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How to Choose Carpet Colors at Home

Finding the Best Carpet Color to Suit Your Space

Choosing a color for carpeting can be one of the most challenging components of decorating because it can be tough to visualize the color in a large space, judging from a tiny swatch. A carpeting color change can have a dramatic effect on a room, affecting the look, mood, and way the room is used.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to deciding on the color of the carpet, then read on for some tips and suggestions to help you out.

Small blue carpet sample held in hand surrounded by other samples

The Spruce / Michelle Becker

What Carpet Color Is Best for Your Home?

When deciding what carpet color is best for your home, take into consideration the room, and mainly, the room's central spot or focal point, like a sofa. A sofa, likely a costly purchase in the living or family room, only comes in limited color options, so select a carpet color that will go well with the sofa. After choosing the carpet, next comes the wall paint color, which has almost limitless options.

The rule of thumb is to start with the element that is most restricted in choice and save the component with the most extensive selection for last. For example, in the bedroom, bedding choices are vast and less expensive to change, so choose carpeting and the wall paint color before the bedspread.

Popular Carpet Colors

Some popular colors follow trends and are a flash in the pan, but others are timeless and will last long after fads have passed. Choose wisely between dark, light, bright, and neutrals for a carpet that can span trends and classic style.

Dark Colors

Black and dark colors like charcoal, dark gray, and deep brown are popular with people with pets and families to camouflage stains that don't come out well or animals that shed their coats. These colors do not go out of style, serving as popular color choices for decades.

Light Colors

Beige is one of the most popular carpet colors. Beige is a light color and a warm, neutral color, depending on its tone. Beige can mask a slight stain and, as a neutral color, match almost everything.

Ivory, off-white, or light gray are other popular picks. Some may hesitate to go stark white, fearing the potential for stains. However, area rug layering with a darker-toned rug over the carpet is a neat trick to use on top of light-colored carpets.

Warm Neutrals

Neutral carpet colors are the most popular carpet colors. Current trends favor neutrals in earthy hues, like warm gray or a cappuccino-colored beige. Other warm neutrals include tan, cream, and brown.

Choosing a neutral carpet color is an easier, less expensive option for any room, outlasting fads that might skew to the latest bright color trend. Add bright colors with accessories, accent pillows, or wall hangings. Wall paint is another way to quickly add color or brighten the whole room for a fraction of the cost.

Cool Neutrals

One of the coolest neutral colors for carpets is gray. A slight tint of blue mixes in with black and white to make a modern, sophisticated gray.

However, one of the most recent exalted colors to enter the world of interior design is greige—the cool neutral love child between gray and beige. Depending on what it's paired with, this neutral carpet can lean cool, bringing out the bluish tones from the gray, or it can skew warm, bringing out the tan and brown hues from the beige.

Vibrant Colors

Vibrant carpet colors might be better represented in other ways like wall color or an accent, but if you can see a color that would have staying power for at least a decade, like a blue, green, pink, or purple for a child's room, consider it an investment to last childhood.

You can take a different tack by going bold on the carpet color and toning down the rest of the room with understated sofa colors, furniture, and muted accessories. Using this approach, you can still make a statement on the floor while keeping the rest of the room easy on the eyes.

Patterns and Textures

Add personality to your carpet by opting for unique texture choices. Friezes or cut and loop styles provide depth and character to your carpet while keeping it subtle enough to avoid turning it into the focal point of the room. The fiber material and quality also affect the softness or feel on your feet and the carpet's overall look.

Another great way to incorporate personality into your carpet is to choose a flecked color instead of a solid color. Technically speaking, these flecks of color in a carpet are known as Berber, even though most people use the term Berber to refer to a looped style of carpet. Typically, carpets with Berber flecks are found in neutral colors, with darker neutrals used for the flecks.

In addition to being visually appealing, Berber flecks are quite practical, as they can help to hide any bits of dirt or lint that may be found on your carpet in between vacuumings. You may want to consider a flecked color if you dread seeing anything out of place on your carpet.

Consider Your Lifestyle

Your lifestyle and the way the carpeted room will be used are huge considerations in carpet color and style of carpet. A busy household with kids, pets, and working parents doesn't usually lend itself well to white carpets, which can show soiling more easily than other colors.

Keep in mind that very light and very dark colors show far more undesirable debris than midtones. While a dark color may be great at hiding stains, it will show lint and dust more than other colors. A carpet that is neither too light nor too dark will be the best color for masking these issues.

How to Choose a Carpet Color

The carpet color can alter the entire feel of a room, so be sure to select your color carefully and wisely. Think about how trends may change over the years, and be sure that the color you love today will still appeal to you down the road.

Once you've narrowed the color choice, here's how to pick out the next step—swatches and samples.

  • Personal taste: If you know the color family you're choosing from, start looking at color hue swatches offered by carpet manufacturers. Use the process of elimination to remove the colors you don't like off the bat. It's easier to choose from a much smaller sample size.
  • Decor: Consider the rest of your room; what are the predominant colors in your more permanent or preferred room pieces like the couch, other seating, wall hangings, and decor. Decide if you want to highlight a color from one of your existing items in the room and go with that.
  • Wall color: Make sure the carpet and wall don't clash. By making sure at least one of the two is neutral, they should work well together. If not going neutral, ensure that both come from the same color family.
  • Cleaning: Dark colors and earthy tones mask stains, dirt, and dust better than lighter colors like white and ivory. Some exceptions include if you have a light-colored dog that sheds light-colored hair. Hairs will stand out more against a dark background.
  • Maintenance: Light colors, like white, ivory, and yellow, show imperfections or seams more prominently than darker colors.
  • Lifestyle: Consider your personality, you're home's design style, your use for the room, and the feeling you want to have when in a room. Also, look at the room's lighting and sun exposure. Your life situation, such as children and pets, can also be a deciding factor, guiding you to colors that mask stains.
FAQ
  • What is the most popular carpet color?

    It's a tie between the most popular carpet colors, gray and beige. Both are so popular, it's likely the reason greige has become a popular neutral.

  • Should carpet be lighter or darker than walls?

    It's a personal preference if you want lighter walls versus carpets, although the lighter you go on walls and flooring, the bigger the room feels. Darker colors make a room feel cozier. Many experts agree it's better to have some contrast—at least two tones deeper or lighter—between the wall and flooring to give the room more dimensionality.

  • What color carpet stays the cleanest?

    A brown-hued floor will likely look the cleanest. Gray also hides dirt and dust. As for remaining the cleanest, choose nylon for its durability and ease of cleaning.