AT HOME DISCOVER OUR NEW LIFESTYLE SECTION
Wool is bouncing back — and has style to spare, writes LOUISE RICHARDSON
Every now and then a house comes to market in New Zealand complete with a heavily patterned, woollen Axminster carpet, which would have cost the owner a fortune in the 1970s but is still as pristine as the day it was laid.
“Back in those days there were three main areas where New Zealanders spent big money,” says Ian Hunt, who has been in the flooring business for 47 years.
“They were your house, your car and your carpet, and all of these were status symbols.”
As New Zealand gets ready to welcome its five-millionth citizen, the ratio of sheep to people has fallen from 22 per person in 1982 to 5.6, and much of the wool grown is no longer used in carpets.
But change may be just around the corner.
Having fallen out of favour when synthetic floorcoverings appeared, woollen carpet is surging back and its recent appeal has more to do with protecting the planet than demonstrating wealth. .
“Wool went right away as a percentage of what we were selling,” says Stephen Hunt, a director at Ian Hunt Flooring.
“However, in 2018, the tide seemed to turn and the number of inquiries we received about wool shot up from five to 25 per cent..”
Ian Hunt himself puts that down to what he describes as the ‘single-use plastic bag effect,’ which burst into our collective consciences around that time.
“It got consumers thinking of other ways they can support the environment, and the idea of discarded nylon carpet taking centuries to break down in landfills suddenly seemed alarming.”
The Hunts say that young people are leading the charge back to wool, especially when they’re starting families.
“Children are our biggest assets and these parents want to put them in the safest environment they can. They’re aware of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air and they know that wool carpet will filter them,”
Although carpet is still popular in both nylon and wool, Stephen Hunt says that the days of carpeting your whole house appear to be over.
“People these days are opting for a mix of textures and you’ll often find hard flooring such as timber and tiles in the kitchen, dining, living areas and hall, while carpet is used in the bedrooms where it feels great underfoot.”
While he attends international trade fairs and sees some innovative colours and patterns in carpet, he says that New Zealanders these days are ‘safe’ decorators.
“We sell carpet in many, many shades of brown and it would be really nice if Kiwis could get a bit more adventurous.
“But having said that the Americans are even less so — with about 10,000 varieties of brown.
While synthetic carpets have their place, in terms of price, fade resistance and durability, when it comes to being ecofriendly, wool’s advantages are easily provable.
Cool wool ‘breathes’ and has temperature regulation properties that can help keep your home cosy in winter yet cool in summer. It also absorbs contaminants in your home and it’s flame resistant.
Most carpet stores offer free measurements and quotes and bring samples to your door so that you can choose in the context of your home and your own particular needs.
Stephen Hunt says that a good entry-mid wool carpet installed on 10mm foam underlay including labour (no uplift or moving of furniture etc) would be in the $59sq m including GST range.
“Then you could move up to $75 and for top of the range — for example, ‘Transpire’ from the Bremworth collection by Cavalier Bremworth — you are looking at $140.00sq m including GST.
There’s sometimes a perception that wool carpet is expensive, but when you compare these price guidelines with other types of flooring, you may be surprised.
Many flooring companies have synthetic — nylon — carpet starting at around the $25sq m mark, while for a highquality product you could be looking at about $100sq m, so wool and nylon are essentially within the same ballpark.
While New Zealand’s wool carpet exports have fallen sharply since the 1970s the renaissance in its popularity could open up new avenues for overseas income and give local sheep farmers a boost, as well as keeping Kiwis warm and comfortable.