My wife and I spend some of our weekends going to estate sales. A lot of these sales are in expensive homes. Almost all of those homes have deep piled white carpet.
Why do they do this?
How do they keep it clean?
Because they can.
Frequent visits by a professional carpet cleaner and almost as frequent replacement.
My cousin has W2W white carpet, and they don’t allow shoes in the house. The entry has a basket of slippers, so if you don’t want to walk around their house in socks or bare feet, you can borrow a pair of slippers. I have no idea how often they get it cleaned professionally, though.
I have a very light grey rug, over my wood floors in the bedroom. Not quite white, but very light.
Stays filthy all the time. I hate it. Always needing to be cleaned.
I’m so glad it’s not w2w. 'Cause I want it gone, soon.
I swear I’m buying a rug the same color as red clay mud from doggy paws.
I never will understand the riches having stuff us poors can’t have.
Whenever in the past we looked at houses for sale, the presence of wall-to-wall white carpeting was a turn-off. At one such house, we and other prospective buyers had to take off their shoes in order not to track filth across the pristine carpet. This seller also kept her A/C dialed down to what felt like 60F.
I don’t think it’s necessarily rich people who are fond of white carpeting, just those who can afford to alienate visitors who are perceived as threats to sully it.
I believe it’s the same principle as slave plantation owners wearing all-white outfits; it’s a means of showing off that you don’t do anything that could get you dirty, and can afford to keep it all extremely clean. A status thing.
It might also be a regional thing. Here in the rainy Pacific Northwest, I don’t see white carpet in any rich person’s house. Mostly wood floors or tile. But sure, if you’re rich and like the look, you can have it. Keep it as clean as you can, and replace as necessary.
Perhaps the wall-to-wall white carpeting was installed as part of the process of staging the house for sale? In other words, they may not have been living with it at all.
And upper-echelon law firm partners wearing white shoes.
Nurses and nuns and chefs wear white(or did) They certainly did dirty work.
One of my best friends in grade school and high school (Wisconsin, late '70s and early '80s) was from a fairly well-to-do family, and his mother was one of the sort who wanted to show people that they had money.
The living room in their house had wall-to-wall white carpeting, and white furniture. The furniture all had those clear plastic furniture covers on them, which were taken off when my friend’s parents were entertaining guests. I have no doubt that that entire room was a demonstration of wealth.
No one was even allowed in that room unless the room was being used for entertaining, and even then, everyone was expected to take their shoes off. IIRC, they hired a professional cleaning service to clean the entire house, including that room.
Illinois 60s house I grew up in. W2W white carpet in living room. Also plastic covers on the couches in that room. Never removed. We kids were not officially allowed in that room but of course since it was the carpeted one it was where my brother and I had our wrestling matches when mom was out.
Shoes off was our household norm and I still tend to do that.
The carpet did not survive Jacques the short lived neurotic poodle.
I see it in zero “wealthy” houses now. Little W2W at all.
I think of it as a very dated thing, of that era. Maybe regional but not my region.
We bought a place with stupidly light colored W2W carpet. Although, the previous occupants were an elderly couple with no kids or pets, so not so stupid for them. We had it professionally dyed - it was some suitable material. It was way cheaper than replacing it at the time and we were poor.
My Daddy had an apartment complex and he often dyed the carpeting after a move out. It was never perfect. Of course if the carpet lasted 3 occupancies it was in essence, black or very very dark brown by that time.
But it bought him some time to get longer use from a decent carpet, just stained irreversibly.
Grape koolaide comes off nothing it gets on.
What is considered an “expensive home” and in what region?
I don’t have enough data points or interior design experience to know whether the OPs experience is completely anecdotal or represents a regional trend or some localized affectation.
Our vacation house has wall to wall white carpeting in most rooms. The couple we bought the house from was a doctor and his wife. So by local standards they (or we for that matter) might be considered “rich”. Certainly “mass affluent micro-millionaires”. But I don’t believe the carpets or any other design choice in the house was a conscious decision to display any sort of wealth or taste.
The carpets look stained and cheap.
All the doors, door frames, and exposed wood trim are unfinished and unstained (and in some cases still have visible markings from whatever lumber yard or box store they purchased them at).
A lot of stupid little shit wasn’t fixed or well maintained.
All the walls are kind of a neutral beige.
So probably not a good example of what the OP is looking for.
Personally, most of the nice homes I have visited tend to have exposed wood floors and throw rugs.
I think that it may have been regional, but it’s also pretty passe in a lot of places. It feels, to me, like it’s something that was “a thing” decades ago, but not anymore.
I just did a google image search on “upscale homes living rooms,” and while I see a few examples of white/light colored rugs, I don’t see any wall-to-wall white carpeting. (Heck, W2W carpeting of any sort isn’t showing up in those pictures; I’m seeing a lot of area rugs atop hardwood or tile floors.)
I wonder if the estate sales which the OP mentions are in expensive, but older homes, which haven’t been updated in a long time.
In the 1970s I went to Thanksgiving dinner at the home of one of my wife’s wealthy relatives. They had just installed white wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room and dining room. I spilled red wine on the carpet and apologized profusely. Next year they had pristine carpeting of the same type, presumably freshly recarpeted. I drank water.
Same principle, different motives. Chefs traditionally wore white in part to indicate they kept a clean kitchen. Nurses and doctors wanted to see if anything got on them, as they regularly work around infectious and otherwise biohazardous things. And nuns who wear white do so to symbolize spiritual purity and innocence (as do brides).
Wall-to-wall carpeting will look dirty and/or cheap if you do not know what you are doing. Get yourself some oriental rugs, perhaps.
To me wall to wall white carpeting screams 1960s demi-rich or 1970s wants to look noveau riche. Not something the yachts and servants set would have had.