How to Select the Right Carpet for Your Room

Thinking about your household's lifestyle and habits will help you select carpet that's long-lasting and easy to maintain. Here are some factors to consider.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Area Rugs
• Carpet Pads
• Carpets

Understand Your Material Choices

1. Remember that nylon carpet is resilient, abundant, strong and relatively inexpensive, but it's static-prone. Nylon often has a stain-treatment finish, allowing many stains to be easily removed.

2. Know that Olefin carpet is moisture-resistant and easy to clean, but tends to flatten.

3. Consider that wool is long-lasting and resilient, but stains are sometimes hard to remove.

4. Remember that acrylics and polyesters may pill.

5. Keep in mind that looped and twisted (frisé) carpets resist matting more than plush styles, in which you're walking on the cut end of the fibers.

Consider Your Room and Your Lifestyle

6. Consider the room's function: Carpet in a rough-and-tumble family room or frequently used dining area should probably be chosen for hard-wearing, soil-hiding and stain-resistant capabilities. In a bedroom or seldom-used formal living room, you can get away with a pale color and a fiber that needs more pampering.

7. Think about the lifestyle of your household. If you have four budding young athletes and three puddle-loving retrievers, you'll need a more forgiving color, pattern and fiber than the empty-nesters who live next door.

8. Note that very dark, one-color carpets (navy blue, black, and chocolate brown) will show light-colored litter, dust and light stains; very light shades (whites, off-whites and pale pastels) will show soil in frequently-used paths as well as dark soil and litter. These factors come into play when you consider your outdoor environment, which will affect the soil or other stains you're most likely to track indoors.

9. Bear in mind that light colors tend to make a room seem larger; dark colors will make a room seem more intimate.

10. Remember that stains and bits of litter will hide best on a carpet with multiple colors, such as a speckled or tweedy mix, or one with a texture that creates shadows.

[0317]

on 3/20/2008 I have one dark red accent wall and the rest of the walls in my family room are tan (like brown bag)with pure white trim and ceiling.

I am having a hard time choosing between 2 carpet colors one color is almost the same color as the tan walls and the other is a lighter shade of that same color. The light shade will show the dirt more. We do have to travel down a few steps through the family room to get to our laundry room which is on the same level. Both of our children a grown and will be moving away within a few months. I just don't know if the darker color will make everything too dark in this room?

Which color would look best with my color scheme?

[e-mail]

on 6/30/2006 Plush carpets are the ones cut with all fibers the exact same length. The problem with them is when you walk on them, the fibers get pressed flat at an angle. Meanwhile, the surrounding carpet still has fibers that point up. The stepped-on fibers will reflect the light much more, and as a result you will see every foot print in a lighter color. It can look horrible, almost matted, even with brand new carpet.

You may think the carpet looks OK in the store. Beware! Store lighting can fool you, because the carpet is being lighted from a ceiling full of lights from all around. The matting effect is not nearly as noticeable under those lighting conditions. Look carefully at the carpet sample. Hold it at an angle and notice how different it looks when the light bounces off it, compared to when you hold it facing you. If it looks very shiny when held at an angle to the light, that's the carpet you want to avoid. Also, try stepping on it and hold it up to the light again. If you see your foot print and it looks matted, that's the carpet to avoid.

Some carpets are cut with more texture. That can help. Berber carpets have loops, so they don't have shiny footprint problems, however the loops can flatten over time in high traffic.

If you really want a plush cut carpet, pick a carpet with fibers that are fuzzy on the sides; like a pipe cleaner, not smooth on the sides; like nylon rope. Fuzzy-sided fibers will reflect lower light when they get stepped on, so the stepped on part will look more like the surround carpet. Normal fibers are like tiny pieces of rope cut at the end. They are fuzzy on the top only. They are shiny when flatten because the fiber is so smooth and shiny on its side.

If you already bought plush carpet, and are experiencing this foot print problem, then you can minimize it somewhat by vacuuming it with a power brush vacuum cleaner in a direction perpendicular to the primary light sources (like windows).

Good luck!