I would LOVE to have people post on this topic. It would be an understatement to say I'm currently struggling with this issue. We are using quartersawn red oak floor throughout our house except in our two boy's bedrooms (and logical places like bath and laundry rooms). Our intention was to try and save a little bit of money, but I'm carpet challenged. We are trying to stay in the $25/sq yd installed price range. They are after all small boys and I anticipate having to replace it sooner rather than later. My challenge is I'm used to using bold wall colors with neutral hardwood floors and I just don't know how to decorate with carpet. Anyway, enough of my rant. Here is the option I currently have on my specification sheet.

This is Shaw Carpet. Style: Sea Bay (J) Q1816. Color: Green Pepper

The only reason I've picked it is it has a variegated color and texture (the better to hide spots?) and I think I could do green, red or beige (sigh) walls with it.

What I would prefer to use is hardwood. Second would be a carpet like

but that would bust the budget and I'm trying to be slightly rational on this one point.

So what is/has everyone else done?

We were tired of seeing spots materialize out of nowhere in our last home where we had an off-white carpet. This time we used Mohawk's Smartstrand. It is almost impervious to staining so far (maybe that it almost matches the color of my coffee-with-cream I'm always carrying around helps with that). If you google it you'll find some comments. We were able to find it at a very good price.

I don't have any good pix of it, here's one though where I was trying to lay out some of our prints to hang that shows the color and texture a little bit.

We have 20 x 20 limestone colored unglazed porcelain tile throughout the house except in the bedrooms. The carpet was picked hastily when I was picking granites and I think it is the one I linked. I need to re-check it Tuesday when I return samples, all I know for sure is it has a small check pattern to it and it is a darker nuetral beige color. Yikes, now I am a little nervous.

Here is a link that might be useful: carpet

jaymielo - that carpet is gorgeous! I realllllly love it, especially next to the hardwood. I know you said you like the berber style better in your last pic, but I will tell you I have a friend who has a premium berber and 2 little boys and she said she is so sorry because it REALLy shows a beating, not to mention her dog's nails constantly pull the loops.

Our allowance is also $25 sq./yd and we plan on having kids in the next few years so same rationale - I don't want to spend a fortune when I know it's going to be replaced down the road...

We're using hardwood everywhere except the bedrooms/bathrooms.

We used two patterns from Dixie Home carpet. We love the soft loop in the Great Room. The Style is called Fallbrook. I linked a site with a picture since I don't have a closeup of my own. It's so comfortable and it seems to clean up really easily too. Cat has already thrown up on it several times. I "think" it was around $35 sq. ft.

The upstairs is a style called Stonegate. (Pic below) It was really reasonably priced. I think around $27/sq ft. It's a pin dot pattern and seems to be wearing well so far but it's only been a few months.

Stonegate

Here is a link that might be useful: Dixie Home Fallbrook

xoxosmom, your carpet is identical to ours. It's been fine for us so far! Good Luck!

In my current family room, I have the same carpet the Jaymielo is showing 1st. We love it and everyone gives us tons of compliments. It is so soft and keeps its shape. With the kids, it has held up well and kool aid blends in well! LOL!

I have a different experience with berber. I have it in our playroom and boys bedrooms, in muted colors. I love it. It has been very easy to take care of and my boys have done everything imaginable to it. I don't have a dog, but I do have a cat and we haven't had any problems with pulls, (he likes to use it as a claw groomer at times, all the while smirking at me like he knows he is the king~LOL!). I will most likely put berber in their room and playroom again because it has managed to hold up with 4 busy boys. Impressive in my book! LOL!

OT, but I sent you an email about one of your inspiration homes. I was hoping to get more info. when you have time. TIA!!

Well, I'm glad I posted. I hestitated due to my carpet challenged disposition. :) You all are doing a great job of making me feel better about my carpet choice. It wasn't until my third trip to the showroom that I could even come to terms with any one carpet enough to "pencil" it in! :) On that trip I brought home the above sample and it is growing on me. It looks MUCH better in the natural light of our home than it did under the fluorescents of the showroom. eventhecatisaboy, I'm so glad to hear that you like the carpet installed... It is nice to know it wears and shows well. Thanks for sharing.

We have Milliken brand frieze carpet. It is a neutral beige color called Banana Cream. It has no yellow in it like you would think with its name.LOL

"xoxosmom, your carpet is identical to ours. It's been fine for us so far! Good Luck!"

Thanks Lindy, I saw pictures of your new home and it is beautiful. I am glad the carpet is holding up well. I didn't want berber this time because the kids wanted cushier and cut (shag type) carpet traffic patterns drives me nuts after being installed for 6 months.

I love my carpet - it's Shaw's "tender leaves". You can see from the photo that it has a leaf pattern in the weave (I think the leaves are uncut fibers). It's a ridiculously thick and plush carpet so it's very soft and comfortable for sitting and playing on with the kids. The pattern gives it a really nice high-end custom look too. I got it in three different colors for different rooms. This is a medium brown color; the other colors I got are a lighter beige and a medium gray. I forget the exact price, but it was on the expensive side. Not as expensive as wool, but among the more expensive of the synthetics.

Here is good article about carpet...http://www.healthyhomeplans.com/articles/information4.php

We used Mohawk Smartstrand berber in our basement rec room and a nylon Mohawk in the bedrooms. Ours were more expensive than you are looking at. As for berber, we had an off white wool berber in our old house for 20 years that was indestructible and unstainable (grape juice, red Kool-Aid etc. did not stain it and nothing snagged it, not even our dog and cat). We were so impressed by that berber that we got it again for this house, but we got smartstrand instead of wool because wool is extremely expensive. The smartstrand has not stained, but it does snag. Luckily, it has a backing that keeps snags from running and the snags can be repaird, but they may not use that backing at the price point you are looking at. If the berber you are looking does not have the backing that stop snags from running, I would not get it if you have small children and pets. In fact, although I really like the berber that we have in our new house, I would not get it again as long as we have pets even if it had the backing that stops snags. We've only had three snags in the basement carpet the year and half that we have lived in our new house. The first snag happened when the dog was rolling on his back on the floor--one of his dog tags caught in the carpet and of course, being a dog and feeling trapped, he kept tugging and tugging at it and pulled out yarns that left a 3/4" x 3/4" bare spot--if the backing didn't stop runs I'm sure we would have had a run that went from wall to wall to wall to wall. We were able to glue the yarns back and the repair would have been invisible, except that cat really liked the latex glue that you use to fix carpet and the cat kept pulling it back up. The other snags were not from the dog and were small and easily repaired, but I do worry about snags every time the dog is down the basement. Good luck!