Introducing carpet to her home wasn't an obvious choice for Clara Jeon. Faced with 2,500sqft of space to cover in her Chung Hom Kok apartment ('the dark expanse of highly lacquered teak parquet was overwhelming'), the graphic designer says: 'Even though I like the naturalness of wood, the parquet was loud and looked stark naked. I realised I needed to temper it.'
Carpet - until recently equated with the likes of grandma's house, waiting rooms and other zones of questionable taste, and practically a dirty word in a design world gone minimalist - is making a comeback.
'Carpet is much more flexible in terms of colour choices and textures than wood or stone flooring,' says Johnny Li, an architect and designer at Nail Assemblage. 'Carpet has better acoustic properties than most flooring materials,' says Li, who works with a variety of materials. 'We even use it on walls and ceilings for that reason.'
Li also likes carpet for its versatility, ease of installation and affordability.
Carpet can be installed wall to wall for a streamlined effect or cut to size to break up large spaces or to fit odd-sized rooms. It's made in two ways: tufted or woven.
Tufted carpets will last about seven years and are made from yarn punched together by a machine and held in place with an adhesive backing.