Ulster Carpets
Watercolours
Woven Axminster · 15 design-colourways across two families
Watercolours is Ulster's contemporary patterned Axminster — painterly, organic and led by colour rather than by motif, a long way from the Persian and oriental designs of their traditional ranges. Fifteen design-colourways across two families, Amulet with six and Mineral with nine, woven in Portadown since 1938 in 80% wool with 20% nylon. The patterns look washed and blended rather than drawn, which is where the name comes from.
Watercolours designs and colours
Some names appear in both Amulet and Mineral, so always specify the family as well as the name. 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.
Amulet 6 colourways
Mineral 9 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
| 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 |
| Design-colourways | 15, across two design families |
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, landings, sitting rooms and dining rooms, and particularly a big open room where a small pattern gets lost. Each tuft is inserted individually from a fixed palette, which is what allows this much colour, and a large organic pattern is forgiving in a way no plain is: it disguises tracking, marks and the traffic of a family house without looking traditional.
Setting out a half drop
The repeat is 91.4cm on a half drop, so the pattern steps sideways down the roll rather than lining up across the width. A rectangular room asks very little. A seam asks a great deal, since it must drop by half a repeat to bring the pattern back into line; on a winder every riser is cut on its own so the design runs true up the flight.
Worth knowing
A repeat this close to a metre needs more carpet set aside to make the drop happen, so expect more wastage than on a plain or a small self-match check. At 80% wool the pile recovers from footfall and furniture; vacuum regularly and blot spills.
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 washed, blended colour behaves quite differently on a floor than on a screen. See a decent-sized piece on the displays at Lostock Hall, where we can also show you how the half drop works across a width. Then we will book a sample out so you can read an Ombre against your own walls, or bring samples to you and measure up.
See Watercolours 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