Guide · For the trade
Plaid rug and plaid carpet: tartans, tailored checks and how to run them on a stair
A plaid rug or plaid carpet is a woven crossing of stripes in two or more colors, and the two decisions are the scale of the sett (the repeat, 4 to 24 inches) and the construction, which is Axminster or Wilton wool for a true tartan and hand-loomed or flatweave wool for a soft tailored plaid. Through Interiors there are about 87 plaid and check styles, from Scottish-woven 80/20 wool-nylon tartans in 13 ft 2 in broadloom to hand-loomed New Zealand wool plaids in 15 ft widths, and any of them can be a rug, a wall-to-wall carpet or a stair runner from the same roll.
This guide is for the designer putting plaid into a library, a study, a mountain house, a mudroom or a stair, and the junior pulling samples. It covers the vocabulary, the scale rule, constructions, colors, the plaid stair runner and the pattern match. Checks and checkerboards have their own page in the checkerboard rugs guide.
Plaid, tartan, check and windowpane: what the words mean on a line sheet
Tartan is a named Scottish sett, a fixed sequence of colored stripes crossed at right angles, such as Black Watch (dark green and navy), Royal Stewart (red ground) or a hunting tartan in greens and browns; the Prestige Mills tartan collection we carry is woven in Scotland on Axminster looms. Plaid is the general term for any crossed-stripe pattern, named or not. A check is a plaid with equal stripes in two colors, which makes squares; buffalo check is a large two-color check, gingham a small one. A windowpane is a single fine line crossing on a plain ground at a 4 to 12 inch interval, the quietest plaid and the one for a contemporary room; a tattersall is a windowpane with two alternating line colors. Ask for the pattern repeat in inches; it is the sett size and it drives everything below.
Scale: matching the sett to the room
| Repeat (sett) | Reads as | Rug size that shows it | Rooms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 to 6 in | Texture, tweedy | Any, including runners | Halls, stairs, studies, offices |
| 7 to 13 in | Classic plaid | 5x8 and up; 27 to 36 in runners | Libraries, dens, bedrooms, mudrooms, stairs |
| 18 to 24 in | Bold tartan, statement | 8x10 and up, wall-to-wall | Great rooms, lodge living rooms, dining rooms |
Most of the Scottish Axminster tartans we carry weave on a 10, 13 or 19.75-inch sett; the Wilton and hand-loomed tailored plaids run 3 to 12 inches. On a stair runner a sett under 13 inches is the practical ceiling, because a tread is only 10 to 11 inches deep.
Construction: which plaid for which job
Axminster, woven in 80 percent wool and 20 percent nylon on a 13 ft 2 in loom, is the construction for a true tartan, because Axminster carries unlimited colors and keeps every stripe edge straight; it is a cut pile of about 1/4 to 3/8 inch, and it is what a club, a library or a lodge stair gets. Wilton wool, 12 ft and 13 ft 2 in, is the construction for a plaid with up to five colors and a flatter face; Stanton's and Prestige Mills' Wilton plaids at 0.25 to 0.30 inch pile are the ones we spec most for halls and stairs. Hand-loomed wool, from Crescent, Antrim and Prestige Mills in 15 ft widths, gives the soft tailored plaid that reads as a blanket on the floor and goes in bedrooms, family rooms and bound rugs, with fewer seams because of the width. Flatweave wool and wool-sisal plaids, under 1/4 inch, are the casual version for a mudroom, a kitchen or a covered porch. Polypropylene plaid rugs exist for outdoor use and nowhere else in a trade scheme.
Colors clients ask for
Green plaid is the first request, from Black Watch to a sage and cream windowpane, and the one that works in the widest range of rooms. Red plaid, Royal Stewart and its relatives, is for a bar, a powder room or a holiday house. Blue plaid, navy on cream or a blue-grey tattersall, is the coastal answer and the easiest to pair with white walls. Neutral plaid, camel, oatmeal and charcoal, is what most contemporary projects take, often as a windowpane in a hand-loomed wool. Brown hunting tartans suit a paneled study. On any plaid, pull the sample at full repeat; a 9-inch swatch of a 13-inch sett shows the wrong colors in the wrong proportions.
The plaid stair runner
A plaid is one of the best patterns for a stair runner because it hides nosing wear and the lines lead the eye up the stair. Specify it in Wilton or Axminster wool, 27 to 36 inches wide, cut from the broadloom so the plaid runs straight with the stair, bound or serged in a color pulled from the sett, over a 3/8-inch dense felt pad, waterfall or Hollywood installed. The one rule the installer must hear: cut square to the pattern, not to the roll edge, and match at every landing and turn, which takes an extra repeat per landing in the order. The wool stair runners guide and the stair runner installation guide cover widths, pad and the two installation methods.
Plaid carpet wall-to-wall, and the pattern match
Wall-to-wall plaid is a library, study or bedroom spec, and the sett has to be set out on the plan before the order. Seams are matched across the repeat, so each drop carries one extra repeat: a 13 ft 2 in Axminster with a 13-inch sett in a 14 by 18 room needs two drops of 18 ft plus 13 inches each, centered on the fireplace or the door. A large plaid across a seam shows any bow or skew in the roll, so tell the installer to check the pattern for square before cutting and to power stretch along the line of the stripes. The carpet yardage guide covers the arithmetic; the pattern repeat guide covers the match itself.
Questions designers ask
What is the difference between plaid and tartan carpet?
Tartan is a named Scottish sett with a fixed stripe sequence and colors, woven under license; plaid is any crossed-stripe pattern, including every tartan and every tailored or windowpane check. All tartans are plaids; most of the plaids on a line sheet are not tartans.
What size plaid rug does a living room take?
The same as any living room rug, 8x10 as a minimum and 9x12 in most rooms, with the front legs of the sofa and chairs on it; a bold 18 to 24 inch sett needs the larger size to show the repeat. Cut from broadloom and bound, a plaid rug can be any size, and the pattern is centered in the cut.
Is a plaid stair runner hard to install?
No harder than any patterned runner, provided the order includes a repeat for every landing and turn and the installer cuts to the pattern rather than the roll edge. Allow 27 to 36 inches of width, Wilton or Axminster wool, a 3/8-inch felt pad on the treads, and a bound edge in a color from the sett.
Can a plaid carpet be made in a custom color?
Yes. Prestige Mills, Stanton and Crescent each recolor their plaids on their own looms in 8 to 16 weeks, and a full custom plaid in the client's colors, including a family tartan, comes with a rendering and a woven strike-off in 4 to 6 weeks. The custom rugs guide has the process.
Browse: plaid and check rugs and carpet · stair runners · patterned carpet · Axminster · Prestige Mills