Ulster Carpets
Braeburn
Woven Axminster · 7 colourways
Braeburn is a woven Axminster plaid — the range people ask for when they want a check on the floor rather than a floral or a plain. Seven colourways, woven at Portadown in an 80% wool, 20% nylon blend, with a 45.7cm repeat on a self match. Ulster do not publish whether the seven are variations of one plaid or separate designs, so we will not say either way.
Braeburn designs and colours
No separate runner designs are listed in this collection, though the range is made in widths down to 0.91m (3').
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 | 80% wool / 20% nylon |
| Widths | 4.57m (15'), 3.66m (12'), 2.74m (9'), 1.83m (6'), 0.91m (3') |
| Tog | 1.7 (a measure of thermal insulation, not of quality) |
| Suitability | Extra heavy wear |
| Moth | Moth proof |
| Colourways | 7 |
Figures as published by Ulster Carpets, 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
Where it works
Halls, stairs, landings and dining rooms, and a snug where a plain would look bare. In a busy house a check is practical: it breaks up tracking and marking in a way no plain will. At 80% wool the pile comes back from furniture rather than crushing flat, and it is rated extra heavy wear.
Setting out a 45.7cm check
Self match means the pattern lines up straight across the roll rather than stepping sideways down it, so wastage stays modest by patterned woven standards. Where the check falls on each step depends on your stairs rather than on the carpet, so we set it out on the measure. On a winder each riser is cut individually to keep the lines true.
Worth knowing
A check shows any error immediately. If the pattern is not squared to the room your eye picks it up along the skirting straight away, so we square the roll to the longest sight line before anything is cut. Vacuum regularly, blot spills rather than rubbing, and keep any wet cleaning light; a wool-rich pile does not like being soaked.
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 AxminsterAnatoliaTraditional oriental medallions and scrolls, with matching 27in stair runners.View the range
Woven AxminsterAtheniaSmall-scale motifs and pindots, with matching stair runners.View the range
Woven AxminsterBeaumontA single plaid design in ten colourways, from chalk through to deep grouse.View the rangeSee it
A check reads differently across a large floor than on a sample board, so it is worth standing back from the displays at Lostock Hall, where all seven colourways sit together. Estuary and Myrtle are only half settled under our lighting, so we will book a sample out to see in daylight — or bring them to your house and measure up free of charge.
See Braeburn 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