stair runners

I would tend to match the rug to the general quality level of the rest of the furnishings. That said, I think I would tend to favor the poly for the price difference, particularly if you don't plan to spend the next twenty years in the house.

Did I ever tell you how I cut my knee on the brass hooky thing that holds a stair carpet runner in place? I was quite young and it was poking out. I was doing headstands on the stairs and fell. It went in deep and I had to have stitches. I still have the scar some 40 years later. I had visitors come from America once and they were quite taken with my carpet runner, it was Victorian and patterned. They claimed it was rare to see such a carpet in their part of America. They would have been welcome to it, as soon as my finances stretched to it I renewed with a fitted fairly plain carpet. I always wanted plain.