Lifestyle Carpet Collection Part 2: Headlam Group

Following on from my last post looking at the newly launched Lifestyle Collection released by the Headlam Group, here are another handful of new ranges:

Rustic Retreat: This is a 100% wool berber made at a price. It’s definitely aimed at those on a budget who want the benefits of wool without having ‘wool money’. It’s available in 4m & 5m widths and comes in two different designs – the ‘Hobnail’ and the ‘Stripe’. Below we have the Stripe in Wheat:

As you can see it’s a very narrow ribbed stripe and not at all unusual for a carpet of this type.

One problem retailers may have with this one is its classification of ‘General Domestic’ on the label. I do understand why they’ve done this – it’s hardly likely to offer very heavy wear in reality, but until there is some realism in grading carpets then we will continue to see cheap and nasty budget twists being rated ‘Heavy Domestic’ while this superior effort is only ‘General Domestic’. To my mind, they are correct in saying ‘General Domestic’, but it just shows up the anomaly all the more.

Consequently there is ‘only’ a 5 year warranty on this. Honestly you should take carpet warranties with a pinch of salt if ask me.

Price for this one £9-£15 per square metre. If someone claims it has a RRP of £20+ then ask them just who is recommending they price their carpets like that.

Village Twist: This one is another fairly decent 100% polypropylene twist in the range. You could probably see it as big brother to City Twist.

It does have a superior feel to City Twist and is finished pretty well. I quite like it and its colours touch most popular bases. I especially like the inclusion of a nice and subtle ‘Silver’ as well as the ‘Rose’ pink, which we often struggle to find these days. Most colours in this range are subtle and muted and at the price it will be sold at (£10-£15 per square metre), I think it’s good value.

You can have this either 4m or 5m widths and it is worth considering if your budget is around £10-£15 per metre.

Royal Court: The standout carpet in the entire range is Royal Court. This is an 80% wool, 15% nylon, 5% meltbond twist that will impress. It’s available in 40 or 50oz weights and 4m and 5m widths. It also has a jute back, in line with many quality wool twists.

I’ve shown the ‘Apple Blossom’ colour here, as there does seem to be a dearth of green around right now:

Hopefully you can pick out the density and definition from the image. It’s a very very good range and I am glad they chose to include a good twist in the collection and not just look to roll out the cheapest thing they could muster.

It should sell at £18-£27 per metre – obviously the lower end for the 40oz and the higher end for the 50oz. Intriguingly they have decided to label the 50oz as extra heavy domestic just to set it apart from the heavy domestic of the 40oz. Not a bad idea I always think.

I really do think they’ve come up with the goods on this one though. It looks clean, well defined and the colours throughout the range are very very solid. It’s certainly far better than the other wool twist in the collection.

Read Full Post »

Shepherd Twist from Balta Carpets

Shepherd Twist from Balta has been with us now for several years and this is at least its third or maybe fourth relaunch.

One of the better man-made twists around, Shepherd does come close to the look and feel of wool, at least with customers. We have regularly had excellent feedback from customers over the years and have had quite a few customers buy it after moving house – repeat Shepherd Twisters!

One thing that Balta have always done with this carpet is to avoid reducing the pile weight from the near-perfect 45oz – instead they have simply put up the price when they needed to. After the last 18 months of recession and awful exchange rate problems however, I was worried about the new release. I do have some justification now in that the pile weight has been cut down to 42oz – still pretty good for a carpet of this type and still recommended by me. They have cut the price by £1 per square metre to retailers, so I would say that this carpet will find the £10-£15 per square metre price band.

One new additional benefit is that it finally comes in both 4 metre and 5 metre widths – that was long overdue.

The colours are very much a plethora of natural shades once more. Beiges and creams still dominate but the best-selling ‘Mocha’ shade is continued. I think around 8 or 9 of the shades are carried forward and we see some newcomers – a dark red, a dark grey and we see the blue disappearing along with the bright red. I’m surprised at the bright red being dropped as we are selling a fair amount of that shade right now.

I’d certainly continue to recommend this carpet. Yes, the pile weight has dropped slightly, and that is a pity, but it still outperforms many competitors of this type. It handles and fits superbly and at this price there is no doubt that is represents excellent value for money.

Read Full Post »