How do you choose carpet?

[lavenderblue]

I want to re-do the flooring in my finished basement. It is currently carpet, and originally I was thinking that I would put in some sort of vinyl, but now I'm leaning heavily towards re-carpeting. I've been in my house for 8+ years and have never gotten water in my basement. The basement is the main tv viewing area, it's also where my kids always hang out with their friends. When I'm done with the room, the plan is to have the tv viewing area on one end and then I'm getting a pool table with a ping-pong topper for the other end. 

Anyway, how the heck do you choose carpet? I stopped in the carpet section when I was Home Depot this weekend and it was so overwhelming. I was initially thinking I'd do some sort of Berber, but then I found this super thick, plush carpet that I thought would be super nice when laying/sitting on the floor which I do a lot and now I'm completely torn. Plus, don't even get me started on the million and one color choices. I've never bought carpet in my life and I have no idea where to start in order to narrow down my choices. I'll take any tips or tricks you've got.

[bee20]

The common advice is spend your money on the pad, not the carpet. I did that, and 12 years later you can clearly see where I've walked regularly and where I haven't. I live alone without kids or pets, so it's not dirty but just a little matted and cupped. I'm debating replacing it with a hard flooring surface but then I don't really want to spend the money for something only I see. The public areas of my home are hardwood.

I don't recall the berber in my parents' basement doing that, unclear if it's because they got a mid-grade product, they don't make things like they used to, or children are less predictable than adults.

[mommin]

Find a local carpet store that has a warehouse and go look through them. In our experience, places like this don’t mind cutting a piece off to let you take home. We took 3 or 4 pieces home and absolutely changed our minds on the color when we got them in our house. Plus, it gave us an opportunity to feel them underfoot a little. That helped narrow it down too.

A bonus would be a place with a remnant section, if you can. We found an awesome remnant carpet that was plenty to cover three four bedrooms.

[mrsukyankee]

We went into the carpet store with a colour in mind. Then we talked to the owner (it's a small shop) about what we needed it for and how we wanted it to feel under foot. He made a few suggestions within our budget and we picked the two we wanted for two bedrooms. We'll do the same next year when we replace the hall/stairs carpet.

[simpsongal]

Ditto a carpet store. And Beware undertones in a light color. My in laws have spent a fortune on their basement carpet, painting etc. and the undertones are all fighting w/one another

If need be use paint chips to make sure you're identifying the tone you're considering. I like carpet in a basement too FWIW, I think it makes it feel cozy.

[heygrey]

Yes to a carpet store, knowing your square footage so potentially getting a remnant (cheaper!!), and always take a sample home to test colour tones.


My parents made a mistake of buying light grey carpet and grey furniture at the same time without coordinating them to each other. They just assumed grey matches grey. It's definitely does not. If you have furniture you'll keep or a wall colour you like, definitely have a good size carpet sample in your house to match them.

[k3am]

Quality of carpet really does matter. My mom is notoriously cheap. She has newer carpet in her house that she bought within the last 5 years and it's horrible. It needs to be stretched, bubbles up, etc. I'm not sure what type she picked, but it's really awful.

The carpet we inherited when we bought this house is from 2009, according to the sellers records. I initially thought it was weird that it has patterns of leaves in the texture (not color, just slightly raised in certain areas, very subtle).. and it's held up ridiculously well. It's soft, the texture hides spills and stains REALLY well, and I have zero complaints other than the fact that my kids have WHITE carpet.

Weird story - when my mom recarpeted the house in the 90's she brought the dog to the store so she could match the carpet to Strudel's hair so the shedding wouldn't be as obvious. Some people would find it more important to match the paint or furniture, but not my mom. But then again it was the 90's and everything in her house was brown anyways. In the 2000's she upgraded everything (couches, carpets, paint) to... blue.