Why were carpeted bathrooms/kitchens ever a thing?

[Anonymous]

carpeted bathrooms should never have been a thing. we bought a house with a carpeted bathroom (thankfully no carpeted kitchen). the carpet was concealing asbestos tile and mold (we adjusted our offer accordingly).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What made you think about this?

Yes, our house had carpeted kitchen and bathrooms when I was growing up. It was the 1970s. Indoor/outdoor carpeting. The times. We hated cold feet. This helped, I guess. I still have a cringey reaction to dingy little square tile bathrooms in old houses.

I live in an old historic house with the small square tile in both bathrooms. What is cringey about it?

Ugly as sin, hard, cold, makes me think I'm in a truck stop bathroom.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why carpeted ANYTHING was ever a thing. So awful.

[Anonymous]

My grandparents put this in their kitchen and bath once they got into their 80s. I'm told it was to avoid slip and falls.

[Anonymous]

We have carpet in our kitchen. It's actually easier to keep clean, and has an unanticipated advantage.

Actually it's just a big thick area rug (used to be in our living room). We put it there so that our baby wouldn't hurt herself learning to walk. Our kitchen is square with lot's of play/eating space away from any appliances or cabinets. Our baby is a toddler now, past the stage of falling, but we've kept the carpet because it is comfortable under our feet.

The advantage is that the carpet holds food crumbs that fall on it, which you might think is bad, but if you have hardwood floors you know how annoying it is when crumbs from the kitchen spread through the house. The carpet keeps the crumbs in place until I vacuum it up!

[Anonymous]

In the 1970's, the trend was to put shag carpet over every square inch of everything. Kitchen, bathroom, walls, ceiling, dashboard of your van, etc. I specifically remember being in a neighbor's house in the mid-70's. It was weird because their house was exactly like mine, but reversed, and they had shag carpet in the kitchen. It was bright orange (very trendy for the day). It was pretty freaky.

My own parents eventually put a tight loop carpet (think school classroom carpet) in the kitchen because the floor had warped and they wouldn't be able to put in a proper tile floor without replacing the subfloor (which they eventually did years later but it was a pricey job).

[Anonymous]

Boy does this take me back [to a time when home decor was at its lowest point in history].

[Anonymous]

My parents and inlaws have never met a throw rug they didn't like. I think they secretly wish wall to wall carpet in kitchens and bathrooms wasn't a faux pas. They also love table cloths. Different generation!

[Anonymous]

My aunt had very high end red carpet in her kitchen. She had no kids. She loved her heavy Kirby vacuum cleaner. I loved her house. Growing up amongst six kids we just had like linoleum. This is back in the 80s.

[Anonymous]

My grandparents had carpet in the kitchen and bath. The bathroom always smelled slightly of piss and mildew.

[Anonymous]

My grandparents' house was built in 1968. It had tight-loop carpet in the kitchen, hallways and stairs, and a longer-loop (but not quite shag) in the powder room and upstairs hall bathroom. I can't remember the flooring in the master bathroom.

There wasn't an exposed hardwood floor anywhere in the house.

[Anonymous]

My grandma had a red-carpeted kitchen and a carpet sweeper. My great-aunt has a carpeted bathroom.