The flooring and the walls of your homework to help define the aesthetic of your interior living space. That’s why so many of us put all that time and effort towards finding the right colors and patterns to develop an appearance that feels warm and familiar. Like a place you want to call home.
But things like flooring installation and carpet selection can get expensive and time-consuming. They both take a lot of work to get right and you only want to do this once. That means making the best choices from the very start.
What’s important to remember is that you will be living with these selections for quite some time. You need to know you’re going to love the carpet and paint you decide to put in. So, let’s discuss everything that goes into making these decisions, the factors you need to consider, and how to avoid the most common mistakes that homeowners make.
Pick Out Your Carpet First
You want to take this step first because despite a wide range of carpet colors and styles available from your carpet installation company, your choices are somewhat limited when compared to your paint color choices.
The thing about paint is that you can have your local paint store to home center mix literally any color, shade, or hue you want. Paint can be perfectly matched to any other existing color; carpeting doesn’t have such an unlimited availability of choices. So, decide on the carpet color you want first. If there is not a paint color like it, you can have a paint mixed to match that color.
If you don’t want the paint color to match exactly, you can find a color or shade in the carpet you’ve chosen to base your paint choice upon so it complements the underlying color you’ve selected for the room through your floor covering.
Choosing Your Carpet Color Wisely
Focusing solely on the carpet for a second, finding the right color for any room needs to be done by taking some other factors into account. Chief among them is the amount of foot traffic the room in question will expect to receive. Some rooms may occupy for a shorter period of time than others and you need to select your color options accordingly.
If you go with a lighter color, the fibers are obviously going to see more wear and tear and start to appear dirtier in a short period of time when there is a whole lot of foot traffic moving back and forth over the surface of the floor. Lighter and/or brighter color choices are going to require more routine maintenance in the form of vacuuming and deep cleaning to preserve the look and feel of the carpeting.
Darker color carpets tend to hide the dirt and grime from foot traffic a lot easier. The same for stains from spills and messes that can end up soaking into your carpet fibers.
But regardless of the color you choose, you want to be sure to you are diligent about picking up messes and absorbing spills to protect the carpet from damage.
Selecting Your Paint Color
Now that you’ve laid the carpet down, you’re ready to start checking out paint color options. You’re going to see all kinds of color swatches and even if you need to custom mix your preferred paint, you should still compare a few shades and hues to be sure you’re making the right decision on what you have in mind for your walls.
When you do this, attach them to the wall itself and move them around to multiple walls within the same room to see what the color looks like in direct sunlight, in darker areas of the room, and so on. This will give you a true determination of how the room will look with this color applied to your walls and, more importantly, how it will look in that room with that particular carpet.
Look for Inspiration
We all know a room is more than just the floor and the walls. You’re going to put other furnishings and artwork into that room as well. Consider these elements of the room when you’re making your paint and carpet color combinations. Perhaps there is a color or shade from one of your favorite furnishings or decorations that you want to build the entire décor upon.
There’s nothing wrong with finding other sources of inspiration beyond the carpet when you are trying to find just the right color palette and design aesthetic for every room of your house.