The rise of carpeting is one of those real interior design mysteries, because even at the time when carpeting was at its most popular it still made very little sense to invest such big sums of cash in carpeting.
One can understand why people in very cold countries might have gone for carpeting, as a way to cope with the really low temperatures but even then it is a mystery because the job could have been done by a few mats instead of the wall to wall carpeting that was becoming the norm in so many homes around the world, especially in south Africa.
The carpeting that people were getting done in South Africa was quit ugly. That is not a period statement, because even at the time anyone who really looked at it would admit that most carpeting options were just plain horrible and the people who had them put into their homes should have gone to get their eyes tested.
Carpeting is also a very bad choice for any person who is in any way concerned with theirs or families health. Carpeting does not just hold in smells but bit also holds in germs. If you had to take a sample from any household carpeting, even carpeting that has just been cleaned; the amount of filth that you would find lurking in that carpeting would actually scare you.
One might argue that back then people did not know so much about germs and hence did not know just how bad carpeting was for their health. This defence of carpeting while quite sweet does not even come close because people back then knew how unhealthy carpeting was because the carpeting stank, and if ever there is a reliable way to see if something is not in good shape, a rotten smell is always going to be a clue. Yet until very recently people were still insisting in having their home filled with carpeting. New apartment building still has carpeting in most of their units so one wonders if the carpeting nightmare will ever come to an end set everyone free.
