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Can your carpet drive you crazy? Insane even? Can your carpet push you to feverishly woodchop the bathroom door down with an axe, before heading to the bar for a strong liquor and some much-needed relief? Well, maybe. Especially if your abode is built on a Native Indian burial ground. That might sound farfetched, but the pairing of Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick for horror-masterpiece The Shining (with Jack Nicholson for full effect) brings such a threat to life. And that's before you even get to The Shining's unsettled carpet effects.
While carpet is often overlooked within a home - the sort of thing that most visitors won’t notice as they first step into your abode - it is said your choice in carpet can certainly make or break a room.
A good, well-matched carpet should enhance a space while also serving as a subtle yet foundational canvas for your more eye-catching pieces of furniture, the quirky shades of paint upon the walls and those prized decorative items. But what if you’re looking after an empty hotel in a particularly rural location while malevolent supernatural forces play relentless havoc with your mind?
Well, a gaudy carpet with an unsettling pattern isn’t exactly going to help matters. Yet, maybe that's just what they want you to think...
Laugh as you may, this Halloween, you only need consult Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1970s horror movie The Shining to confirm there might just be an element of truth in our seemingly humble advice. So, if you think carpet choice is not a matter that concerns you, at least not at this point, think again. Come play with us and learn how a bad carpet really can seriously tip you over the edge.
The colour of a carpet can influence a room’s mood (and perhaps your own!)
The Shining is a glorious cinematic portfolio piece that demonstrates exactly how details that an audience may not even be aware of perceiving - such as the colours present within a scene - are exactly the elements that most strongly influence their mood. Chances are, when watching a horror movie, you feel awkward and on-edge, and that’s thanks to strategically placed cues within the performance.
For example, the psychology of colour is a proven phenomenon. Some colour combinations help us to feel calm while others can leave us feeling surprisingly agitated. For those seeking a quirky yet homely vibe to their decor, it is common practice to underpin a room with neutral shades upon the walls and carpets combined with standout pieces of furniture and artwork using eye-catching pops of colour.
Just as in the home, movie sets are no different - there is usually a reason for every detail, right down to the colours you see. Kubrick was renowned for his attention to detail and the colours in The Shining change frequently in tandem with the psychological states of the characters as they shift. As Jack, caretaker of the hotel and The Shining’s main character, teeters on the cusp of a severe mental breakdown, the walls around him are an unnerving shade of crimson.
So, next time you’re on the lookout for new carpet, be mindful that colour is hugely influential on how we feel. A dark, bold carpet can add interest and depth to a room but, if used within a small space, it can accidentally make a space feel claustrophobic. On the other hand, a light carpet tends to work well in most settings but, in larger spaces, large expanses of pale shades can make a room feel dreary and monotonous.
Mismatched patterns are striking but can make a home feeling eerily uncomfortable
Throughout The Shining, not only does the colour spectrum change frequently,so too do the fabrics and finishes.
If you pay close attention to the complex interiors of the Overlook hotel, you will begin to notice there are numerous design styles interwoven together. No one style is dominant, it’s a bit of a clash of everything. An Art Deco ballroom here, a lengthy corridor lined with 1970s printed carpets there. Each look works on its own but none of it quite works together.
The setting of The Shining feels disjointed somehow and this is very-much deliberate on the director’s part. In fashion, they say never to mix your spots with stripes. Pattern-clashing, while visually interesting, can be incredibly difficult to pair together without resulting in feelings of clutter and overwhelm.
As the scares unfold in The Shining, you’ll begin to notice nothing ever really matches. In the Colorado lounge, the room where Jack has repetitively hammers out ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ on his typewriter, there are no fewer than eight mismatching rugs upon the floor. This lends a chaotic, uncomfortable feel to the room, mirroring exactly how Jack feels within that space.
That’s not to say that patterns upon carpet are a no-go. In fact, a well-chosen pattern can add a striking and classy effect to a room. However, the key is to pick one timeless pattern rather than half a dozen. Less is very much more when it comes to patterns upon the floor or you might just see your visitors scarpering away as if their lives depended on it.
Beware of how garish geometric patterned carpet can mess with your mind
A complete surprise from The Shining is how the geometric carpets lining the seemingly unending corridors and landings of the Overlook hotel could practically win an award in their own right.
Of all movie carpets, those in The Shining are particularly horrendous and yet their awfulness has resulted in them being perhaps the most famous carpets in film history. It’s very much a case of being so bad that they are good. You can even buy tea towels with the designs, should you feel so inclined to celebrate this movie milestone.
As we watch Danny, Jack’s son, cycle around the corridors of the Overlook, we see him nervously traverse over the top of a carpet known as Hick’s Hexagon. This features a large, hexagonal pattern in orange, brown and red. It’s not a subtle design of any kind, mismatching with practically everything else around it. Appropriately, the carpet’s appearance seems like a hex.
Although the carpet has a strong 1970s colour palette, the carpet was actually designed back in the sixties by David Hicks. Hicks also decorated Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace with what we can only assume to be flooring of a more subtle nature.
Elsewhere, in the Overlook, the audience watches Danny playing upon the hexagonal carpet, looking down at him from above. Unnervingly, Danny looks to be playing within a cage as the thick lines of the geometric weave surround him.
This is where we can see hints of Kubrick’s personal interests in both chess and war strategy as it becomes evident that Danny is located within a different hexagon each time the camera switches back to him. Yet, he does not appear to make any effort to move. This suggests the characters are being moved through the horror of The Shining, much like pieces upon a chessboard.
Meanwhile, in the haunted room 237, there is an unusually colourful carpet with an Art-Deco peacock-like pattern. Another nominee for an awful carpet award lurks here. Much like the rest of the Overlook, the carpet does not match anything else in the space while its zest stands out awkwardly in a room that is otherwise gloomy.
Interestingly, green is a colour frequently associated with jealousy or poor mental health while purple has connections to dark magic and the supernatural, perfectly appropriate for a room haunted by an ominous presence!
