If this photo was a true indication of the colours, I'd go far left, but in reality, it's quite yellow. My fave is the Aged Driftwood (second from right).
...wanting a light carpet in my house with small children? We're just about to pull up our ancient cream carpet that is not only painted in places (we didn't bother being careful when we knew it was coming up!) but was laid over even older, grosser carpet and which shows through some cut-outs where the old wall was in our bedroom (we ripped it out to take it back to its original size). Now I always thought I'd go a medium brown similar to the colour of my couch - I hear a dirt colour is best as it doesn't show up the, well, dirt! But I'm worried it will date or I'd get sick of it or have to put a sign up warning people there is a LOT of dark brown in this house... So I was thinking something lighter. Like cream. Or latte. Or mocha. Damn, all the carpet-colour talk is making me hungry...
But carpets seem to have come a long way from the time it was last laid in this house which was probably about 20 years ago. There is such a thing as solution dyed nylon which one place I visited today claims is so good, even bleach will wash out of it. And they guarantee that for 15 years. That's a pretty big call. So if bleach is cleanable, I'm guessing mashed crayons and playdoh are also likely wash out. Eventually!
I braved the rain and Zak's hate of shopping to visit a few carpet places today. I thought it'd all come down to the feel of the carpet, but it turned out I was much more fussy about colour! There were not many I really liked - too yellow, too dark, too grey, too flecky. In the end I grabbed a sample pack of Godrey Hirst Campaspe with a view to get the colour second from the right (it's called Aged Driftwood), but now I'm worried about two things: is the colour I really love too light for relatively high-traffic areas (it'll be in Zak's room as well as our room and the hallway) and is it not soft and plushy enough? I thought the really soft plushy stuff that feels awesome underfoot is what I'd choose, but it shows up every footprint and vacuum mark and isn't quite as hardy. My points to talk me into going with this particular choice - colour and texture - are this:
- If the house had had new carpet when we bought it, we couldn't have chosen it anyway!
- I won't be rolling around on the floor all day and so the feel of it won't really matter. It's not like it's in the living room.
- Anything is better than what we have now.
- I can create the soft feel with lambskin rugs near my bed where my feet first land anyway.
- Zak's room will have the zebra-print rug in it anyway and only the edges of his room will be exposed to his baby messes.
- It's not going to cost me an arm and leg to install.
Um, are these silly reasons to buy a carpet? I don't know. I'll be studying the carpet guide that will be in our next issue, but also was curious for your thoughts. Has anyone bought the thicker textured stuff before and then regretted it cause it wasn't so soft? Any other advice? What do you think about the colour I chose?
x
