Baskadia

We've spent the last two weeks hammering out the details of our downstairs renovation. Lowe's jumped on board to sponsor several of the major construction components we planned, and one of their corporate partners, wall to wall Carpet in Dubai, was excited to collaborate with us after learning about our intentions to carpet in Dubai the entire thing. We're going to rock the wall-to-wall carpet like crazy. Before I go any further, we are really appreciative to these firms for allowing us to expand ourselves while still maintaining complete control over our selections. Since we moved here, the carpet in our basement (and on the stairs) has been in poor condition. We had it cleaned professionally twice, and it still looks weary and stained. I don't even want to think about how long it's been in the house (ew). Initially, we considered laying the same tile downstairs as we did upstairs, at least in part of the space; we even saved some money while thinking about it! However, as we began thinking about it and arranging the area, it simply didn't make sense to have the wood tile down there for us. Upstairs, our heating ducts penetrate the flooring from the ceiling down, creating an automatic heated floor system that we would greatly miss downstairs. Then we thought about adding a cork floor on only the playroom side to make cleanup easier. These were all concepts that Lowe's supported, but we couldn't get completely thrilled about them. In the end, we just want it to be a nice, cosy area, and carpeting the entire space thrills us. I believe if done correctly, it can look fantastic.


While some of these may be natural sources, such as sisal (which isn't the most comfortable underfoot), the most important takeaway for me is texture. I wanted a low-piled, patterned rug. We went to Lowes and looked at all of the options. Chris was thorough with his testing (haha! ):



While the high piles were lovely and soft, we were pleased to discover that wall to wall carpets had a large selection of tight-patterned carpets suitable for active families and pets! Bingo! That is us! That is us! We tried four different ones to take home and look at in person.



We eventually settled on the Medford style, which is a highly stain-resistant rug for high-traffic areas while remaining extremely soft. The small checked pattern reminded me of several of our inspiration photos. It also has a very modern, traditional vibe, which is ideal for where we like to sit.



The only issue was choosing a colour from a small 1x2 sample card, which had me paralysed. We'll be carpeting approximately 1500 square feet, and I wanted to make sure we chose the right colour. I ran back down to Lowe's to look at the display board, which had much larger samples, and Chris came home for a late lunch (by the way, he only works a mile away, so he can come home whenever he wants—we've been getting questions about that lately) so we could try to make a decision while the sun was still shining.

To begin, we each placed pieces of post-it notes on samples that we enjoyed. Any and all. In the beginning, there were a lot of darks and lights, warms and cools. Then we began, one at a time, removing posts until we had only one that we both liked: Fizz.



Perhaps something in the fourth column could pass for a natural fibre wall-to-wall option, but I'm very pleased with the option we chose. I even think it will look good coming down our stairs!



We're hoping to have someone measure for installation next week (so I still have a few days to think about the color). We'll start by removing the old furniture, painting it, and installing recessed lighting before installing new carpet. See you on the other side, Fizz!