The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Carpets

Choosing a new carpet can be a fun experience. Carpets come in an array of colors and styles, different textures, and varying qualities. When selecting carpeting for your home, there are many options to weigh, which is why we put together a guide for choosing the right carpet for you.

The Most Popular Carpets in Town

The two most popular types of carpeting today are loop pile and cut pile. Loop pile has individual strands of yarn pulled through the carpet backing twice, creating a small loop. Cut pile has the loop cut at the top, leaving tufts of yarn that stand straight up. A cut pile carpet is generally more durable than a looped pile carpet. Cut pile carpets come in a variety of styles such as shag, textured, saxony, velvet or plush. Loop pile carpets consist of a berber, cable or sisal. Loop pile carpets are a good choice for high traffic areas.

Choices in Carpet Fibers

There will be several decisions need to be made on the type of carpet fiber you choose. One of the main factors to consider is cost. While there is nothing quite as luxurious as having wool carpeting in your home, most cannot afford wool. If you can afford wool carpeting, you will find that even if it costs more at the time of installation, your wool carpet will prove itself to be far superior to other types of carpeting. No man-made carpet fiber can come close to the durability, rich look or feel of wool. In addition, your wool carpet can last upwards of thirty years.

A Strong Performance

Another important factor regarding carpet fibers is performance – make sure you ask to see the manufacturer’s performance rating for each carpet. Acrylic carpeting is very similar to wool (wool is considered the best carpeting available) and is sometimes called man-made wool. It resists moisture, fading, mildew, crushing and staining but is not recommended for high traffic areas in the home. Nylon carpeting is popular due to its durability. It resists mildew, staining and soiling. Nylon carpet is recommended for all traffic areas. It is one of the most expensive of the synthetic fibers but cheaper than wool. Olefin, on the other hand, is a very low cost easy care material that is often used in indoor/outdoor carpeting. Olefin is colorfast, strong and easy to clean. However, one drawback to olefin is that it can be easily crushed depending on the pile. Polyester is luxurious and durable but is not good for high traffic areas in the home.

Show Your Personality

The next consideration would be color and/or pattern of carpeting. Light carpet colors create a spacious effect, and make a room seem larger. It’s a no brainer that light colored carpets show soil much more easily than dark; however, most stain and soil treatments used on carpeting today do help prevent this problem. Dark or dull carpet colors will absorb light, giving the room and a cozier feeling. When it comes to rugs with patterns, they will make a space seem smaller. Another factor to consider is that your color choice could be based on the paint color used on your walls. It is suggested that if you do this, the color of the carpet be darker than the color on the walls. Also, when choosing your carpet remember that the carpet installed on your floor will appear darker than the small sample you see in the store. Ask to take carpet samples home so that you can see how they appear in daylight and at night.

We hope this extensive guide has provided you with ways of finding the carpet of your dreams. If you want to know more about different types of carpet, check out our post about Persian Rugs: A Weaving History.