Guide · For the trade
Patterned wall to wall carpet: a designer's guide to choosing and specifying it
Patterned wall to wall carpet is broadloom with a motif woven, tufted or printed into the face, from a 1 inch tonal grid to a 36 inch floral, installed edge to edge over pad. It is specified like a solid plus three numbers: the pattern repeat in inches, the roll width (12 ft, 13 ft 2 in or 15 ft), and the extra yardage the repeat adds at every seam, usually 5 to 15 percent more than a solid. Our library holds about 1,350 patterned broadloom styles, more than half of them woven Wiltons.
This guide is for the designer or the junior putting a patterned carpet into a living room, a bedroom, a hall and stair, or a whole floor. It covers the pattern families, scale against room size, how construction decides the look, the repeat and the seam plan, pattern on stairs, and the questions clients ask.
The pattern families, and what each one does
Patterned carpet ideas fall into six families. The small geometric, a lattice, a pin dot or a houndstooth at a 1 to 4 inch repeat, reads as texture from standing height and is the workhorse for halls, stairs and family rooms because it hides tracking and soil. The trellis and the larger geometric, 6 to 18 inches, give a room a rhythm without a direction; the geometric collection runs to more than 860 styles in rugs and broadloom. Stripes have a direction and make a room read longer or a stair taller. Plaids and checks are the traditional-house patterns (the plaid carpet guide); florals and damasks carry a formal room and a hotel corridor. And the tonal texture, a loop-and-cut pattern in one color, is the pattern for the client who says they want a solid: all the soil-hiding, none of the commitment.
Scale against the room
A 12 by 14 foot bedroom with a bed and two nightstands shows perhaps 40 percent of its floor; a repeat over 12 inches lands one and a half motifs in the visible aisle and looks accidental. A great room or a formal dining room can carry a 24 to 36 inch repeat. The rule we use: the visible floor should show at least three full repeats in each direction. In a small room, go to a small geometric, a tonal texture, or a stripe, which has no scale problem because it runs out of the room.
Construction decides the look and the life
| Construction | How the pattern is made | Look | Specify it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilton (woven) | Colored yarns woven into the face on a Jacquard loom; up to 5 or 6 colors | Crisp edges, dense, slight relief between cut and loop | Stairs, halls, living rooms, anything that must last 15 years |
| Axminster (woven) | Yarn tufts inserted row by row; unlimited colors | Painterly, multi-color florals and medallions | Formal rooms, hospitality, large repeats |
| Tufted loop-and-cut | One or two colors; the pattern is the pile height and texture | Tonal, sculpted, quiet | Bedrooms, family rooms |
| Printed | Pattern printed onto a tufted nylon face | Any color count, fine detail, softer edges | Multi-color patterns in nylon at a lower cost than weaving |
| Hand-loomed | Wool woven by hand in widths to 15 ft | Soft, irregular, textural | Rooms where the pattern is a weave, not a motif |
In the catalog, Kane Carpet and Prestige Mills weave Wiltons in wool, wool blends and polyester, Bloomsburg Carpet weaves Wilton and Axminster in wool, Couristan and Stanton cover Wiltons and machine-woven patterns, and Milliken prints nylon with Class I ratings and Green Label Plus certificates. A multi colored patterned wall to wall carpet is almost always an Axminster or a print; a two- or three-color pattern is a Wilton; a tonal one is a loop-and-cut.
The repeat, the seams and the yardage
Every patterned carpet carries two numbers on its spec sheet, the width repeat and the length repeat, and both drive the order. Across a seam the pattern must match, so each additional drop is cut one full length repeat longer than the room needs; a 36 inch repeat adds about a yard to each drop. Along the width, the seam has to fall where the pattern meets itself, which fixes the seam position; the seam plan is drawn before the order, not after. All drops run the same way, and the pattern runs one direction through every door off a hall. Wiltons also carry a small bow and skew, up to 1 inch across a 12 ft width, which a skilled installer stretches out; name a pattern-matching installer in the quote. The pattern repeat guide has the arithmetic and the carpet seams guide the placement rules.
Patterned wall to wall carpet for living rooms and bedrooms
In a living room the pattern competes with upholstery, drapery and art, so one of them leads: a trellis or a geometric at 8 to 12 inches in two close tones under a solid sofa is the classic arrangement. Keep the carpet's lightest tone close to the wall color so floor and walls read as one envelope. In a bedroom a tonal loop-and-cut or a small-scale pattern is the spec; the bed covers the middle of the floor, so the pattern is seen in a 3 to 4 foot aisle and must be quiet at that scale. Pile under 5/8 inch in both rooms keeps legs from rocking.
Patterned carpet for stairs and halls
A hall and stair carpeted wall to wall in a pattern is the best argument for one: a small geometric or a tonal texture at 40 oz or more in wool or a wool-nylon hides the traffic line and the nosing wear that a solid shows in a season. The repeat is cut to land on each tread the same way, which costs a repeat per flight; a stripe costs the least. Pile under 1/2 inch, a dense 1/4 to 3/8 inch pad, and a Wilton or a tight loop. The best carpet for stairs guide and the patterned stair runner guide go further.
Questions designers ask
Is patterned wall to wall carpet still specified, or is it dated?
It is specified more now than ten years ago, in small geometrics, tonal textures and trellises rather than the large florals of the past. A quiet pattern in a current palette reads as tailored, not period.
Does a patterned carpet hide wear and soil better than a solid?
Yes, markedly, in a mid-tone two-tone pattern; the traffic lane and the vacuum tracks disappear into the motif. A pale ground with a dark motif is the exception; it shows soil on the ground as a solid would.
How much extra carpet does a pattern repeat add?
One length repeat per drop beyond the first, plus whatever the seam position adds: usually 5 to 15 percent over a solid, more on a stair. The exact figure comes from the seam plan, which we draw from the floor plan before quoting.
Can a patterned carpet run through the hall, the stair and the bedrooms?
Yes, and it is the way to make a floor read as one: the pattern runs the same direction throughout, the stair is matched tread by tread, and the doors get a seam where the pattern meets itself. Order it all from one dye lot.
Can the colors of a pattern be changed?
On most woven lines, yes, through the mill's custom color program: the design stays, the yarn colors change to poms or references, with a strike-off to approve, in 8 to 16 weeks. Printed lines are fixed to their colorways.
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