Janice349- I've had smartstrand in 2 different housrs, plus a client had WHITE smartstrand in their house with 3 toddlers, and they all looked brand new 3 yrs later. In spite of my elderly dog having accidents. Perhaps you were given something else, but we're told it was smartstrand. I always got the mid grade frieze. Client had a plush. I love smartstrand and wold tear out new carpet of a different brand so I can install it. It didn't even mat down on stairs. When I went to sell my house, I didn't even clean it...just vacuumed and it still looked new.

The builder should give you an allowance for covering, and you should know what the allowance amount is. Some large tract builder's, have their own stores where upgrades will put a huge dent in your wallet. Find out exactly what the allowance is for the floor covering, and buy where you want to buy.

Take a look at SW Restrained Gold and Blonde. Those are nice honey golds without being too brassy. Glidden Water Chestnut is also nice with blue. As for the stone, it may work with a new paint color, but if not go neutral with it and let that be the accent wall. You don't want to have competing focal points. The carpet is such a striking color that you may not need an accent wall though. Perhaps just a nice large piece of art or some really dynamic fabric. I would definitely paint the woodwork and paint the adjoining dining area the same color. You can set a nice tablescape with colorful place settings for some pizzazz. And i would absolutely change the light fixture in there. There are lots of affordable options out there. I attached some fabric swatch ideas using restrained gold and blonde. Enjoy decorating your new place.

whaas_5a: Here's what I've done: (1) Go to one or more local carpet/flooring stores (not big box stores) - they all seem to carry LVT wood flooring and have good displays. I really liked the Karndean brand, which was supposedly chosen by Walmart for its stores. (2) Karndean happens to be the only brand I've found who will send you TOTALLY FREE samples from their website, shipping free too! Web site: http://www.karndean.com/en/floors/request-free-brochures-and-samples Click: "request brochure", and then download the "residential brochure" - it's a really high quality marketing piece. As you look at the different "species" on their web site, you can add samples to your cart. They limit you to six selections. I've done this twice, and each time I received the samples about a week later. (3) Here's a photo of some of the samples I received: After receiving the samples, and staring at them next to each other in the privacy of our own home, we changed our mind about what "species" we like the best. We're now leaning toward something on the bottom row. These have names like "pale limed oak", "lime washed oak", and "classic limed oak". So by doing this, we figured out that we like that "white-washed/limed" look. (4) My builder has a preferred brand (Shaw, not Karndean). I asked if he could install other brands, and I sensed some significant push back there. But it was real easy to find a Shaw carpet dealer who also had the Shaw LVT flooring on display, and sure enough, Shaw has plenty of the "limed" options available as well. Anyway, that's how I got to where I am. Hope that helps! P.S. I was told that LVT demand is growing so much compared to carpet demand, that Shaw has converted six carpet factories to be 100% LVT instead.