Tips to choose the right carpet

Kayla Gulec Kayla Gulec
homify Salas de estilo moderno Madera Acabado en madera
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Shopping for a carpet involves a huge financial investment – one of the largest you’ll make in your home. With all the different styles, colours, shapes, fibres, and brands, the whole process can really make your head spin. The experience can be so daunting that it is tempting to shop with only the basic colours and styles in mind, and no one would blame you. Most people don't even know where to start off in this project! But we here at homify know just how overwhelming these kinds of things can be, so that’s why we’ve put together this Ideabook with tips on how to choose the absolute best carpet for any room in the home. After reading this, you’ll be able to buy carpeting that fits your needs according to use, the room it’s in, you’ll know what’s on the market, and we’ll even tell you the benefits of each one, as well as how to maintain it. So, let’s get started!

Choose according to use

So you want a carpet. First thing’s first: what do you want it for? More specifically, what will it be used for? Do you want carpeting for your office? Your home? Well, if you’re shopping for a carpet for your office space, chances are you are going to want something that is neutral in colour and not too distracting. You are probably not going to want a shag carpet for this space, either. Offices are sophisticated environments meant to function as clean, non-distracting spaces, so for such an area, cut and loop or solid cut pile carpets are your best options. If you’re searching for your home space, however, you have almost no restrictions. You can pick a carpet according to colour, pattern, material – you name it! The only thing that could hold you back here is if you have a pet. With long pile carpets or cut and loop carpets, your pet’s claws run the risk of getting stuck.

Choose according to the room

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Now let’s think about choosing a carpet according to the room it will be in inside your home. Take the living room, for example. This room gets more traffic than any other room in your home, so it needs to be sturdy enough to take the regular trampling. You also need to be aware of the décor in your living room. It’s already been fitted with furniture, so the choice of carpet should be in tune with the rest of the room. The amount of light in your living room should act as gauge for choosing the colour of your carpet. If your living room is well lit, then you can opt for darker carpet shades. If you have a small living room, you can make it look bigger with lighter carpet shades.

Which types of materials are on the market?

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There are quite a few carpet materials on the market nowadays. First, there’s nylon, which outperforms all other fibres in terms of durability, resilience, and easy maintenance. Then there is triexta, a newly classified fibre derived in part from corn sugar and boasts stain resistance. There is also polyester, which is another great stain resistant material, and it’s also very soft and luxurious underfoot. Then we have olefin, which is an attractive and inexpensive fibre that’s strong and resists fading, wool, which is the most expensive fibre on the market, but it is highly durable and stain resistant. And lastly, we have blends, which are used to improve the overall look, feel, and durability of the carpet.

Benefits of each material

Nylon is a good choice of fibre if you want your carpet to last a decade or longer and is ideal for homes with high-traffic due to kids and pets. Triexta is great for it’s excellent, permanent anti-stain properties. Polyester is best used in low-traffic areas like bedrooms, as it’s a little harder to clean and tends to shed, but it’s the perfect choice if you like to exercise on carpet and is ideal for households without children or pets. Olefin has fantastic fading, stain, static, and mildew resistance and is, like nylon, often selected for high-traffic areas. Wool feels the best against bare feet and is highly durable, but as the only natural fibre in carpet production, it tends to fade easily in direct sunlight.

Durability

The durability of any carpet relies heavily on the fibre consruction and density. Bulk continuous filament, also known as BCF, is a yarn made fromone strand of fibre. Texture is added to the yarn to add to the bulk of the carpet, which helps make the twist more permanent and subsequently increases the carpet’s durability. Staple construction is when fibres are made into short pieces of yarn, which causes the carpet to shed. 

The density of a carpet is important because it shows how many fibres are used in the pile and how close those fibres are tufted together. The general rule of thumb for carpet density is: the denser the carpet is, the better quality it is. You can test density by running your fingers through a carpet to see if you can feel the backing. If it’s difficult to feel the backing, you have a dense carpet.

Maintenance

Maintenance for your carpet depends entirely on the type of material you have chosen. For synthetic fibres, regular vacuumings to remove everyday dirt. For a deep cleaning, use a steam cleaner. These work best on wall to wall carpets. For natural fibres like wool, for instance, there’s a different way to go about it. Of course, you can vacuum your wool carpet no problem, but it is highly advisable not to use a steam cleaner. This is because wool fibres trap much more than synthetic fibres do, making them harder to dry, and if you have a wool area rug, it will become very heavy and difficult to maneuver. Not to mention, many cleaners are heavy in alkaline. Ammonia and high alkaline cleaning materials will damage your wool, so you should never use them.

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