Dear Fiona,
We’re renovating a house, which involves redoing two bathrooms (the family bathroom, and the guest bathroom) but I haven’t really come across any flooring option that I really love. Everything looks sort of hard. Then I saw the film of Lily Allen and David Harbour’s house and had an epiphany: I could simply continue the carpet into the bathrooms! I grew up with carpeted bathrooms and I love them. You don’t get that cold tiles underfoot thing, they’re naturally non-slip (we’ve got little children so this is valid and also, one day we’ll be old) and I just think it looks nice – especially as I’ve chosen a really pretty shade of dusky pink for the upstairs carpeting.
However, the reaction to this suggestion has been extreme. My husband, my best friend and my mother-in-law have all told me that carpeting a bathroom is totally gross, not to mention old-fashioned – but mainly gross. (My mother-in-law says she’d never stay in a house where the bathroom designated to her was carpeted.) Even my own mother isn’t that keen and she’s replaced all the carpeting with tiles in the bathrooms at the home I grew up in, incidentally – and muttered something about pedestal mats. (Just because I want a carpeted bathroom does not mean I also want one of those!)
But, Lily and David’s house aside, I can’t find many pictures of contemporary carpeted bathrooms online. Maybe there’s actually a really good reason why I shouldn’t carpet the bathroom? What do you think?
Thank you!
Love,
A Carpet-Preferrer
Dear Carpet-Preferrer,
Ah, bathrooms. One of my favourite subjects, for it seems they’re never not contentious: there’s the question of books belonging (or not), whether the bathroom should also contain a loo (well, obviously), and even the matter of bathroom-to-bedroom ratio. However, carpets are certainly one of the most controversial issues relating to that room, and there are compelling arguments in both directions, mostly to do with function and execution, which ultimately, is where the answer to your question will lie (as well as aesthetics.)
Let’s rewind a century or two. Indoor bathrooms, as you’ll know, are a relatively recent invention, and came later to the UK than to the US (largely because the British aristocracy, i.e. the people who could theoretically afford bathrooms, continued to live in ancient ancestral homes built with no consideration for future plumbing). And thus it is to America that we need to look for early advice on best bathroom design. Edith Wharton, aka the grandmother of contemporary interiors, published The Decoration of Houses in 1897, giving instructions that “the bathroom walls and floor should, of course, be water-proof,” and suggesting tiling for the floor – with “high wainscotting”. Elsie de Wolfe, in her 1913 tome The House in Good Taste, concurred. It would seem, however, that no one in charge of bathroom installation in English country houses in the earliest years of the 20th century read those books, for when a concession to bathrooms did finally come about, linoleum and the most basic sanitaryware were the usual order of the day. Although, in truth, you were lucky if you found even that; in the 1930s Nancy Lancaster (who bought Sibyl Colefax out of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler) and her husband moved into their latest acquisition, Ditchley Park, and discovered “every room had a very attractive early Georgian armchair, which had a seat that lifted up and you found a pot de chambre underneath. That’s all there was. You used them right there in the room you slept in,” recounted Nancy.
And that’s when carpets arrived in bathrooms. Nancy converted the closets and dressing rooms, so that nobody had to pee in a pot in their bedroom, and decorated them “much as I would any other room, hanging pretty paintings and prints, putting down good rugs, maybe a walnut chair and table.” Ah – but they weren’t wall-to-wall carpets I hear you say – and no, they weren’t, because those hadn’t yet been introduced; when they were, Nancy embraced them, and on moving into the flat on Avery Row in 1957 installed cream wall-to-wall carpeting in her bathroom (it continued from her bedroom). And because Nancy’s style was (and still is) highly influential, when fitted, wall-to-wall carpet became affordable for the masses, and indoor bathrooms went mainstream, there was wide-spread enthusiasm for the combination (indeed, some were so into it that they even carpeted right up the side of the bath. Just to be clear, Nancy never did that).
So why, you might wonder, when one of my fellow House & Garden writers recently polled a group of design experts on choosing bathroom flooring, did no one mention carpet? The answer is explained very simply by two words: mould and mildew. Brandon Schubert goes further, pointing out that in bathrooms, as well as humidity and damp, you might expect “plenty of hair, fingernail clippings and other bodily remnants to find their way onto the floor. Why would you want to trap all that in a velvet carpet or chunky natural fibre weave?” And going yet further, and although you don’t mention your children’s genders, this is probably the moment to remind you of small boys’ inconsistent aim when it comes to urinating. “A carpet that’s fitted around the loo – words can’t describe how yuck that is,” says Olivia Outred. If you concentrate hard on the details of Lily and David’s house on our sister site, AD, you’ll spot that their Pierre Frey-carpeted bathroom is loo-less.
But “I do love a carpeted bathroom,” says Daniel Slowik. Also in favour is Emma Burns, Joint Managing Director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, who says that ever since she’s had her own house she’s had carpeted bathrooms, and explains that “psychologically the sight of wall-to-wall cut pile, or better yet, Brussels Weave, makes my shoulders relax; people think it unhygienic, but I will risk that for the joy of padding barefoot over deliciously warm and luxurious carpet.” Which is one of the things that attracts you. “However,” says Brandon, “having a floor that feels good in bare feet is just not that high on my list of priorities when designing most rooms, especially in more modern houses or where we can install underfloor heating.” And as you’re doing a renovation, you are perfectly positioned to do just that. Although, underfloor heating doesn’t cover the aesthetics, and on this one, I’m with you. I like a carpeted bathroom, too. Jane Ormsby Gore notes that carpet “looks wonderful when it is combined with antiques, which can sometimes appear rather austere in a bathroom with a wooden floor.” And even Brandon admits that “carpet can score very highly on the ‘look’ scale, so I would never absolutely rule it out.”
So yes – of course you can carpet your bathroom – but it’s important to get it right, and I’m afraid it’s not quite as simple as continuing the carpeting you’ve already planned. First, you need to prepare the floor; that point that Edith Wharton made about it needing to be waterproof still applies, especially if you’ve got little children who splash – the last thing you want is a damp carpet that then makes the floorboards damp, and then the plaster of the ceiling below for it will eventually collapse. Take it from someone with prior experience, and occasional flashbacks. Then, “fitted carpet, even under the best circumstances, doesn’t get a great rating on the ‘function’ scale,” points out Brandon. “It gets stained, it wears out.” Jane has used stair carpet in her bathroom, “which is hard-wearing, so isn’t marked by splashes from the bath or wet feet,” though she says that she does still have to be careful with bath oil. Daniel explains that “a high-quality loop pile doesn’t absorb as much moisture as a cut pile, and a marble tray beneath the bath is advisable, along with making sure that towels are to hand when you get out.”
You also want to think about the bathroom itself; “a fitted carpet in a bathroom is wonderful in a country house,” says Daniel. “A large room, a bath in the centre looking out over a landscape through a big sash window, armchairs, books, plants, paintings. What you don’t want is the 80s version with a cerise carpet in a small bathroom in London – it’s comparable to huge swags and curtain tails crammed into a low-ceilinged room.” Also, please don’t carpet up the side of the bath, and “I don’t think we need to go back to the carpeted step-up jacuzzi,” Daniel continues.
Finally, and pertaining particularly to your case, you need to consider who you’re going to be sharing this carpeted bathroom with, which is why I’m going to recommend that you maybe rethink your plan for the guest bathroom – unless you also want a pedestal mat (or want your facilities to be positively off-putting to guests, which is your prerogative). I’m not advising all-out clinical, more Olivia’s suggestion of “a loose rug instead, with sticky back underlay. Something you can move and clean.” As Nancy Lancaster demonstrated, there’s more than one way to carpet a bathroom.
With love,
Fiona XX
