Lifestyle Carpet Collection Part 1: Headlam Group

Headlam Group’s (the group is a wholesaler/manufacturer) major launch this year has been the Lifestyle Floors collection. They are aggressively promoting their new launch in the form of lovely stands and lecterns that they are offering to place in shops across the country for a nominal fee. It’s great value for shops, so you will see plenty of these stands.

Ours was installed last week and we have 14 carpets on it. This rundown of the carpets will come in three parts. Today I’m looking at:

City Twist: This is a ‘better than most’ budget twist that is comparable to something like Revolution in terms of price and quality. It does feel a little more dense to me and it is a very colourful range, with ‘Sky’ and ‘Fuchsia’ definitely catching the eye at first glance. It’s 100% polypropylene and action backed and is available in either 4m or 5m wide rolls.

It’s a decent stab to do a reasonable twist for under a tenner and I have to commend it. You should pay £8-£12 per metre for it and it would be ideal for those on a budget or landlords who don’t want the ‘cheap and nasty’ look.

Revival Twist: This one is a heavier, heathered twist with a more subtle colour bank. I quite like the Crimson and Raspberry Jam, but if I’m honest then I am not blown away by this one in the least. It’s one of many similar at this sort of price.

It’s 100% polypropylene, action backed and available 4m and 5m wide. It should be priced between about £14 and £18 per square metre and I think that maybe a pound or two too much. I don’t think it stands up that well to competition at a similar price, like Cormar’s Primo Tweed, Balta’s Stainsafe Heathers or Lano’s Startwist Supreme. It’s not a bad carpet as such, but it’s not as good as its competitors to my mind.

Cosmopolitan Stripe: The much-vaunted ‘funky’ stripe of the collection (there is another, but it is a little more subtle) is a slightly shaggy twist with stripes of varying widths in some crazy colours.

Coffee and Tan are by far the best colours in the range and it features a truly rancid ‘Hot Pink’ shown below:

It’s 4 metre wide only, is made from 100% polypropylene and is felt backed. I’d be guessing it’s for kids’ bedrooms or playrooms, but you could use it elsewhere I imagine.

Time will tell if it will sell well, but customers have not been impressed by it in here so far, so I don’t think it’s going to work for us, but I might be wrong. Expect to pay around £9-£12 per square metre and it’s not a bad price for what it is and if you like the colours and designs, you could do a lot lot worse.

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More Stripes, By Popular Demand

There’s been a vast upward surge in people viewing this blog since I posted about stripes in my last post. Far be it from me to deny you some more lovely striped carpets to gaze at! Here are some more:

Montana Stripe by Bajong is a revamped range that was previously a heavy, plain saxony. The thick, luxurious pile always sold well and with it being available in 4 metre and 5 metre widths, it was always a good seller.

A 60oz 100% polyprop carpet with an action back, Montana has now been relaunched with some new colours, but of course we are interested in the stripes and there are three of them in the range. Here is the best seller:

A lovely feel to this thick saxony and quite a bold stripe on both senses of the word. You should be looking at £18-£25 per square metre for this one.

Berber Ridge by Victoria Carpets is a very different animal – a sheep basically! It’s a 100% wool berber available in 2 metre and 4 metre widths. There is also a co-ordinating range of plains within this range that are available in 2, 4 and 5 metre widths.

Pretty much anything with the Victoria Carpets logo on it is a very well put together carpet and this is clearly no exception. It’s certainly a major competitor to Beach Hut and Mississippi and will go out between £20 and £30 per square metre.

Funky Stripes by Balta Carpets is one I’ve metioned numerous times and it gets the most hits of anything on the entire blog, so here is another image of a natural shade for you to admire:

It sells okay too and realistically you should not pay more than £10 per square metre for it. Carpet Right do promote this one and seem to be calling it ‘Trendy Stripes’ – looks the same to me though. They say the RRP is £23.99 per square metre – well you learn something new every day. I do wonder just who recommends these prices to Carpet Right sometimes because to be honest, I would be asking them to look carefully at them. Just saying… Of course I only want the best for them and I’m sure they constantly review their pricing. All I do on here is offer opinions and in my opinion this carpet is worth no more than £10 per square metre.

Another option, and always a cracking value solution, is to buy a wool twist stripe that a manufacturer has created using surplus wool. A lot of large carpet warehouses buy full rolls of this surplus stuff and the price is brilliant. You can very often buy a 40-50oz 80% wool twist for about £12 per square metre and that is just a wonderful deal.

The downside to these is that the exact colour combination is not repeatable and you can’t order exactly what you want. Mostly they are very narrow stripes made up of browns, creams and beiges and here is a cracking example of the ‘art’. This one was made by John Lanham Watts:

I love to sell this because the customer gets a great deal, we make a handsome profit and also the manufacturer gets rid of surplus stock. It’s win/win/win. I would strongly urge landlords to consider this kind of thing ahead of out and out budget carpets, especially if you are trying to create a slightly more upscale rental.

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