How to Use Dark Carpet Colors Wisely

Sam Presnell from the Rug Gallery discusses how to use dark carpet colors in the home without overwhelming the space and instead defining it and pulling the look of a room together.

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John Maher: Welcome to the Rug Gallery with Sam Presnell. The Rug Gallery is an Oriental rug company and carpet store in Cincinnati, Ohio. I’m John Maher, and I’m here with the owner of the Rug Gallery, Sam Presnell. Hi Sam.

Sam Presnell: Hi John.

John: Today we’re talking about how to use dark carpet colors. Sam, many people use light colored carpet of course, like a light grey or light tan or something like that. Is there a trend though in using dark carpet colors?

Sam: We are we are seeing more and more darker colors and more patterned carpets becoming popular and I think, yes, there is a trend towards not being the same carpeting as in the past.

How to Use Dark Carpet Colors in the Home 

John: Is it easy or difficult to use dark carpet colors in the home?

Sam: Well, to me, it’s easy. I think you have to be aware of some basic things and learn to watch your wall colors. I think there is some contrast that you have to do there and I would say you should always go a couple of tones darker than your wall color, or a couple of tones lighter if you’ve got dark walls. If you’ve got light walls, yes, definitely going darker [with carpet] is very, very easy.

I would never pick my paint until I picked the carpet because you can paint any color. You just can’t do that with carpeting. Once you find a carpet, it’s usually anywhere from 10 to 50 colors of a carpet and that’s it, whereas with paint, you can do anything in between. It’s kind of a beneficial thing to at least find the carpet you really love. Next to your walls and your ceiling, carpeting will give you the most color in your room.

Benefits of Dark Carpet Colors

John: What are some of the benefits of dark carpet colors?

Sam: Well, I think the big thing is that it’s not going to show traffic and soiling. It’s actually going to perform better with higher traffic and be easier to, I think, look good or have a better appearance for a longer period of time before you have to clean it. There is a direct opposite if you go too dark, where you will see the dirt. The dark carpet will become light in those high traffic areas from absorbing the dirt and lightening the colors.

If you go to a really dark, dark color like black or a deep navy or something like that, you will definitely see as that traffic goes on. It will take time, but it will tend to lighten in those areas on dark carpets.

John: I’m picturing in my mind all those television shows or movies where you have a nice white carpet or something, and then a dog comes in from outside, tracking the mud in and there’s footprints all over the carpet. Definitely with a light colored carpet, it would seem that that would be much more dangerous in terms of tracking in dirt and being able to see all that dirt in the carpet if you’re not able to clean it out properly.

Sam: Well, definitely I say people who like white carpet get what they deserve in the end. It is absolutely gorgeous. I’d love to see the room when it’s finished, I love those magazines and things like that, but it’s not practical, I think, to live [with] unless you’re a very anal person who watches everything you drink and eat and don’t have any kids or dogs. I don’t think you’d be fine.

Don’t Be Afraid of Color

John: Right, right. How do you recommend that people use dark carpet colors in the home? You mentioned having the carpet be two tones darker than the wall, and maybe to pick your paint color after the carpet. I wish I could see doing that. It’s much easier to change your wall color than it is to change your carpet once you have that installed. Any other kind of tips for dark carpets?

Sam: I love colors. Something I think color is, and we’ve talked about this in the past, it creates an ambiance. It creates a feeling and there’s emotion with colors. There’s something about color that people love.

I think I would recommend if you can push the envelope a little bit and try some color, I think you’ll love it. If you’ve sat here today, you’re so neutral. It seems like after this grey range and beige range we’ve been in for quite some time, it’s been kind of nice to warm up the place and give it some color. I think carpet and rugs can definitely do that.

I would highly recommend it. I would say, “You want to get a color that you truly love and love to be around because it is something that lasts a while for carpeting. But other than that, carpeting is just another layer of your decorating.” You want to pull everything together with the carpeting as far as what you’re doing in the room, but if you’ve got a grey room, you could do whatever you want as far as color on the floor if you’d shop [for] that design or color.

Dark Carpet Color Trends

John: What are some of the colors that you’re seeing now in carpets besides those grays and browns and those typical ones?

Sam: The big one is blue. Blue has been very dominating and very complimentary. Green is very, very strong as well and I would say the next up in coming colors seems to be, in my opinion, that’s coming down the road.

We’ve seen other colors too, like blush colors or what I would call pinkish again, since they’ll be coming back as well. I’ve got to say you’re seeing charcoal colored carpets as well out there, red complementing the lighter grey tones that are out there in the market place. Those are the big ones that are really popular. Red is always are very strong as far as area rugs, but not so much as carpet.

John: Okay. All right, that’s great information. Thanks Sir Sam for speaking with me today.

Sam: All right. You’re welcome John. Thank you.

John: For more information about Sam, The Rug Gallery and Oriental rugs and carpets, visit [theruggallery.com] or call 513-793-9505. Make sure you catch the latest episodes of this podcast by subscribing on iTunes. If you could take the time to give a review on iTunes as well, I would appreciate that. I’m John Maher, see you next time on The Rug Gallery.