I’ve been in Texas for a few days, helping out around the house, doing the chaffeur thing and getting new carpet installed in my parent’s house, and whew, I was sweating the color. We had ordered the carpet last week, but the sales guy didn’t leave a sample, so the color was only stuck in my mind, and it’s very hard to imagine a new floor color in the room with any accuracy. And it was my Mom and Dad’s house — not mine. So if I screwed up, well, there are few things worse than screwing up your Mom and Dad’s house — at least for me. When I was a kid, this was no big deal, but now the idea of making my parent’s do extra work to cover my mistakes is enough to give me severe nightmares. It’s not that my parents are tough on me, it’s actually the opposite. They’ve always been very generous and forgiving, which of course makes it worse.
When I was in my 20s, I got a group of us to paint their kitchen cabinets from a dark wood stain to white. It was a great idea, but I had no idea what I was doing, and we didn’t put down primer, so a few weeks later, the paint started to peel and Mom and Dad had to repaint the kitchen. Agh. They were so nice. They never said a word. And I would look at that peeling paint, and it was like feeling my own skin peel off the cabinet doors. (Sorry for the horrific visual, I’ve been watching Face-Off on SYFY network). I think that was my worst screw-up, or at least it’s the worst that I can remember, I’m sure there was more.
Anyway, the carpet got installed yesterday and at first I was nervous. It was a loop, not a traditional pile and the color was sort of this dirty oatmeal color. But then they moved the furniture back in, and WOW. Okay, if I do say so myself, it’s a brilliant choice. It’s light enough to make the room look brighter and biger, flexible enough to blend in with the blue couch and chairs, and it’s got enough brown in it that it won’t show dirt easily and yet still not loook brown. Yay!
And the carpet is really really soft. We were rolling on it last night (as people are wont to do on new carpets) and it’s so cool! It actually makes me want to get new carpet at our house in New York. We have a few rooms that need new floors put down, and I know this great color….
So what do you think of carpet? Favorite carpet colors? Do you hate shag, love shag? Are you a berber babe? (Iam). And do you sweat the decisions that you make for your parents, too, or am I just a totally neurotic paranoid person?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a wood floor kind of girl. The more the better. So for carpets, I’ll stick to throw rugs … that said, from experience have to say I hate Berber carpet.
We only have carpet in the bedrooms and in the basement, the rest is hardwood and tile. The carpet is an oatmeal-like color. It’s nice and neutral. We had pale green carpet in our other house and I loved it–made me feel like I was in a spring garden.
We helped my parents with some home renovations last summer, Kathleen, and I know how you feel about not wanting to screw up and get something for their house they don’t like. Luckily they love their new carpet and paint job!
I think the only carpet we have left is in the bedroom, and it needs to go and soon. With all the dogs, we have replaced it with tile or wood. So much easier to keep clean and it keeps the dust down for our daughter’s allergies.
I don’t think you’re neurotic or paranoid, Kathleen. No matter what everyone else says.
I love a plush carpet, but not in the entire house. A nice mixture of carpet and hardwood flooring, or carpet and tile is preferable.
My carpets are ruined due to the fact that my front garden is a mud pit and I have two canines who like to run in the mud for several minutes everytime you let them out to do their business. I want new flooring down. Floors are so much easier to take care of and you can lay down pretty rugs here and there when you want, especially those Ikea rag rugs that wash really well.
My bedroom carpet was lilac growing up. I actually do not care what kind of carpet it is. And with the animals I have now I am leaning towards the really ugly busy patterned ones you see in much older houses.
The only time I have actually sweated a decision on a parent was when we snuck over to the states the first time without telling anyone but my dad who we were going to stay with. My Mom scares me with her heart and her asthma. My daughter went through the front door at Dads once we arrived and you could hear my mother screaming bloody murder! I was so scared she was going to have a heart attack! She sobbed a river I swear for a good ten minutes. My nephew was like what the eff, my dad was grinning ear to ear and my sister was like ‘I knew it.’ (NOT!!)
Kathleen, do you think your parents had a talk before the carpet, “Should we trust her this time, or will it be like the kitchen?” So glad it worked out well! No, you’re not the only one who would sweat this decision for your parents.
I’m a hardwood floor fan, area rugs. But we do have carpet in the bedrooms (and had, in the finished basement, before water damage… sob). I like berber, not a fan of plush shag but a short vacuum manageable fiber is fine. I guess when it comes to carpet, I’m more a fan of easy maintenance-durability. Colors that don’t show dirt are my favorites. I didn’t choose any of the carpet in my house. My office carpet is a dusty rose, and it’s actually a pretty good choice.
Now see, I can see Sherri sitting there saying that out loud as she types that!!! “Should we trust her this time or will it be like the kitchen?” LOL!!
I would like some new carpet. However, I want a lot of new things, and I think carpet cleaning might be the answer. But the carpet in my house is a light color, and it has dog stains and kid stains and axle grease from one man’s shoes who did not listen to me when I said “take them off.” But then again, he didn’t listen to a lot of what I said
.
Carpet cleaning it is!
Men don’t listen. It’s a man thing. I told mine “Please don’t use that stain remover on your shirt right on the new (wood) kitchen table.” Our laundry is in a closet off the kitchen (very handy usually, not always). And of course, he treated his cotton shirt with stain remover right on the table and now, yes, there’s a permanent smudge on my new table (it was two weeks old at the time) where the stain remover damaged the table surface. I was uggggh! I can’t even tell you. But I know you know.
I guess I should just be glad he does his own laundry? Looking for a bright side here.