by Simon Temprell

Created on: April 26, 2008   Last Updated: February 08, 2010

In the 70's when shag carpet was all the rage there were no end of double entendres by those saucy Brits (me being one of them!) who thought it amusing to make jokes about having a shag on the floor! The most outrageous shag carpet I ever witnessed was in my aunt's home in Sarasota, when I visited the US for the first time in 1978. The entire living room and dining room was carpeted from wall-to-wall in a kind of apple-green shag pile to which a large plastic rake was applied twice a day to keep it looking perky! The idea of doing anything more strenuous than vacuuming my carpet twice a week is anathema to me. but I am told that shag is making a come-back on the carpet scene, so I went to my local carpet warehouse to see what is currently on offer.

Initially I was dubious about utilizing high-maintenance floor-covering at a time when most homeowners seem to be disinclined towards anything that can't look after itself (including the kids once they've passed kindergarten age!) Who in their right mind would cover their floors with something so unruly that it keeps the room in a constant state of flux? Bad enough that the luscious Saxony velvet in the bedroom shows every footprint; but shag? With a shag carpet it takes approximately thirty minutes with two kids and a dog (or an hour with two responsible adults and a bottle of Merlot) before it becomes a field of crushed mulch; the pile flattened out in all directions as though a herd of cows just got up to be milked.

But (and here I am amazed at my powers of adaptability) when I saw some of the new versions of shag carpet at the showroom I was intrigued by some of the varieties and their inherent possibilities. My first flights of fancy went to bedrooms; large, expansive bedrooms where the carpet stretches in to the horizon like a vast, still lake of color. Imagine a white-on-white master suite with a funky retrospective dcor-thing going on and you've got the scene for an acre of white shaggy carpet that will not only bring texture to the monochromatic color scheme but will also invite all kinds of shenanigans when the doors are locked and the kids are asleep! Add to this scheme a variety of surfaces and textures such as foil wallcoverings, fur bed covers and some sexy, sleek lacquered furniture and you've got the making of a set from Austin Powers!

Some of the varieties of shag I saw were a little on the wild side for me; some of them so messy with various lengths of thread they were reminiscent of the razor cut my hairdresser used to give me when I was sixteen! There are some very chunky' piles available now, some of which reminded me of the vaguely menacing rubbery tubes you see waving around under water in a National Geographic documentary about sea urchins. Not very pleasant to walk on but they can look cool if used in small amounts, maybe under a sleek glass coffee table where the texture is visible but not trampled upon too often.

And color is a crucial factor when choosing a shag carpet; what looks light and luxuriously soft in ecru or celadon can look Trailer-Trash nasty in chocolate brown or royal purple. Shag should be kept light in color unless you're trying to be ironic; in which case take the bull by the horns, go for lime green or orange and dig out your old Beatles 45s.

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