Make a statement with the fibres under your feet. Neutrals have their place, but the floor isn’t always the most practical position for pale shades. Lightly-coloured walls, wooden furniture and a brightly-coloured or patterned carpet can bring character and personality to a room that’s in danger of complete blandness.
A bold colour can help you to bring together the other elements in your room, using its shade as an accent colour to your other furnishings. You can use carpet colour to create contrast and warmth against neutrals or muted colours. Daring combinations of pattern and colour can also add to a feeling of quality and durability.
Boring Beige
For several years now, carpet has been out of favour with home decorating fashionistas, superseded by wooden floors and tiles. Although easy to keep clean and simple to co-ordinate with, hard floors lack the warmth and comfort underfoot of carpet and, for those who live in apartment blocks, carpeting serves a useful sound-insulation purpose.
For commercial customers, landlords and budget-conscious redecorators, a carpet in a neutral shade has long been the easy option when redecorating. Easy, however, isn’t always best. From a purely practical point of view, carpets in pale shades can be extremely difficult to keep clean, especially in high-traffic areas and anywhere food or drink might be served. Bold colours and patterns, however, help to disguise stains and general wear and tear.
New Neutrals
Decorating tastes have begun to change and, rather than sticking with easy-to-sell neutrals, home owners and businesses now prefer to stamp a distinctive mark on their décor. Cream walls have been superseded by stronger grey tones, pale wooden floors by darker hardwoods and parquet styles and square ceramic tiles with rectangular subway styles or solid stone.
All these trends emphasise a desire to bring a more natural, comfortable and original feel to a home, rather then a clean, clinical and characterless blank canvas. A brightly-coloured carpet can be a style statement, a starting point for a décor scheme, or a quick way to add a flash of life to a dated room.
Creating Contrast
As well as choosing bright colours, consider including a strong pattern in your carpeting. Forget ‘70s brown and orange florals; modern brights look great with strong geometric patterns. Lengthen a small room with stripes, or use them to lead the eye around the room. Kilim-style rugs and ikat dyeing techniques are a popular interior design trend, adding a pop of colour and style to a blank canvas.
A braver choice than wooden floors or safe beige carpeting, choosing a brightly-coloured carpet can be a daunting decision. To get a feel for the widest choice and finish, take the opportunity to call in to our carpet and rugs store in Bayswater or Blackburn, where our experienced staff will show you the huge selection we have in store.
