Choosing a Carpet
Carpets! Those beautiful floor coverings that we walk on every few minutes that we are home. They add a touch of class – The Red Carpet, for example. Kenya’s Prime Minister got some flack for complaining at a function that only half a carpet had been laid out for him, yet he was a whole Prime Minister.
Some of us keep the same carpet for eons and can point out how 17-year old James spilt oil on one spot and a visitor ripped the center three years ago. Some carpets contain germs, mold, and so many other things that can have people wondering why the members of a certain household are constantly getting sick, and why visitors walk in and begin to sneeze.
For these same reasons, some people choose to do away with carpets altogether.
Carpeting can make or break a house. In order to have a beautiful, welcoming abode, it is important to be careful to select the right carpet for the right section of the house. Carpets can make a room feel larger or smaller, cleaner or dirtier, inviting or repelling, airy or suffocating.
The first thing that you must consider before selecting a carpet for a room or section of the house is the amount of traffic that part of the house will have. Home entrances, living rooms, playrooms, hallways and stairways should have strong, durable, quality carpets. These are of course more expensive, but it is cheaper in the long run to have one carpet for years than to replace one every few months.
Next, you need to figure out the type of traffic that a room will have. Five children can do more damage to a carpet than ten adults. Rooms that are used for plenty of activity or for children are better off with carpets that are both stain-resistant and easy to clean. We all know that children can find ways to stain even stain-resistant items.
What purpose does the room serve? A prayer room is better off with warm, soft tones that do not give a room a loud and cluttered feeling. Walking into a very loud room at 5am for quiet, morning prayer and study can be very disheartening. An exercise room on the other hand should preferably have loud, energetic colors that are not easily stained. A living room should have warm, inviting colors that make people feel that they have walked into a home and not a tight, formal, cold space.
Patterns also matter. Spiral lines, numerous squares, thousands of flowers all give different feelings from dizziness to a sense of the 1950s. Select patterns that are appealing to you but that also make sense and are not distracting depending on the purpose of the room.
Consider the colors in the room and select colors that complement them perfectly or greatly contrast them. You do not want to have deep red curtains with a purple carpet and orange sofa. You probably also do not want to have a white carpet in a playroom or a dining area. A gray carpet will make a room dull and dark; a pink one is both hard to match and too bright for some people. It perhaps belongs only in a girls’ room or playroom. You should select a carpet that is easy to match even if it outlasts your furniture. Having carpets in bright, unique colors will mean always having to consider the carpet when buying furniture. For such colors, it is better to select lighter, softer shades to test them out.
Lighting is very important, too. A carpet can tone down a warm room and make it cooler, or make a cold room warmer. Carpets can also brighten or darken a room. A dark carpet in a room with large windows and plenty of sunlight can actually begin to fade with time, because of the sun shining directly on it.
Finally, having considered all these options, take a look at your budget. You can get a good carpet without breaking the bank. Shop around, carry samples from home, take samples from shops. Look at them when you get home, then get some sleep and look at them again the next day and see if you feel the same way about them. You will have the same carpet for quite some time, hopefully, so you want to choose wisely.
Next: Carpet maintenance – old carpets can be as good as new!
Image credits: Image 1: Avant Images
Image 2: Uppercutrf
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