Brintons
Abbotsford
Woven axminster · 7 tartan and plaid colourways
Abbotsford is the tartan range: seven colourways across a small number of setts. Kilgour comes in ivory, stone, heather and rust, Melrose and Lewis are the same plaid in two colourings, and Macinnes stands on its own — so the decision is really two decisions, which sett and then which colour. Brintons date back to 1783, when the firm was founded in Kidderminster.
Abbotsford designs and colours
Click any swatch to see it larger.
A photograph of carpet on a screen is only ever a guide — wool takes colour differently to a monitor, and daylight in your own room changes it again. The samples are on display in the showroom, and we are happy to book one out for you to live with for a few days before you decide.
Specification
| Construction | Woven axminster |
|---|---|
| Pile content | 80% wool 20% nylon |
| Width | 4.00m (13' 1½") |
| Total pile weight | 1315 g/m2 (38.78 oz/yd2) — range figure |
| Tog | 1.62, sampled on Ivory Kilgour (thermal insulation, not a measure of quality; it varies design to design) |
| Suitability | Extra Heavy Domestic |
Figures as published by Brintons, and some vary between designs in a range. Pattern repeat, match and the full technical specification are available on request — just ask, in the showroom or on the phone.
From the shop floor
What it’s like to live with
A 17cm sett on an awkward stair
Melrose Plaid works on a sett of about 17cm each way; Kilgour and Macinnes are around the half metre. On a difficult staircase that is a gift — winders, a quarter landing, a flight that turns twice. You are never far from the next repeat, so the pattern comes back into line on almost any tread, and little offcut is left behind.
Why a tartan suits a narrow hall
A sett works in a narrow hall where a bigger design would overwhelm it: a large pattern shows a fragment of itself and can look accidental, while a sett shows the whole idea several times over and reads as intentional. From across a room it behaves almost like a texture, and only resolves into a proper tartan when you stand on it.
Worth knowing
One width, 4.00m, so a wide room takes a seam. All seven are self match, so a seam means lining the vertical bands up rather than dropping the pattern half a step — and squaring is what matters, the lines parallel with the stair nosings or the longest wall. At 1315 g/m2 and rated Extra Heavy Domestic there is plenty of pile to recover.
Why it matters who lays it
Woven carpet is fitted differently
We have been selling Axminster from this shop for over sixty-five years, and our fitters are time-served men who work with woven carpet regularly rather than once in a blue moon.
That matters more than it used to. Something like ninety-five per cent of what goes down in British homes today is tufted, so a great many fitters have simply never had much woven carpet through their hands.
A woven carpet asks for things a tufted one does not. A pattern has to be set out on paper before anything is cut. A repeat has to be carried true up a flight of stairs and round a winder. Pile direction has to run the same way through every piece, or a single colour reads as two.
None of it is difficult for someone who does it week in and week out. All of it goes wrong in the hands of someone who does not.
You might also look at
Other Axminster ranges
Woven axminsterAbbeyglenA traditional plaid Axminster in five designs, made for halls and stairs.View the range
Woven AxminsterThe Chroma CollectionTen dyed neutrals in a lighter Axminster — Lace, Linen, Taffeta and more.View the range
Woven axminsterClassic Florals NouveauTwelve floral colourways across three designs, drawn large.View the rangeSee it
Colour is the hard part here, not scale. On a screen ivory, stone, heather and rust look more alike than they are, and heather shifts character with warm or cool light. The displays at Lostock Hall show the four together; then we will book a sample out for your own hall, morning and night, or bring them to you and measure up at no charge.
See Abbotsford in your own light
Woven carpet never reads correctly on a screen, and it rarely reads correctly under showroom lighting either. Come and look at the displays, then take a sample home with you — we are happy to book one out so you can live with it for a few days and see it against your own walls, at your own windows, morning and evening. If it is easier, we will bring samples out to you and measure up while we are there.
Book a free home visitVisit the showroom144–146 Brownedge Road, Lostock Hall, Preston PR5 5AE · 01772 336118 · Mon–Sat 10am–5pm · Free parking