Thank you so much, echoflooring. You were absolutely right! We went back to the carpet store to get comfortable on all this before finalizing the order, and I figured I'd circle back for the benefit of anyone in the future who looks at this question. We went back and compared the carpet we chose to the "true friezes" and "true saxonies" they had. This Essential Living is something Karastan calls a "textured saxony." Fiber is much, much thicker, and considerable looser than a real saxony. Unlike the saxony, you can't make lasting footprints (or draw smiley faces as my son did), in the Essential Living carpet. About the same texture as the friezes, just a teeny bit longer and a little bit looser, and a bit softer. It's not as long as I remember it, and carpet vendor says they've had lots of experience putting it on stairs with no wear or safety issues. With his guidance we did scale the padding on the stairs back to a dense, thinner, pretty unyielding felt that should reduce concerns about too much padding/curve on stair treads. Thanks so much for all your help!

We installed Friese throughout our upper level as well as the stairs and love it! We've had it for 2.5 years and if you look closely you can see where we walk the most on the stairs, but it doesn't bother us because it doesn't show any dirt, feels so soft on your feet and it still looks/feels brand new. No offense but I hate Berber because it lacks all of the qualities that the Frieze has. And for years I've heard the professionals push the Berber claiming it's easier to maintain and cleans well, but I've yet to seen an installation that proves that to be true. On the other hand, we have an older cat that has gotten sick a couple of times on our Frieze and it cleaned really well. We took a tiny bit of laundry detergent watered down on a wet towel, blotted out the mess and then blotted it dry afterward and it cleaned beautifully. I would have happily installed it on the entry level as well, but we have wood flooring. Instead, I'm considering having a large piece cut & bound to use as a rug in our living room.

Hi all, Just wanted to circle back for the benefit of anyone in the future who looks at this question. We went back and compared the carpet we chose to the "true friezes" and "true saxonies" they had. This Essential Living is something Karastan calls a "textured saxony." Fiber is much, much thicker, and considerable looser than a real saxony. Unlike the saxony, you can't make lasting footprints (or draw smiley faces as my son did), in the Essential Living carpet. About the same texture as the friezes, just a teeny bit longer and a little bit looser, and a bit softer. It's not as long as I remember it, and carpet vendor says they've had lots of experience putting it on stairs with no wear or safety issues. With his guidance we did scale the padding on the stairs back to a dense, thinner, pretty unyielding felt that should reduce concerns about too much padding/curve on stair treads. Thanks so much for all your help!

We did! This is the Destiny color. The photos don’t do it justice, but we are very pleased with the look and feel. Most people assume it’s a large area rug until they see it’s carpet (which is what I was going for). It hides our kid zone messes well and is very soft for us all to roll around on. Our house is quite modern and I was afraid the pattern would feel too traditional, but it is so subtle that it would go in many styles of home, imo. The installer said it was very difficult to put in since it is woven with very little stretch. It took him all day for one room. He and I have noticed a few of the things that people with Smartstrand complain about. Random fibers will lose their twist and pull up, so I give haircuts. Some areas feel like they are getting a bit fuzzy, even though I bought a CRI approved vacuum. The marks left by said vacuum are very apparent, but the variation of color in the carpet helps hide that and footprints. None of this is enough to make me dissatisfied. I’ve had one incident with a few small drops of pasta sauce, and it did come out with water! All in all, I don’t think we could have picked a better carpet for our particular needs.