here's ours! this was during construction - pardon the dust!

I love the striped rug on these stairs. Looks like she has a different rug in the foyer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mrs. Blandings blog

mairin,

You runner is absolutely gorgeous! Did you get it from a carpet store?

Do you know what the runner is made of?? It's really lovely!

I love the look of a runner and love the beautiful runners shown in this thread, but would not want to keep it clean. Do y'all use a hand vac, or central vac? I cannot imagine lugging a vacuum up and down each stair.

scanmike & gracie: our runner is wool - It's called Topkapi (color is "panther" - fancy word for "black"!!!). not entirely sure of the manufacturer - this is all that was on my receipt. We purchased through Prosource flooring.

newhomebuilder: I have a very, very lightweight Electrolux vaccuum (with detachable handvac) that I use for the stairs. It seems to work well on it. This gets done every 2 weeks. I probably did it a lot more initially, but I have to be honest - not much more since I just had a baby! We don't have a central vac system. didn't really know or consider that for our build, maybe should have. Since the carpeting is dark in color, it hasn't shown any other wear/dirt, but we also don't wear shoes in the house.

I am very happy to have the runner on the stairs for the added softness. Seems to help when the kids fall and definitely provides some noise reduction.

We just had the stairway runner installed this past week... in the hallway upstairs, we did a few runners that were cut and bound here when the stairway runner was installed... this was a less expensive option than continuing the stair runner and mitering the corners, tacking it down, etc.. We are very happy with it as are our kids and the dog is the happiest!!! We just have a bit of clean-up from the painting of the trimwork yet to do!! (sorry these pics are so big..i just can't figure out how to make them smaller).. hope this helps!!

That's exactly how my hall is. I was thinking about doing it the way you did with binding the runner for the hall. Thanks.
By any chance do you know what the runner is made of?? Not sure which way to go with that.

I used a karastan runner on our stairs for 17 years that we removed a few years ago. It was still in good shape, but we were redecorating and I wanted something without a busy pattern this time. The karastans are pricey but wonderful.

This one is a nourison, and it's been down a few years; looks like the day we installed it.

{{!gwi}}

Good Luck with your project

Scanmike... the runner is nylon... the wool options were quite expensive and this was price-wise the best choice for us... I also had the installer cut two 5 foot sections and bind them to use for the foyer next to the stairway ... I just haven't put it down because here in New York our streets are full of sand and salt so I will wait til early spring to put those foyer runners down.... Good luck with your search!

Hi mom2girls
I also live in NYC. Thanks for letting me know what they are made of. I agree, wool is just too expensive for my budget. Do you mind telling me where you got them?

Well, they are all beautiful! If I were to put a runner down, I know my dog would be the happiest, but not my back, when vacuuming the runner. :) Fido will have to suffer, or quit going up and down. Luckily, most our bedrooms are downstairs, so Riley doesn't go up to the bonus rooms that often, unless my son is home from college.

Scanmike: We are on Long Island so we aren't too far from each other... We went to Montauk Carpet on Route 110 in Farmingdale.. it's south off of exit 49S on the LIE... They had a very big selection... we purchased it on Sunday, they measured on Tuesday and installed on Thursday... it was perfect... Friends have gone there too and have also been happy.. Hopefully it's not too far from you to at least take a look!! Good luck... I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have!

Newhomebuilder: We have a small dog... maltese/shih tzu mix... we used to have carpet on the stairs but removed it a few months ago intending to replace it sooner or later... well our dog used to go up and down but one day when we were out, she must have fallen and refused to go up the stairs anymore :( .... All our bedrooms are upstrs, so it helped us make the decision quickly... She used to sit at the bottom of the stairs and cry for someone to bring her up... Poor thing must have been scared and hurt.. So it's only been a few days and she goes up a few steps and stops.. but we're hopeful she will go all the way...She goes up from the basement on the carpeted steps... What we do for our pets!! :)

Mom2girls,

I live in Queens, so I know Route 110. Thanks for the info. Will check them out.

Poor puppy! :( Our Riley has taken a couple of nasty spills on our stairs, but it doesn't seem to stop her from trying again.

When my son was a few months old, he decided to start crawling (the first time) when my back was turned. I had left him playing on the floor of his room, and gone into our bedroom on the OTHER side of the staircase. As I headed back to his room, I had just come around the corner of our door as he was heading HEAD FIRST down our hardwood stairs. All the way down he went, and so did my heart. I thought he was surely dead, even though he was screaming. After checking him over, I carefully picked him up and took him to our pediatrician. The pediatrician acted like it was no big deal, and sent us home without even doing an x-ray! Aside from a small bruise on his forehead, he did turn out to be fine, and that's when we bought our first baby gate. :)

After all the houses we have had, only one had carpet on the steps. Odd!

mairin - cute photo. Rugs looks like they did a great miter job.

mom2girls - is that a central oriental runner? looks great

scanmike: Queens is not far.. I'm just over the border from Nassau in Suffolk County... Good luck .. let us know what you decide!

newhomebuilder: Oh my.. what a story.. thank goodness your son was just fine!

stinkytufted: Thanks very much... we just had the runner installed last week..we are very happy with the job they did! (is that what you mean by "central oriental runner"? :)