We’ve been in this house for 6 years which ha seen the arrival of 3 kids. The very first carpet we put down has served 6 long hard years in what we now call the playroom, but I guess is just the lounge.

The carpet has suffered somewhat, with miss_s last night introducing it to some vibrant purple and dark brown stomach contents, which did an enviable job of covering up some nearby battery acid marks but ultimately just added to the rich texture of bodily fluid camouflage decorating seemingly every part of the floor…

Finally swmbo has given up trying to vanish it, and I’ve been told to find something else. Young kids, so need carpet in case of head bounces. Concrete floor underneath and very cold room in winter due to 3 external walls, east facing, big windows, single storey etc.

So, any advice on colours and patterns anyone has has success with in the past? Is it worth buying a bleachable one (££) or stay cheap and get industrial carpet tiles or something?

And what underlay might help us insulate the floor, provide some bounce and maybe make a cheap carpet feel much better?

Thanks! (descriptions of just how minging your carpets are are more than welcome!)

Only the one child here but we bought a bleachable carpet and it has dealt with a fair number of bodily issues, that said i don’t think any carpet will remain the same colour as it was, ours is cream and you can see where the high traffic areas are

Hmmm. My experience too with the current brown-ish beigey thing. Plain is bad as you can see all manner of marks.

Made me lol!

Bleach-able carpets do not need to be expensive, can be got for around the £10/sqm. Our tactic is to get the carpets professionally cleaned each year, this makes a huge difference to the carpets, stuff we have tried to get out is removed and so long as the colour has not been removed by what ever cleaning product has been used in the past the carpet looks as good as new.

Laminate can be warm and not rock solid, in your case you need proper insulation under it for warmth and give it a bit of spring. We’ve never had and head interface issues with our 2.

Wood over a foam underlay for us warm hard wearing stain proof and looks nice . also makes a fluff free surface for scalextric and makes it easy to stand up Lego minifigs etc.

Round here the standard seems to be a fairly decent wood floor/underlay with two or three cheapish ikea rugs. They can be chucked when they get too dirty.

Or jet washed in the summer.

You can also roll them up and stash them else where if the lounge is needed for entertaining.

I’ve put all the sensible suggestions to the boss, and she’s said she wants a carpet not a hard floor (to be fair, we have laminate/wood/amtico everywhere else downstairs and it is nice to have carpet somewhere!).

So back to the OP!

cover up the stain with one of these:

and buy a vax carpet cleaner.

As the proud owner of a two year old child crossed with a demented border collie that picture makes me nervous. Large blocks of firewood make great projectiles and that marble surround needs some pipe lagging cellotaping to it. Awesome rug though.

To answer the OP, I’d go sold floor with a really big, dark patterned rug. We’ve got bare floorboards throughout the downstairs in our house and have a rug that covers 80% of the living room floorspace. It’s coped well with FunkmasterJunior and a lazy Newfoundland.

funkmasterp – Member
As the proud owner of a two year old child crossed with a demented border collie that picture makes me nervous. Large blocks of firewood make great projectiles and that marble surround needs some pipe lagging cellotaping to it. Awesome rug though.

I suspect the kid and rug are actually superimposed onto the background image 😉

I suggest something with a purple and dark brown pattern.