Carpet Colour – 500 Shades of Neutral

Carpet Colour Trends 2012

In the literary world, 50 Shades of Gray is definitely the most popular at the moment, but in the carpet and flooring world 500 shades of neutral continues to be the carpet colour trend for 2012. The spectrum of neutral tone of carpets range from, at the lightest cream, dove grey, beige, golden honey to dark beige, with every tone of colour in between.

So why are neutral toned carpets so popular and if you want to put coloured carpets back into you life when and where should you use them.

The popularity of neutral carpets has been driven by all the TV makeover programs, particularly ones like House Doctor, Property Ladder and Phil Spencer Secret Agent, where they are trying to make a house more saleable or rentable.  However neutral coloured carpets work in any house and I think these are the reasons why:

1. Neutral tones provide a great blank canvas for colourful home accessories, like sofas, curtains and pieces of art.
2. Changing a look of a room is easier with a neutral carpet.  It is cheaper to repaint the walls or buy new cushions and carpets if you want a change of look of a room, than buying a new carpet.
3. Lighter shade carpets, will make smaller rooms look larger than a darker coloured or patterned carpet.
4. Neutral tones will not go out of fashion or date as much as more vibrant colours or patterned carpet.
5. Neutral tones sounds boring but there is an immense number of neutral tone carpets to choose from, in terms of quality, price, texture and colour.  Neutral does not mean covering the world in a carpet of beige.
6. If you are trying to sell a house or rent a property, all these TV experts are absolutely right that buyers and tenants generally find it difficult to imagine your property as their new home if they are distracted by dramatic colours, patterned and/or dirty dated carpets.

So if you want coloured carpets in your home, where and when should you use them.

1. If you are redecorating your home that you plan to live in for sometime and you want colour then go for it.
2. Coloured / patterned carpets will make rooms look cosier and warmer, so if you have large rooms a coloured carpet will make the rooms feel more homely.
3. Areas with lots of traffic, like stairs and hallways will manage the heavy footfall you get in these areas better.  A neutral carpet can start to look grubby quite quickly however much you vacuum if you have lots of people up and down your stairs.  A popular trend at the moment is to have a lovely stripy carpet on the hall, stairs and landing. This works particulary well on the three storey town houses where the stairs and landing get lots of traffic because some of the living accomodation is on the first floor.

Whatever colour palette you choose for you next new carpet, and despite neutral tones being the most popular, if you want to choose 50 Shades of Grey a good carpet retailer should be able to help.  The main thing is to make sure you see a decent sized sample (minimum 10 inches square) in the room where the carpet is going to be fitted.