Remodel: Staircase Rug Runner Nailed In!

With the staircase railing complete, the last piece of the puzzle is the rug runner and attached area rug. I was hunting for rugs for a good year or so. First, I am huge Dash & Albert fan! Initially, I was ordering a lot of samples and when I got them, realized that my go to rug company probably wasn’t going to cut it when it comes to creating the runner up and down the staircase. I started to then research some of the photos I had saved on instagram, to see who manufactured these rugs. I narrowed a few key companies that carried the rugs I liked and one vendor kept popping up from search to search. The company shall remain nameless because it’s a high end vendor which I had learned some interesting practices.

The company in question had a showroom in the Bay Area and I made an appointment to visit and pick out the right rug for the staircase and landing. The overall experience was okay, the lady that worked with me was honest about some of the choices I was picking, when working with a staircase. She wasn’t pushy at all, but I just felt like I was more on my own that I expected. Now, I will admit, I am just a consumer and not a designer and that’s probably who they are used to working in a showroom. I left the showroom with several samples to compare at home. Clem and I mulled over the choices for about 3 weeks. When I settled on the choices, I reached out to the showroom contact and she was already gone. Luckily, she had already given the contact information for two companies the showroom recommended for installation.

This is where a nice little lesson on the rug industry comes into play. When I contacted the installer about the rug installation and to get quotes. We talked about the rug company and the installer mentioned that the company showroom pretty much outsources all of their products from other manufacturers. The rug we chose for the project was actually manufactured by Staton Rugs. The showroom company rebrands the Staton rungs in their name and to my surprise increases the price. When I received the quote from the showroom, I scratched my head, it was a lot of money for not a lot rug! My installer hinted most showrooms around the bay carry the product.

I jumped on Yelp! and contacted two local vendors about purchasing the Stanton rug. Both vendors shared with me the little piece of rug business hacks in purchasing. Both of the new showrooms quotes were $3K-4K less than the big showroom I started out at. I was shocked at the deep price cut these small companies were offering. Now, was my installer cheaper than the two local rug showrooms, probably yes! But, the installer who was extremely friendly, I wanted to give him my business because ultimately he save me at least $4K. This reminds me of when we were looking at contractors and the price difference between the quotes. In the end, always go for the price in the middle. Overall the install went pretty well. Like many projects you will have in your lifetime, there are some delays. The only big delay for us was an issue with the straightness of levels of the hand rail. The upper portion was a little tweaked but honestly I love how off it appears, because it provides an easier grip for the person using the railing.

The layout for rug runner was a pretty easy decision. We did a 3 inch reveal along the edges of the rug on both the staircase and the landing. I had watched videos before of companies installing stair runners and they placed a pad under the whole runner, which I was fearful of doing. The main reason, it would make the tread small because the riser would make the tread more shallow. And well I have some big feet in the house. The installer was on top of it, and was already planning on just adding a pad just to the tread of each stair.

The next big choice was to go over the plan for binding around the edges of the rug. I wanted to avoid a wide fabric or ribbon binding, that is commonly used these days. Instead I asked for a serged edge for the binding. The color options were pretty simple, we opted to go with a gray wool, that mimicked the rugs heather great texture. Thankful our staircase has no curves, which made for a quicker install. Watching this portion of the project come to life on site was amazing. The rug was ordered in 27 meter length and the install cut and pieces all of the rugs at his shop. Onsite large portions were pieced together on the staircase and to the landing. The rug came in a length that allowed the second floor landing to done in one large piece that was then hand sewn together on site.

Did I have some worry about having such a dark rug in a space with limited lighting. Nope! My husband loves coffee in the mornings. Coffee stains are inevitable in our house. Whether its on furniture or on the floor. Even a few months into living in the house, I find coffee drops up and down the stairs almost every week. In other words, this rug was very intentional for it’s color. Clem was apprehensive shortly after I placed the order in February for the rug. What I love about this Stanton design is, the graphic of the picketed lines and the heavy gray gives you perfect combo that not to hard on your eyes. Couple that with the stained glass ceiling. It’s easy to skip over the carpet design when looking at both spaces from every vantage point. Overall the biggest lesson about this project, was give yourself time to design the rug and railing, and be sure to talk with your contractor, before the building your construction quote about the cost. All the craftsman's we used for these two projects were great work with. Seeing their work every day, just lights me up when I was down the stairs.