Your flooring makes a huge difference. Just like your ceiling, it makes up one sixth of the room. The right flooring can be comforting and luxurious – and the wrong flooring can drive you to distraction! If you move into a new home or apartment which happens to have carpeting which you don’t care for, what are you to do? If this carpet is laid over hardwood floors, then it’s pretty simple – just pull it up! However, if this carpet is over sub flooring, then you have to consider your options for making the carpet less of an eyesore until you can replace it.
This is somewhat counter intuitive, but you need to work with the carpet to create a decor which is more pleasing. Use the color of the carpet as your jumping off point and remember to use fabrics. Use prints which use the color of the carpet as an accent. One idea is to use area rugs over the carpet, which can both hide much of it and incorporate it into your décor as an accent color rather than the main element of the room.
Cover Existing Carpet
If you have a carpet which you can just not abide yet cannot replace, cover it up with a large area rug to make it disappear. You can also accomplish this even with a smaller area rug which covers the most noticeable area. This makes the unwanted carpet a border for your area rug, which lessens its role in the rooms color scheme.
In a bedroom, use several rugs to cover the area around the bed. In a living room, try using area rugs in the primary seating area to draw attention away from the underlying carpet.
Shift the Scheme
You can change the feel of the room by using other fabrics like slipcovers and drapes. Paint can also be used to transform the room and draw attention away from the carpet.
When you come up with color ideas, lay them against the carpet to see how they work. If you are looking at paint, be sure to try them on poster board before committing to repainting the room.
After repainting the walls, look for fabrics which complement the new color but also can use the existing carpet color as an accent. Remember that these colors don’t have to match the carpet or the wall; a complementary color scheme provides a more sophisticated look and will draw attention away from the carpet.
Replace Carpeting
However, there are cases where there is simply nothing else to be done except replace the carpet.
There is a nearly endless variety of colors and textures which you can find in carpet, whether wall to wall or broadloom. The first thing to think about is how important a part of the color scheme you want the carpet to be.
The color underfoot can limit the number of choices you have for your walls and furnishings. If you are going to install carpet, consider using muted colors like grayish blue or sage which offer a lot of versatility.
Wall to wall carpeting should use a color which is also featured in your drapes or upholstery. A darker shade can make a room feel more intimate, while a lighter shade gives a spacious feel to the room. Keep the physical orientation of the room in mind as well – warm colors can feel too warm in a room with western or southern exposure.
A patterned carpet can imbue the room with personality; patterns are also good at hiding spills and are a natural choice for households with pets and young children.
Of course, you can also choose neutral colored carpets – these can open up a room (and also are a good choice for people who just can’t commit to a color). Browns and tans are a good choice for high traffic areas, since they do not show dirt as well.
As for materials, wool is the most expensive type of carpet, but nylon offers superior durability and stain resistance. A 80% wool/20% nylon blend is a good choice which offers the best of both worlds and is more affordable than pure wool carpeting.
