Hi both, thank you for replying. Minnie - I love that pale grey, don't suppose you know what it is?? I have some grey undercoat which is dark so I could always try that on a test patch to get an idea although I think paler would work best in this hall. It's south facing so gets sun in the morning but is fairly dark in the avo. Yes I plan on hanging some pictures to balance out the large expanse of wall up the stairs as it looks too bare now. Re the dado - I was only going to run it up the stairs really and not around the rest of the hall, although this might be a no no. It was mainly to break it up and give people something to hold/touch when walking down the stairs

Hi Maggie. We are doing the same but have been fortunate enough to have an interior designer friend who has given us great advice: - Ground to 1st floor stairs: runner with taped sides and carpet rods. This carpet is different to all of the others and finishes at the top step. -1st floor landing, stairs from 1st to 2nd and 2nd floor landing in a dark grey carpet all the way to the edge as far as possible - better for hiding marks, wear etc. These areas don't 'normally' have runners. - All bedrooms except master are in a lighter grey. - Master bedroom in a slightly more luxurious carpet. I hope that helps a little. I really wouldn't worry about having different carpets on the stairs. The ground floor stairs are normally a little more elaborate as this is what you see on entering the house. Good luck with it all.

Thanks guys, it is an old house and the little landing isn’t square I don’t think. The weave maybe makes it look worse in real life I think as it has a definite line in the weave. Paid nearly £500 for the fitting so just wanted to make sure they had just done the best job they could. When the estimator came out with his fancy measuring gadgets he didn’t say anything about the stairs being wonky and we didn’t think the stripe would be so obvious from the sample we had. It’s the type of thing you maybe only notice if it catches your eye. That particular piece of carpet has been cut slightly off on the left (looking at it straight on) which probably doesn’t help). Do you think we should just let it go?

You are quite right, it is the tone that needs to be similar, for example in the bedroom pic above the carpet is a lot lighter than the wall behind the bed, but much the same as the side walls. It works because they are just a similar colour, but lighter and darker. The herringbone stair carpet is darker, yes a similar tone. It just works. Hope that makes sense! I have Egyptian Cotton in my bedroom and hall, stairs and landing. I chose quite a colourful carpet on the stairs because I love colour, but that herringbone one is lovely!