Buyers Remorse..Opinions on Brown Carpet

[FreshTressa]

We had to go pick colors for our new construction house, and at the last minute we switched from a nice beige carpet to a warm medium mushroom brown. It is an uneven/short shag type thing, i think it is called a frieze. We got worried about the cat throwing up on the beige and staining it (my cat hacks up a furball about once every 6 weeks).

Now I'm worried it is going to be too dark and 70's looking. I hear dark is coming back, though, and a few of the models did have darker carpet, though it was usually a berber.

Am I going to hate the dark carpet and is it going to look dark and old? All of the rooms are really big and light.

Did I make a mistake??? Should I quick call them up and switch back to the beige frieze carpet with flecks??

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I would say yes...

We put the beige frieze speckled carpet in our last house and loved it. If it was chocolate brown, or brown bag brown, maybe...mushroom brown tends to look grey and as I had found out grey is hard to match.

So if it is on the grey side, go switch it.

 

[beckmrk04]

I got "coffee" carpet- really, it looks more like "coffee with TONS of milk" but it is still brown, and I am sooooo glad we got it.

Our walls are Eddie Bauer gold color, and it looks beautiful- and we got the brown for the exact same reason! Cat throws up all the time. And we have a large mess of a dog. So far so good. As far as I'm concerned, if I can't see the dirt, it isn't there.

 

[ashjohnson80]

I LOVE brown carpet. My sister has been putting it in her house and it looks sooo good!

 

[BillSears]

I have some beige carpet that I want to replace. The beige really shows all of the stains from 2 cats, a dog, kids and any other spill.

I can't tell you how the brown will work out but my next carpet will probably be brown.

 

[moniot]

We have a lovely beige with flecks. Loved it for a whole year. The we got a black lab. Inside outside dog. Everytime he walks through he leaves a trail. I sure wish mine was darker. The coffee with lots of milk color would have been perfect I spend half my time vacuuming and shampooing the carpet. I am so glad things have finally dried up around here.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

I'm not sure I'd ever get anything but brown carpeting. It's just so practical. I'll never get a light color again - what a pain. A friend explained to me a long time ago that the paint on the wall needs to be warm or cool based on the undertones in the carpet. We have a warm brown on the floor, which seems to just fade away into the background as an unnoticed neutral when seen against pale warm-toned walls.

If it were possible to have a big black dog and keep beige carpeting looking clean without turning myself inside out I'd like that, but carpeting is one thing that needs to be chosen for practicality, IMO.

 

[FreshTressa]

Yah, it is not grey....it is more coffee with milk....and I have an indoor outdoor dog too....

So, sounds like I made the right choice.

It matched reallly well with the tile/counters etc. that we chose. I just don't want a brand new house to look dated.

Thank you!!!

 

[Tiggeroo]

I had dark brown carpeting in my last home. It looked very nice, not old fashioned at all. But I"ll tell you that I needed to vacuum that rug more than any other i've had. The dark color showed every little piece of lint, fuzz, fluff whatever. It always looked like it needed to be vacuumed. I didn't want to replace it because it looked like new but it was a pain.

 

[texasthree]

We have tan carpet in our brand new house and about 6 months in its already filthy! I am going to have to shampoo it this weekend. I wish we would of got berber. My sister has it and it fairs so much better with her animals.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Yah, it is not grey....it is more coffee with milk....and I have an indoor outdoor dog too....

I think that will be a fine color then!

 

[FreshTressa]

True....brown will be lintier...but at least lint vacuums up, whereas stains are there for good.

 

[Curious]

70's looking.

Back in the mid-late 70's, my parents put in a multi-colored shaggy carpet that was bright orange, red, yellow, green, brown/black in a large living room. They changed it to a short, light blue sometime in the 90's. I preferred the crazy-colored carpet. Perhaps you better just skip any opinion of mine.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

I think you should just skip upgraded carpet, get the standard stuff and then replace it with laminate or something else later. The builders will bend you over when it comes to upgrading your flooring, and if you have cat that likes to yak, then you will really be glad that he didn't ruin your upgraded carpet. Just a thought!

 

[FreshTressa]

I've had hardwoods throughout my entire house for the last 8 years and have never had carpet.

The new house is a much larger house and already has hardwoods in the family room, entry, and kitchen.

I'm actually looking forward to having carpet upstairs in the bedrooms as I've never really had it!

I don't think I'd want to put laminates upstairs. Maybe later....who knows, maybe I'll hate carpet! We did not spend that much on upgraded carpet, so if we have to replace it with laminates or hardwoods it would not be horrible!

It is true though...the price they charge for the upper level upgraded carpet is actually more than I would spend just having an even nicer Home Depot carpet put in, and you can get it even cheaper than that if you look.

We are only going up two levels in carpetting, so it is not that much money, so I agree with you about not spending a lot on a flooring upgrade!

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Don't get the mushroom brown - I can almost promise you that you're going to hate it. If it has the grey tone like someone mentioned earlier, it will look very bland, dated and won't compliment anything. I'd go with the light tan with flecks. The flecks should help hide any stains, and if the cat yaks just clean it up right away. Go with your gut feeling! Good luck!

 

[DawnCt1]

Our family room has high cathedral ceilings and a large floor to ceiling brick fireplace with a white marble hearth. We also have french doors across the back wall to the deck. We went with a forest green carpet in the family room. We liked it so much that when we replaced it, we went with basically the same color. It brings the outside in. Its very neutral and a lot goes with it. Its a nice contrast against the hardwood floors that are through out much of the downstairs as well.

 

[Disney Doll]

I think as long as your furniture and walls are lighter colors that it will be fine.

Just don't do mushroom colored walls and brown furniture.
Flooring tends to sort of "fade" into the background, unless it is something really wild like orange or chartreuse or something.

 

[FreshTressa]

Mushroom really isn't the color...I messed up! It is warmer than that.

It is named antler, but is lighter than antler. It matches everything except the kids bedrooms.

 

[mookie]

I think you should just skip upgraded carpet, get the standard stuff and then replace it with laminate or something else later. The builders will bend you over when it comes to upgrading your flooring, and if you have cat that likes to yak, then you will really be glad that he didn't ruin your upgraded carpet. Just a thought!

I totally agree with this.

We built our house almost 4 years ago. We chose a slightly darker tan/beige color (not this light off white like you usually see.) and while it doesn't look as nice as the lighter, I know that it was for the best. Plus, it was free. There was no way I was paying "builders extra" to have upgraded carpet when I didn't know how the traffic areas of the house would lay out, etc. So, we upgraded the pad and went with the standard builders carpet. No upgrade. It's not top of the line by any means, but it was great for us for the first 4 years with 2 cats, 2 dogs and a toddler. Now, we are looking at upgrading the whole house, and I'll know exactly what I want, and I can wait for a sale. I'll probably stick with a darker, or more flecked carpet, but I'll also probably go berber. Either way, get your use out of what the builder gives you. Then you can pick whatever you want down the road.