You’ve decided that carpet is the best flooring choice for your home. Now what? There’s a lot to consider and many great options from which to choose. Today’s carpet offers a wide variety of choices in style, fiber composition, and color. 

Where to Start

Before purchasing carpet, answer the following questions:

• How is the room going to be used?

• Will it experience heavy or light foot traffic?

• Will the room be the center of activity for family and entertaining?

• Is there direct access to the room from outside, or is there distance between the carpeted area and the outdoors?

• Will the carpet receive direct sunlight?

Your answers will help narrow your carpet options and allow you to select the color, carpet construction, and cushion that best meets your needs. If you still have questions, ask your carpet dealer for guidance.

Here are a few additional factors that will influence your carpet selection:

• Will elderly individuals access the carpeted area?

• Do you have pets in the home?

• Will the carpet be used with heated flooring?

• Will you use the carpet indoors, outdoors, or in an area with both elements like a screened-in porch?

A Rainbow of Choices

If a room is your interior design canvas, carpet is your palette. You may choose a neutral carpet to maintain focus on the other visual elements in the room. Alternatively, you may select a bold carpet that itself becomes a focal point of the room. Because carpet comes in nearly every color imaginable, the choice is yours.

The always-popular beige carpet makes a room look open and spacious. For a bolder statement, match your carpet to a common color in your furniture and draperies. Environmental colors, like blues, deep greens, rosy quartz, and stony neutrals are becoming increasingly popular. Warm colors turn up the heat in a room that lacks light, while cool greens and blues have a calming effect. Lighter colors make the room seem larger; darker colors provide an extra level of comfort.

There are also practical considerations in color selection. New stain and soil-resistant technology make today’s lighter color carpet easy to clean, bringing confidence to those who want light flooring. Medium and darker colors, tweeds, and textures are good at hiding soil and dirt in your home’s high-traffic areas.

One final consideration: the color of your carpet will look different under different lighting conditions. Make sure to bring carpet samples home to look at them under your home’s unique lighting conditions.