Carpets
The Eighteenth Century
During the late eighteenth century it was fashionable to colour, stencil and pattern wooden or solid floors, rather than a carpet. Oiled floor cloths could be oiled and patterned and often formed a surround to a central carpet or rug. Oil cloths usually imitated marble, stone and wood. Linoleum was in widespread use by the Edwardian era.
The Nineteenth Century
Carpets were in more general use during the nineteenth century. Most rooms would have a small carpet or rug close to the fireplace and larger rooms, especially rooms to be used for entertaining would have a large central carpet. This typically would have a central patterned area surrounded by a decorative border around it’s edge.
Stair Carpets
During the eighteenth century, staircases in upper class house and mansions were elegant and grand. Often made of marble, with marble balusters and ornate iron or finely tuned wood, these staircases were understandably not always covered with carpet.
In smaller houses the staircases were wooden with slender carved balusters and narrow handrails. As the eighteenth century continued and simpler shapes were adopted, stair carpets were introduced. The main staircase of a house often had a stair carpet, held in place with brass rods. The carpet designs were either geometric patterns, or sinous organic patterns in vertical lines running up and down the stairs
Rugs
Small and plain rugs were used commonly in the less important rooms of wealthy houses. They were placed in front of the fire or by the bed. They were also used in less well to do houses to block the drafts between floorboards. In large wealthy houses, decorative tufted and embroidered rugs were used in the public rooms to give a feeling of luxury and opulence
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