Resources for Area Rugs & Flooring

Information from the Carpet & Rug Institute
The Carpet & Rug Institute offers many tips and information on carpets and area rugs on the Residential Customers section of its websits. Learn about the benefits of carpets and rugs (e.g., warmth and comfort, beauty and style, soften slips and falls, reduce noise), issues of health and enviornment (e.g., asthma and allergies, mold and VOC misperceptions), selecting the right carpet or area rug, installation tips, cleaning and maintenance (e.g., the right products), and other resources. Selecting the right right carpet or rug is more complex than you might think. The site says: When decorating your home, think of your floors as the foundation for your design scheme. An area rug can visually integrate or harmonize eclectic elements in any decor or can revitalize a room.

Hooked Rug Designs
On the site of Orana Originals (which specializes in Australian and aboriginal themed needlework designs for cross-stich,longstitch, hook rugs and tapestry), this section provides good-resolution photos for many well designed, colorful hook rugs. For each hooked rug design, a fully price list is given for needlework pattern packs, hook rug pattern packs, and special items. You can emails for a quote on kits.

Collection of Carpet Care Tips
This page at ShawFloors.com has numerous links to articles on how to take care of carpets. This includes how to protect carpets from damage and prolonging their lives and beauty. There is a dedicated article for DIY (Do-It-Yourself) carpet cleaning techniques, including which cleaning products should be avoided. Also included are the different vacuum cleaners for carpets that they tested and recommended. The article stressed out that no carpet is stain proof, and all carpet treatment products can also improve their ability to remove stains. Nevertheless, the post explained some causes of carpet stain and how they can be removed.

Flooring Library on FastFloors.com
This online flooring products retailer has a lot of good tools (e.g., calculators) and articles for the consumer on flooring topics in its Flooring Library found in the navigation section at the bottom of each page. The have articles on the different flooring materials: wood floors, laminate, bamboo, vinyl, tile and stone, and cork. They have articles on carpeting and rugs, such as the pros and cons of various carpet fibers, install your own carpet with carpet tiles by Milliken, sports themed area rugs, carpet stain protection and carpet warranties, and guidelines on the fundamentals of decorating with carpet. One article evaluates the green-ness of new flooring, i.e., how eco-friendly are some of the flooring options that are being touted. There's a good article on carpet scams and tricks. The article mentions the bait and switch method. The carpet dealer gives you a carpet book from the manufacturer, but when you choose which swatch you want, the salesman marks a more expensive carpet on the contract that you've already signed. Another popular scam is over measuring. The salesman measure the area to be carpeted, shows you a carpet and says he can give it to you for $10 per square foot installed and that since you have 160 square yards, the cost is $1,600. You go shop that carpet and cannot find it for less than $15 per square yard, so figure this is a great deal. Problem is, you really only have 80 square yards instead of 160, so you've paid $20 per square yard. You've been had. The site provides guidelines for the installation of hardwood floors.

Using Rugs to Decorate with Style
HGTV.com provides tips, videos and gorgeous photos to help you decorate your floors in great style with area rugs. In this feature on HGTV, six top designs share how they use rugs to transform their designs. There are 15 photos and two videos. Here are some examples: A family friendly design takes into account that children and pets will bring wear and tear to a rug, so you want to use a wool rugs that cleans easily has some pattern to hid inevitable signs of life, such as stains, shedding, hair and spills. One designer recommends making the size the area rug slightly smaller the area covered by the furniture, and prefers the front two legs of sofas and chairs be place on the rug. Another designer believes a good run can anchor the entire composition of a room; it can bring something unexpected. Don't be afraid to use a bold color or rich pattern, she says. Neutral walls and furnishing make it possible for a bold rug to take center stage. In this scenario, a rug can really help if you don't want to commit to a strong color on the furnishing or window treatments. Another designer says an area rug's shape will depend on the furniture and shape and size of the rooms. For example, in dining rooms, she recommends a rectangular rug with a long table, a hexagonal rug with a square table, and a round rug with a round table.