Carpets & vinyl in Antrim.

Made in Portadown, Northern Ireland

Ulster Carpets have been weaving in Portadown since 1938 and are still owned by the founding family. They are the closest thing Northern Ireland has to a household name in flooring, and their woven Axminster and Wilton carpets turn up everywhere from local homes to hotels and cruise ships. If you want a patterned carpet for a stairs and landing, or a heavy wool weave that will still look right in twenty years, this is usually where we start. Made about an hour down the road from our Antrim showroom.

• Axminster
• Wilton
• Woven wool
• Patterned carpet
• Stairs and landings

Made in Lancashire, England

Cormar have been making carpet at their Lancashire mills since 1956 and are still family owned. They are the range we sell most of, because they cover the whole spread: hard-wearing easy-clean polypropylene for a busy hall, soft deep pile for a bedroom, and proper wool twist for a living room. Stock depth is the other reason we lean on them. Cormar run their own delivery fleet across the UK and Ireland, so a colour you pick on a Tuesday is rarely a six week wait.

• Wool twist
• Easy-clean polypropylene
• Soft deep pile
• Wool loop

Made in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire

Westex sit at the top end of what we stock. They work in 100% wool and 80/20 wool nylon, and because they run their own dye house they can match a colour rather than asking you to settle for the nearest one on the rack. Ultima Twist is the range people ask for by name. If you have a paint shade or a fabric you are building a room around, Westex is the brand worth talking to us about.

• Ultima Twist
• 100% wool
• 80/20 wool nylon
• Colour matching

Made in Kidderminster, England

Brockway have been making carpet in Kidderminster since 1964 and do wool and very little else. That focus shows. Their plains, stripes and textured loops are the ones customers tend to stand on in the showroom and go quiet for a second. The Lakeland Herdwick range uses undyed British wool and has a natural, slightly flecked look that suits older houses and country properties particularly well.

• Wool twist
• Lakeland Herdwick
• Striped carpet
• Textured loop
• Plain wool

Made in Ayrshire, Scotland

Kingsmead have been weaving in Ayrshire for over forty years, working mainly in 80/20 British wool. They are the range we point people towards when they want a stripe. A striped carpet up a stairs is one of those things that either looks superb or looks wrong, and the difference is nearly always the fitting rather than the carpet, which is why we prefer to measure and fit these ourselves.

• Striped carpet
• 80/20 British wool
• Plain wool twist
• Stair runners

Made in United Kingdom

Lifestyle Floors is the range that covers the middle ground, and it is the one we reach for most on vinyl. Their cushioned sheet vinyl is warm and soft underfoot, comes in wood and stone effects that hold up to a close look, and is the sensible answer for a kitchen, bathroom or utility. They do carpet too, so for a whole-house job it is often possible to keep everything on one supplier and one delivery.

• Cushioned sheet vinyl
• Wood-effect vinyl
• Stone-effect vinyl
• Value carpet