I just blithely did a little search for you sue, thinking I would come up with all sorts of options, & I'm really dismayed to discover that the felt pads of yore are....well, just that....yore :( I have several pads made of felt & horsehair that I've had for many, many years - I had a huge horsehair pad that I just keep cutting to fit smaller rugs. And I expect them to last for many more years. Which is why I haven't had to shop for one for a long time. Everything now is synthetic, but the good news is that you can still find synthetic felt pads - hopefully they are no less damaging to your floors than the felt pads are. Still, check out your local rug dealers - the ones who sell area rugs, & see what they have. The problem with most synthetics is that they bond to your flooring & create damage that can be very hard to repair w/o resurfacing. And/or the pad is too thick & the carpet gets dents that turn into worn fiber. And/or the pad does nothing but keep the carpet from slipping & ruin the floor underneath at the same time. BTW, if your carpet is a thick one, you're probably better off w/o a pad. HTH, & good luck!

"All the trim in the house is a dark stain. I want to paint it all white because that will definitely brighten things." Paint colors don't exist in a vacuum, it's always about how they look next to another color, and bounce back light from windows and bulbs. Bright white woodwork and doors will make the Kilim Beige walls look dingy and dull by contrast unless you have bright white and Kilim Beige in upholstery and drapes too. Don't mix "muted/dirty/greyed" shades with clear and bright shades unless you have a lot of experience. Stick to one or the other. Maria Killiam has a knack of explaining clean/dirty, undertones and the rest. http://www.mariakillam.com/clean-vs-dirty-colours/ ******************** AS you can see the family room is wayyyy too dark Paint can't fix a dark room ... you need light bulbs or higher wattage for that. A better picture of that, taken in daylight or with lamps from another room will get you better advice. ************** "I was going to paint the main living room cool tones, gray, light blue, white etc. but after reading, I'm worried the room will look washed out because of the bow window that allows for so much indirect daylight. So I am leaning more towards warm tones on that side of the home" Warm tones look warm only because they bounce back warm tones from the incoming light. When the incoming light is already "cool" because it's north light, it gets really hard to see the "warm" and undertones are going to be driving you nuts. I had a warm yellow in the kitchen, and the light coming through leaves and bounding off the grass turned it a gaudy green every morning ... ******************** I would immediately paint that fake wood wainscoting Kilim Beige to make it vanish. Remove it later, but right now it's just plain ugly. What I see are the DARK, light-blocking valances in the kitchen, pale mauve (?) drapes in the living room, and the almost exclusively beige and tans in your furniture, and no color in the artwork or accessories. No rugs? That's a far larger influence on the "blah" feeling than the dark woodwork and beige walls. Save your money by keeping the doors until you have drapes and rugs that add color and interest. Paint should be the last decor thing you pick, AFTER furnishings and drapes, because there are thousands of colors of paint. Trying to find a rug to go with the paint is far harder than finding paint to go with the rug.

I have a lot of rugs - soumak, wool, and silk orientals. My favorite (and all future) rug pads will come from Rug Pads USA. I am not affiliated with the company. :D When you click on "Shop" a dropdown menu appears, so you can shop by floor type, material, etc. We are moving in a few months and I will be buying several estate size pads from them... oh, maybe today. I see they are having an winter clearance sale. This link takes to you questions so you buy the right pad for your rug(s). I had to click on the top banner about the sale, for it to come up on the website page for discounts.

I've had trouble sourcing Optimat as well. We used Allied industries to get it in our area, and shipments were sporadic and terrible. I've switched to a different kind of padding that I find to be better quality from a different company. You can try searching the brand name "DuraHold" as well. If you need some help finding rug pad, please feel free to reach out. We're happy to help you! Sincerely, Katie and Mahmoud Katie@Jahannandsons.com www.jahannandsons.com