory foam carpet pad as possible (or double up two 1/2″ ones). Your installer will likely think you are nuts, btw. Brian pointed out afterward that we really couldn’t have done the 1″ because the carpet would have been far higher than the thresholds to the hallway – it was already much higher than the hallway floor, so adding another 1/2″ might have looked dumb and been pulled up easily. That’s all to say, def don’t get a cheap carpet pad if you are opting for a more woven wall-to-wall like we did (with a pulled carpet you have more cushion). We loved the look of the woven, versus a pulled carpet (which is more typical – not in a bad way). But there are pros and cons to both.

Carpet Installed!

The carpet is very, very, very pretty. It’s the Dorsey and it has a lot of variation in texture and yarn dye, which I hope will make it more forgiving. It’s light but not WHITE. It’s 100% wool and like I said, when I stain-tested it with the jam it passed with flying colors. But it’s still a light color and let’s just say no finger painting upstairs. We don’t allow shoes in the house (and the kids are programmed so well at this point to take them off immediately on entry) and there is no food upstairs (due to the carpet), but they are still kids and while the dogs don’t pee on rugs, they are still dogs and this is still rainy Oregon in the winter. I’m not going to lie that there are days when I’m nervous that we should have made a darker or more forgiving choice, but it’s so pretty and soft!! We will likely layer a rug here or there, too.

Just look how pretty it looks. I love how the subtle stripe contrasts against the diamonds of the windows (and will work so well with the butterflies in Birdie’s wallpaper). It’s a pattern yet not, and with the variety of yarn colors, it looks really sophisticated and high-end.

Now to decorate 🙂

*Pretty Progress Farmhouse Photos by Kaitlin Green