Pretty carpet or sensible one?

All our carpets are cream/light beige with flecks of various browns and a touch of Iran. I think it shows far fewer marks than a darker one.

Oh I wish I could say yes ........

When we redecorated the lounge I was determined to get away from a brown palette. So we have 2 feature walls of teal blue, , very pale blue/ grey walls, white paintwork and a very pale silver great carpet.

It looks beautiful !!

And with 4 grandchildren and a dog ..... it's a nightmare !

Our old flecked brown carpet was totally forgiving and the new one whilst beautiful causes me more stress than anything else.

Mind you we are in a constant stage of readiness to sell the house so maybe if we weren't I would be more mellow about spilt squash and muddy paw prints !

My new carpet is like that; I have just spent quite a while shampooing red wine out of it, having thrown about a bottle of white wine over the stains.

Hoping any remaining marks will look like flecks
And that the stains don't reappear as they tend to do.

A wood floor with a nice red rug?

A touch of Iran, Kitty?

We chose a light beigey colour for our living room carpet when we moved in - bad choice unless you insist on all visitors removing their shoes at the front door.

Ps the DGC have been trained to take off their shoes (not by me!)
and no dogs

But people who wave their arms around when they speak and tend to knock over glasses of wine can be a hazard

I do like the carpet though

I used to have a large wool cream rug on the wood floor in the sitting room during my art Deco period. Had it professionally cleaned once or twice a year. Nightmare but looked lovely. Now have a patterned all wool rug bought from America for my cosy look Doesn't show a single mark and very easy on the eye.

Ours is a sort of light wheat(?) colour looking like seagrass and has survived over 10 years and the occasional dog accident. The old carpet, a tobacco coloured shagpile (yes!) was perfect though you couldn't see ANYTHING on it and I do mean ANYTHING
However I don't let Grace in unless we are around, she has the run of the kitchen and hall, tiles and turtle mats in the former and a pine green carpet in the latter. Because nobody is bombproof.
A light carpet with flecks, provided it is Scotchgarded and you keep a supply of 1001 or Vanish carpet spray for emergencies should be fine. Honestly we had more trouble from people's shoes (men's) when DH used to host a study group,once a week and the carpet in front of the sofa got scuffed.

PS a good rug also helps not only to protect the carpet but draw the eye. Grace!s rug is an example!!

Do you mean a touch of Persian Kitty? Cryptic clue?

I decided against Scotchguard because I was worried about the chemicals and DH's asthma

Big mistake!

Thanks everyone for your input. I know we should really get a red wine coloured carpet with tea and coffee coloured splodges, red paint flecks and a mud splattered stipple pattern but I do so want the lovely cream one. Got till Monday to decide

I was determined to have a fashionable cream carpet when dd was a baby. Unfortunately on one occasion she chose to propel herself backwards off the changing mat thingy and do a massive yellow pee all over it.

The stain never came out properly..

I now have a dark grey carpet. It's been down 7 years and not a mark! It must be absolutely filthy in reality.

Grey is more attractive than brown/beige imho; goes with pretty much everything.

I was hoping that by the time that we have to change our carpet, there would be new advances in the whole subject!
Practical carpet it will have to be then.

Pigging phone - a touch of orange!

We have no scotchgard on ours and they have been down 8 years and look fine even after DD3 running a wedding cake making business with the attendant sugar being trodden everywhere. We also regularly have toddlers here.

I am about to change my carpet which is a mid grey to wooden flooring with a large rug . The mid grey carpet is not bad for hiding stains but I KNOW it must be filthy with everything which gets spilled , tramped in and of course the pets . I wouldn`t go for brown though , grey is a better colour and goes with other colours more easily ( and more modern if you care)

Had all cream carpets when we lived away from the family, now we are all near, including grandchildren, we went for the brown heather mix carpets everywhere ( apart from a few hard floors.) It has been down for about four years now and I have never had to clean 'spots' on it, the only time it needed mopping was from red wine, and it lifted out.Brilliant! Go for all wood floors or a mid brown heather mix, you won't regret it.

Just ordered some cushion floor.

My rule is not to have a "cold" or dark colour in a country that is cold and dark a lot of the time . I have honey-coloured carpeting that I love and there are such efficient instant spot cleaners in the supermarkets now, so far, so good (10 years on).

In our old house, apart from parquet, we had a silver grey sitting room carpet it was 80% wool and quite dense. It stood the test of time well. The one mark was when someone trod bird poo in! I made the mistake of using vanish and it was the vanish that left the forever mark on the carpet.

The hall and stair carpet was a mid heather/ dark raspberry colour, it was there for 27 years and still perfect when we left. A very forgiving colour.

The new house has cream/ beige carpets, and on the stairs, so far so good.

In one house we had a red carpet in the hall and stairs. It was a man made carpet guaranteed not to stain - I was very dubious about it as all other carpets were the 80/20 mix and we had a lot of stair and landing areas - 50sqM - however it did as they say - do what it said on the tin! Most marvellous carpet, never stained, anything wiped off and it remained new looking when vacuumed - did not go flat (twist pile) and felt the same as the wool mix. I only agreed to go with it because it was the shade of red I had been everywhere looking for.
We had pale mushroomy cream in the sitting room of last house which was not too bad at staying clean looking but it did eventually show 'track marks'. More difficult to keep a carpet clean if you step onto it from tiles or wood rather than another carpet I have found.

My parents used to have a brown carpet and it showed all the light coloured 'bits' so Mum was forever vacuuming. Beige with flecks seems ideal. Mine is pale green with marks from cat sick, chewed rodents etc., so wouldn't recommend!
I made a good choice with my kitchen tiles - beige with mud-coloured marbling. I can never tell whether it is dirty!

In our last house we had a blue carpet in the lounge and h/s/l. It was wool and had a small pattern on. It was down for over 15 years and saw off everything, children, spaniels, cats, coffee etc. Really loved that carpet till I realised it was in nearly pub in the district! (No, we didn't buy it off the back of a lorry!)

I can't be @rsed worrying about keeping carpets clean anymore it's wooden flooring with a nice rug every time for me. I do agree though a heathery mixture will disguise a multitude of sins.

I have got cream carpets in most rooms of the house Crafting including the stairs although I have hard floors in my dining room (with a huge cream rug), bathroom, toilet and kitchen.

I have never regretted my choice of light carpet as it always looks bright and will go with almost any colour scheme. I don't have pets but I do have 3 scruffy grandchildren who are hardly ever away and boy do the carpets get some punishment!