Frieze or Berber?

[DawnCt1]

For some reason, frieze carpeting reminds me a bit of shag carpeting for days gone by, however, it is supposed to wear well and it has a softer look than berber. I am planning on recarpeting bedrooms. Any thoughts? or traditional cut loop carpeting? (neutral shades)

 

[freckles and boo]

Are you putting your house on the market or just doing a be redeco? You appear to be very busy.

 

[hiwaygal]

I don't know much about carpeting...but years ago a friends husband warned me against berber. He said it has a tendency to run really badly. One little snag and you have a run all through the carpet with no way to really fix it.

With the cost of carpeting, I don't need it to be ruined that easily!

 

[DawnCt1]

Are you putting your house on the market or just doing a be redeco? You appear to be very busy.

I don't have the lawn to mow, which usually takes me 90 minutes 3 times a week, so I do "projects" in the winter. One winter I redid the living room and dining room. DS#3 is working at Killington Ski Resort for the season, DS#4 is leaving for college in January, so I have a couple of empty rooms and it is long overdue. I was just going to redo the bathroom but one thing lead to another...Besides, I have been going to move for 20 years! One should always be prepared.

 

[freckles and boo]

I don't have the lawn to mow, which usually takes me 90 minutes 3 times a week, so I do "projects" in the winter. One winter I redid the living room and dining room. DS#3 is working at Killington Ski Resort for the season, DS#4 is leaving for college in January, so I have a couple of empty rooms and it is long overdue. I was just going to redo the bathroom but one thing lead to another...Besides, I have been going to move for 20 years! One should always be prepared.

I have a LOT of work to do on my house but I am completely unmotivated. I have had paint swatches on my dining room walls for four months. Keep posting and I maybe you will inspire me.

 

[bamajill]

I am SO over berber. We put it in our house when we moved here (11 yrs. ago). It is only in 2 bedrooms, the rest of the home has hardwoods. We have 3 kids and it has held up 'ok' but not as well as we were promised it would. (I know we need to replace it but I hate carpet so much I am waiting until we can afford to hardwood the remainder of the house).

I would go with the frieze if I were going with more carpet. It is more popular right now (I'm a realtor so I do see a lot of homes on the market). It does seem to hold up at least as well as berber (when comparing like qualities).

 

[harleyquinn]

Our friends have frieze and they love it and so do I. It's super soft and plush and just awesome.

We have berber and I hate it. Like a PP said, if it snags you have to snip it right away or it'll just pull out huge sections like nuts. It's particularly bad around edges and on stairs. Our cats love to pick at it on the stairs and it looks terrible.

I think berber is nice for small high traffic areas that aren't meant to be lounged around on, but frieze is aweome to just sit right on (with good padding underneath of course.)

 

[DawnCt1]

I have a LOT of work to do on my house but I am completely unmotivated. I have had paint swatches on my dining room walls for four months. Keep posting and I maybe you will inspire me.

The hardest part is figuring out which is most efficient. I redid all of the closet doors in the center room (soon to be vacant) I touched up most of the woodwork that I can reach for now. I am thinking that I should continue to touch up the woodwork in the other rooms, sand down the window sills, etc while I am waiting for the polyurethane to dry. The parts that require moving heavy furniture won't take that long, and I can do the bulk of it. I don't want t6 rehang the closet doors until I get the carpeting, which I can't do until I paint, etc. So I will have to stand 12 doors up 'somewhere'. Efficiency ideas welcomed!

 

[Aimeedyan]

I have berber. We've had it 3 years and have 3 active dogs.

We have a pattern in ours, which is good in case it snags as you can't tell. There are a few places where a piece of furniture or dog nail caught it but we just trimmed it at the base and it didn't run. But without a pattern, perhaps it would run and look terrible?

I really like it because it's very easy to clean (my dogs have done everything imaginable on them, and I expect children to as well). It also looks brand new, even 3 years later. It doesn't wear as hard as the previous regular type carpet we had.

My true preference is wood and we'll replace the living areas downstairs with that eventually, but I'm happy leaving the berber in bedrooms indefinitely.

This is what it looked like before we moved in:

 

[Keira1387]

We have berber, and love it! We have a dog and a cat so we need something durable. Even though the carpet is light, it hides the dirt very well.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Since they are bedrooms you can go either way.....

If you were doing a high traffic area, it would be frieze all the way. I have had that before and it held up well.

 

[merekc]

I don't know that I would want berber in bedrooms. It just isn't what I think of for soft and comfy, KWIM? I have frieze (in the house when we bought it) and I don't like it as well as traditional carpet. I can't even say why. Part of it is that ours looks terrible after several years of hard living (we have two young boys ). However, we truly "live" in our house so we may not be the best example. Your kids are closer to being gone and it might hold up great for you.

I would also ask the carpet people about vacuums if looking at frieze. We recently bought a new vacuum and the salesperson said that there are only a couple of vacuums that she recommended for frieze carpet because of how long it is. Shockingly she didn't recommend Dyson so she may actually have been on the up and up. Makes me wonder if our previous vacuum wasn't getting enough of the dirt out contributing to the less than stellar appearance now. Hope that helps.

 

[Angelhalo]

I don't care for berber at all in any room pretty much ever. It's just not soft and plush enough and when I want carpet I want soft and plush. Berber makes me think of thin hotel or school carpets.

 

[HelenePA]

i have berber in my living room hate it.. been here 3 years it was new when we moved in.. needs to be replaced because I have 3 snags that are as plain as day.

 

[DawnCt1]

Thanks for the input. I was concerned that frieze may be "fadish" but I guess not. I do like the way it looks. Thanks for the input re berber. We put it in the den and I am not thrilled with the way it is wearing and its not a high traffic area. Its okay, not what I expected.

 

[DawnCt1]

BTW, how do you pronounce it? freeze or free-zay?

 

[golfgal]

I have berber. We've had it 3 years and have 3 active dogs.

We have a pattern in ours, which is good in case it snags as you can't tell. There are a few places where a piece of furniture or dog nail caught it but we just trimmed it at the base and it didn't run. But without a pattern, perhaps it would run and look terrible?

I really like it because it's very easy to clean (my dogs have done everything imaginable on them, and I expect children to as well). It also looks brand new, even 3 years later. It doesn't wear as hard as the previous regular type carpet we had.

My true preference is wood and we'll replace the living areas downstairs with that eventually, but I'm happy leaving the berber in bedrooms indefinitely.

This is what it looked like before we moved in:

I have that same carpet in my dining room. I really like it.

I have had various berbers over the years and never had a problem with any of them, never had one snag either. They aren't soft but they wear like iron. One kitchen we had had a very high quality berber in it. When we sold the house the new owners thought it was new, it was 15 years old!

We put frieze in our bedroom in our old house and I LOVED that. I will put it in our bedroom again when we redo the carpet in here. Ours had a subtle fleck pattern so nothing showed on the carpet.

BTW, how do you pronounce it? freeze or free-zay?

I have always heard it pronounced free-zay.

 

[DawnCt1]

I have that same carpet in my dining room. I really like it.

I have had various berbers over the years and never had a problem with any of them, never had one snag either. They aren't soft but they wear like iron. One kitchen we had had a very high quality berber in it. When we sold the house the new owners thought it was new, it was 15 years old!

We put frieze in our bedroom in our old house and I LOVED that. I will put it in our bedroom again when we redo the carpet in here. Ours had a subtle fleck pattern so nothing showed on the carpet.



I have always heard it pronounced free-zay.

I love your berber.

 

[golfgal]

I love your berber.

I wouldn't use it in a bedroom though. It isn't soft but it does look nice.

 

[DawnCt1]

I wouldn't use it in a bedroom though. It isn't soft but it does look nice.

Looks like I am going with a frieze! Thanks,