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Design Directions: Decorating Q & A
 Decorating Q & A | About Mindy | Ask Your Question DECORATING Q & A with Mindy Miles GreenbergE-mail your question1) We're building our new house with lots of natural wood (oak), stone and forged iron accents. I would like to do some rooms in an "oatmeal" tone carpet. (i.e. flecks of browns and neutrals.) What Karastan carpet would fit this description? We also have a "slight shedding" boxer and a visiting grandchild (age 1 1/2) Thanks, I love the product and insisted on the brand to my builder. Your new house sounds gorgeous! The mix of wood, stone, and iron offer a backdrop of rich tones that would pair wonderfully with a Berber-flecked carpet. Karastan makes a number of Berber styles in cut-pile and loop-pile textures. Not only would they work well, they would mask shedding hair and withstand the mishaps bound to happen when grandchildren visit! Check out Cabarita, Catalina, and Alamitos Bay. 2) I have wall-to-wall carpet in two rooms on the 1st floor and up the stairs. The carpet in the front room is in perfect condition. The carpet on the stairs is also in good shape. The carpet in the middle room (same room open stairs) needs replacement. The carpet is beige. I would like to have darker carpet in the middle room, which is used all the time. The one there now is stained with drinks, etc. Will it look terrible to put a different color carpet in that room, since all the rooms are pretty much opened up? Do you have any other suggestions? Why not try a patterned carpet in a brown/black color with a slight beige pattern? That way you tie in the darker color needed in your heavy traffic area with the existing beige tones. Some Karastan options that would work great are: Gingham Stitch and French Check. 3) I want to carpet my split-level home with a light color that is neutral in tone. I am single and nearing retirement. I also need new living room furniture, so I am not using furniture to guide my carpet selection. I'd appreciate any suggestions for carpet color/style. I'm imagining a light, maybe sort of Japanese or Zen-like atmosphere... (I'm thinking of bamboo, light green for accents). I want a soothing room with a mix of textures and comfort -- not stark modern. I don't want the carpet to have a yellow undertone or be too pink or Khaki...I haven't bought carpet since the mid-80's, so I'm a little lost and get overwhelmed in the stores. I'd appreciate any advice. Norma, some Zen-like carpets that come to mind are Agave, Nevis, and Worsted Stria. They are neutral with a twist, which is what I think you are looking for. It would be best to get some samples and see how the light in your space affects the overall color of the carpet. You also might want to consider some colors besides beige. Light greens are soothing to the eye and have a peaceful feeling. 4) I live in a 2,400 square-foot slab, on-grade townhome. I would like to replace my carpet with a plush texture that is dense and thick with fibers .50 high. What do you suggest? For a slab installation, I would recommend one of Karastan's trademark products--Eloquence. It is luxuriously thick with a heavy texture. What's more, it comes in 60 colors so you're bound to find the perfect shade for your townhome. 5) How do I choose between short and tall, dense-pile carpet? What is the actual difference when walking on it? The answer to your question is really a matter of preference. A shorter pile feels tighter underfoot and presents a more tailored look. If you are considering a taller cut-pile (versus a shorter cut-pile), it may look thicker, more velvety and have a sumptuous feel. If you are looking at a frieze or shag-like texture (where the yarns are a little looser in style), the taller pile height will have a more casual look with a feel that you can really dig your toes into. I would suggest going to a carpet store and walking on some carpet samples. Take your shoes off to get a real feel for the carpet before you make a final decision. You can find your nearest Karastan retailer by visiting our store locator section. 6) My foyer wallpaper is in excellent condition and I love it. It's a medium scale floral design (18th century Winterthur style). However, it is 18 years old. I am shopping for an area rug and runner for the foyer, but I do not want to be locked into a color or pattern if the wallpaper should change. What are your thoughts? I think a pattern like Karastan's Captiva from the Samarkand Collection would work very nicely. This pattern is interesting enough to blend with your present medium-scaled floral wallpaper and rich enough to blend with a new paper should you decide to change it. Beige and neutral, this pattern will add warmth to your foyer without being overpowering. It seems a bit "old world" and could fit in beautifully with a classic setting. 7) I have a dining room approx. 14 x 16 feet. We have a rectangular dining table in the center with furniture pieces on three of the four walls (a window table in front of the picture window and a small side table). I have finished wood floors. I would like to get a nice area rug in an 8 x 10 size, but am afraid there wouldn't be enough floor space surrounding it to show off the pattern. Under a dining table, a pattern is a better bet and more forgiving when it comes to masking crumbs and spills. There are so many wonderful rug patterns and colors available today; it shouldn't be hard to find one that makes you feel comfortable. It sounds like the room is pretty full, so you might want to choose a rug in a softer palette – one that blends in with your existing décor and won't distract from it. A beautiful option is Sedona Limestone from Karastan's Sierra Mar Collection. 8) My law office is traditional, painted in "Basket Beige" (Sherwin Williams) color. I have beach scenes and some turquoise mixed in the bookcases. I would rather live at the beach but I am usually at work. I would like a rug that anchors the beige and turquoise and is also formal enough for a law office. That's a tough match--the formality of your law office and the casual feeling of the beach. It might be best to get the beachy feeling with some pictures and keep the rug a bit more serious. The color turquoise is a bit casual for your workplace environment, but let's give these a try. You can't ever go wrong with updated neutrals, like Corsica from Karastan's Vittorio Collection…even looks like sand on the beach, but that can be our secret! Skylight from Karastan's Artisan Collection is another option. It combines your color scheme with a sophisticated geometric pattern that would fit your environment nicely. 9) I am looking for a sage green 8 x 10 rug for my family room. I'd also like it to have some orange (burnt orange) in it. The room has soft yellow walls and I'm planning to add sage green furniture with some orange-tone accents. I like the Sierra Mar Sedona Limestone rug – but wasn't sure about the blue in it. Are there any other rugs in this color family you might recommend? Yes, the Sierra Mar Sedona Limestone does have a drop of blue in it, but there is so little of it. If you love the rug I would go for it anyway. Should you want a pattern without any powder blue, you might want to consider some other selections that would work well: Palazzo Verona-Ivory would be a nice choice or take a look at Ivory Sevas from Karastan's Persian Renaissance Collection. For more sage and rust you might consider Shapura Tiana or Shapura Athena. You can't go wrong with any of these patterns. 10) I need some color suggestions for an area rug. I have a bedroom with an adobe tile floor (terra cotta/orangish color). My wallpaper is light tan with blue in it and my bedspread shares the same colors. There is a sitting area with a whitish or light beige color, micro-suede Berkline sofa and chair. I would really like a navy or dark blue color next to the tile, but that color shows everything. I'm thinking of a rug with a blend of beige colors in the center and a border of the blue. I don't want anything floral or too busy. Can you help? What a great foundation for a rug! I think you could take your bedroom in several eye-catching directions. You could go dramatic with a black rug patterned in beige with hints of blue, like Karastan's William Morris Black. You could give your room a romantic feel with Somerset Lane, which is a soft blue and alabaster pattern. Or, you could give it a West coast casual look with Sedona Ivory/Henna. I would suggest bringing a wallpaper and tile sample to a Karastan dealer, so you can find the best look. Just visit our Store Locator section to find a Karastan retailer near you. 11) We plan to recarpet the common hallways in our co-op building and need advice on what type of carpet would wear best. Also, we could use some suggestions on colors or patterns that would hide dirt. The first floor lobby area gets the most traffic. For the hallways and lobby area of your co-op building I would recommend something in wool. Wool is extremely durable and will maintain its good looks even when subjected to high traffic. It also resists soiling and will clean readily if maintained with vacuuming and professional cleaning (once a year). To mask walk-in soiling, look for a pattern in darker colors. Karastan weaves wool carpets in many upscale patterns with lots of color choices. A couple suggestions are Cherbourgh Check, Capsillon, and Jensen Stripe. 12) Do you have anything that coordinates with your Empress Kirman Black rug? The Empress Kirman Black is one of my favorite rugs! The colors are absolutely wonderful and the deep, rich black really enhances its elegance. The coordinates for the Empress Kirman Black are equally stunning. There are several designs within Karastan's Ashara Collection that utilize the same color palette. Two recommendations are Agra Black and Agra Border. 13) I'd like to use a pretty buttery yellow wall color in my living/dining room (whitish crown moldings, walnut color oak floors). I need two area rugs for the room (under dining table and in living space) and would like to coordinate it with carpet in the adjacent entry area and stairway. Can you suggest two Karastan rugs for the living/dining space as well as broadloom for the stairway in the adjacent entry area? I would like a striation or small transitional pattern for the stairs as they go on to the second and third floors. Buttery yellow is an excellent and versatile color choice. You'll find it used as an accent color in many of Karastan's rugs. The collection that comes to mind for your purposes is Sierra Mar, because its palettes are specifically designed to coordinate with several broadloom patterns. Sedona Limestone and its reverse, Sedona Ivory/Limestone from the Sierra Mar Collection are made to coordinate with Marie Louise and Castellane broadloom. In addition to the Limestone variation, we also have the Sedona Henna and Sedona Ivory/Henna with a soft yellow combination, and we have other options that revolve around the Robin's Egg blue with maize combination. 14) We just ordered a Karastan Sereno 715 for our dining room. The recommended padding from the store was a non-slip pad. We have another Karastan in our great room. It has a thick woolen pad underneath it. What type of pad do you recommend for our new dining room rug? The room is 13x17 and we purchased an 8.8x12 rug. You are right to be concerned about the type of pad you put under your rug. Not only does the proper pad keep your rug in place, it can also extend the life of your investment. Karastan makes a Down Under pad that it recommends for all its rugs. The rug pad can be purchased through any Karastan retailer. If they don't have them at the store, then they can order it for you. 15) We recently purchased a Navy Heriz for our living room. What style of rug would you suggest for our dining room? The dining room is quite close to the living room and it is an open area. A Navy Heriz is a great choice for a living room. It has a number of accent colors that you can bring to the forefront in a coordinated pattern. Or….you can take full advantage of navy's beauty and choose a coordinate that features its wonderful richness. Some considerations are: Brighton from Karastan's English Manor Collection and Afshan from the Original Karastan Collection. 16) We have a breakfast area, approx. 11'x10' with a bay window on one side. I feel the only rug that will work is a 7'10" round because of the bay and a floor vent. We want to know if you feel a 72"x42" rectangular table would work with the round rug. Or, do you have any other suggestions? That is a tricky one! In this case, I would prefer an oval rug and possibly an oval table. If you can't find an oval table that you like, a rectangle would be fine, also. Both look very nice on an oval rug. There is no need to cover every piece of the floor with a rug, so it doesn't have to be too big, just enough to look important and give enough protection when you move the chairs in and away from the table. Another consideration would be a custom rectangular rug with the ends angled to create an octagonal shape—nice attention to detail and might fit very well with the angle of the bay window. Through Karastan's custom program, it is possible to make rounds, ovals and octagons in any size, utilizing their full line of broadloom. Have fun with it. Choose a pattern or texture to add personality to your space and Karastan will serge the edges to fit your desired size. Just visit the store locator section to find a dealer near you. 17) What pile is the best for stairs that you can still use for living room? For your stairs, I would recommend a loop-pile texture in a nylon fiber. Some of my favorites are Khaki Classics, and SisalWorks. Both are offered in numerous color options and would transition well from the stairs to the living room. 18) I have pets and a dog that has "accidents". What's the best carpet for this? Since you have pets that are accident prone, it is important to get a carpet that is easy to clean. Karastan nylons are protected with the best stain-resistant treatments in the industry, so you won't have to worry as much about everyday mishaps. If you rather go natural, wool is your best soil-resistant choice. Karastan wools are naturally superior because they have built-in stain resistant features. The scaly structure of the wool fibers holds dirt high on the pile, making cleaning more efficient—and effective. No matter which type of carpet you buy, you want to make sure you get a cushion that resists moisture and odor. Karastan's KaraStep cushions have a breathable moisture barrier which passes the stringent British Spillage test. Both cushions are also treated with Ultra Fresh DM-50 to retard odors from pets and spills.
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