Ulster Carpets
Natural Choice Collection
Woven Axminster, woven Wilton and tufted loop · four sub-ranges · 28 designs
Natural Choice is Ulster's undyed wool collection, and really four ranges under one name. Every one uses 100% undyed wool, so the colour is the colour of the fleece rather than anything added to it — creams, oatmeals, greys and browns. Axminster and Plains are woven; Blends and Textures are tufted loop. None of the four is moth proofed.
Natural Choice Collection designs and colours
The Textures names are all British sheep breeds — a fair reminder, on an undyed range, of where the colour actually comes from. No runners in this collection.
Click any swatch to see it larger.
Axminster 9 colourways
Blends 5 colourways
Plains 6 colourways
Textures 8 colourways
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
| Natural Choice Axminster | |
|---|---|
| Construction | Woven Axminster |
| Pile content | 100% undyed wool |
| Available widths | 5m, 4m, 3m, 2m, 1m |
| Tog rating | 1.7 |
| Suitability | Extra heavy wear |
| Moth proofing | Not moth proofed |
| Natural Choice Plains | |
| Construction | Woven Wilton |
| Pile content | 100% undyed wool |
| Available widths | 5m, 4m, 3m, 2m, 1m |
| Tog rating | 1.5 |
| Suitability | Not stated by Ulster |
| Moth proofing | Not moth proofed |
| Natural Choice Blends | |
| Construction | Tufted loop |
| Pile content | 100% undyed wool |
| Available widths | 5m, 4m, 3m, 2m, 1m |
| Tog rating | 1.7 |
| Suitability | Heavy wear |
| Moth proofing | Not moth proofed |
| Natural Choice Textures | |
| Construction | Tufted loop |
| Pile content | 100% undyed wool |
| Available widths | 5m, 4m, 3m, 2m, 1m |
| Tog rating | 1.5 |
| Suitability | Heavy wear |
| Moth proofing | Not moth proofed |
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
Not moth proofed — the honest part
None of the four is moth proofed. Undyed wool without moth treatment is what a clothes moth larva wants. Vacuum regularly, and vacuum where people forget — under the sofa, along the edges, behind a wardrobe, a spare room nobody walks on. Damage starts in undisturbed carpet. Store offcuts sealed, and if you have had moths before, tell us first.
Which of the four goes where
The Axminster is rated extra heavy wear and suits the lounge; the Wilton Plains — Platinum, Alpaca, Eider — cut with little lost beyond the shape of the room. Blends and Textures are tufted loop, rated heavy wear, and suit halls and bedrooms. With a cat that scratches or a dog with long claws, a cut pile is safer: a pulled loop travels.
Doorways, batches and one measure-up
The Axminster's 84.67cm self match means meaningful wastage and stairs that take proper setting out. Use all four together and they meet in doorways at different pile heights, so each junction needs the right threshold and both edges level. Undyed wool also sharpens shading: take rooms that see each other from one batch, and measure the whole house in one go.
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.
See it
Undyed wool photographs poorly — the difference between Alpaca and Eider, or between Swaledale and Cheviot, is a shade or two of fleece and does not survive a screen. See the displays at Lostock Hall, then take the two or three you are torn between home; we will book samples out. Or we come to you with all four constructions and measure up, at no charge.
See Natural Choice Collection 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