Choosing the right carpet for your home.

For many, selecting carpet can be a confusing and frustrating experience.

The following information makes understanding carpet easier, and helps you make the right floor covering selection for your home, now and into the future.

Choosing Colours and Patterns
Since the available selection of carpets is huge, you will have no difficulty in finding a shade within the Performance Plus ranges to suit any decor. Bear in mind that, in general, darker colours make a room appear smaller and cosier, whilst lighter shades give the room a large overall look.

Figuratively speaking, colour can also influence the temperature of an environment. Blues, greens and other similar shades will have a cooling effect whilst reds, yellows and browns provide a warmer ambience. When you shop, it's a good idea to bring along samples of furnishings, materials or paint swatches for reference. If a style in a magazine has caught your eye, bring that along as well.

How to Identify a Quality Carpet
Pile density - is a good indication of the quality of a carpet. Dense pile means that more fibre is tufted into the carpet, resulting in longer wear and better resistance to crushing and matting. Cleaning and maintaining dense carpet is easy, since dirt and spills tend to remain on the surface of the pile.

First examine the carpet to see how easily you can push through the pile to the backing, then judge the density by bending several carpet samples. A carpet with a high density should reveal no backing material.