Top 5 tips
This article was published on 3rd May 2016
Our top tips to consider if you’re getting new carpets, think about the colours you want before anything else. Of course, quality and price should really be your first considerations – fortunately, though, there’s a wide variety of colours available across all our price ranges, so you shouldn’t have to worry too much about your colour choice being limited by your budget. Floor colours can radically transform the look and mood of a room, and once you’ve selected a carpet colour for a particular room, you’ll probably be living with it for some time.
Here our top 5 tips to help you pick right carpet for your floor;
1. Collect and compare samples
When you’re planning your carpet colours, it’s a good idea to grab a range of sample off cuts and see how they look in your house. Carpets can look surprisingly different in the showroom, often due to the vastly different lighting conditions. You won’t be able to judge the suitability of each colour properly until you can see it in the lighting of your own house and compare it against your own interior style.
2. Think about natural lighting
As a general rule of thumb If you room has a lot of sun, it is said to be on the warm side of the house so pick a cooler colour for these rooms, such as a light grey shade – they’re not only good for avoiding unsightly fading, but they also generally work better at maintaining the airy feel of brighter rooms, whereas warmer shades can make them feel visually muggy.
The opposite is true for a room that don’t get much sun, pick a warmer colour for the floor to give the room a lift. Another top tip is to use the same colour throughout, this makes a home feel bigger and flow more. You can even buy different grades of the same colour carpet, so for example if you want an easily maintainable and more hardwearing carpet in your living areas and a little more comfort in your bedrooms but want to keep the same colour throughout you can buy a shorter pile for your living areas and a thicker more luxurious pile in the bedrooms in exactly the same colour.
3. Choose colours that work with your style & personality
It goes without saying that the carpet colour for each room needs to live in harmony with the style and colour of rest of the room – including the furnishings, decoration and the wallpaper/paint colours on the walls. Each room needs a single focal point. It might be a piece of furniture, an ornament or perhaps even the carpet itself, particularly if the carpet is patterned. Make sure there aren’t multiple focal points vying for attention or the room will look too busy and cluttered.
4. How will the room be used?
Think about the kind of space you want to create with each room and what it will be used for, it’s not all about the look and feel of your carpet colours – you also have to take practical limitations into consideration. For example, high-traffic areas such as living rooms and hallways are more likely to suffer wear, spillages and tracked-in dirt, particularly if you have children or pets, and particularly if you have outdoor areas with gravel or dirt paths. You could choose a darker colour for these areas or you could choose from our stain free ranges which are bleach cleanable allowing you to choose the colour that fits your scheme rather than making a practical choice. If you are a dyed in the wool fan then look into getting them treated to be stain-resistant once they are fitted.
5. Inspiration
If you need some ideas then have a look at some interior design websites such as www.houzz.com or www.housetohome.co.uk which will show you what the latest trends are and how to get them. Most carpet manufacturers do this kind of research so much like in the fashion world, there are always new ranges coming along to help you create the latest look without having a designer price tag.