Frugal is good.

Living with carpet you don't like is far too costly. Because as you know perfectly well, home is about far more than money.

You can donate good gently used carpet to an organization that houses people with that need, and so you can feel even better about replacing it than about living with something that makes you love your new home less.

Go - shop - find carpet you love that goes with your house, that works for you and your children, and gives them a happy, care-free place to live, instead of a place where they have to worry all the time about spilling the juice.

I would treat the carpet as a neutral. I wouldn't call it white, however. It looks very much like my carpet color and it stays pretty much in the background with many different wall colors. Because you truly dislike it, you most likely will be replacing the carpet before painting again, so be sure you love the color you put on the walls and you won't be faced with repainting when you re-carpet. I do feel your anxiety, however. I'm getting ready to replace my carpet now and I'm concerned about getting it right with the walls, fireplace tiles and wood tones and I'm not going with neutral. Going for color this time!

You could check into getting the carpet dyed.

We had a cat that barfed a lot and apparently the combo of stomach acids and cat food left awful spots on our nylon rug that we could do nothing about....they were clean, but the color had been damaged. So we had a guy come in and dye our rug and it helped a lot for quite a few years. And it was a lot less expensive than a new carpet.

Or you can wait until you pick out more colors and furniture and stuff and then get a large area rug so the light colored rug will be like a border around the room...

The carpet looks like a pinkish beige on my monitor. Is that the case?

Once you get your furniture in and maybe even a decorative area rug, you might not see that much of the carpet.

I could see a neutral gray green, possibly. That would look nice with your wood and be a color complement to the pinkish beige carpet.

I agree with randita, an area rug will hide a lot of the carpet and look nice. I did that on my carpet before we put in wood floors, and I just loved it!

That is a really nice house. I agree with the others. Treat the carpet as background; ignore it and let it sink into the background. The wood is the important element, and the house will be beautiful if decor makes the most of it.

Since the carpet IS off, I'd suggest painting the walls to harmonize with the paneling, erasing any ambiguity about what color the room's "supposed" to be--a pale to medium honey tone, which I actually have in my kitchen now (pale). Any color I bring in works with it, including the big cerise bouquet I cut last week, because the pale honey blending with the medium and dark honey tones of the counters and floor makes a warm but calm, neutral setting for it.

Just looking at the room photo again, if you go with a honey color as mentioned above, carry it up on the ceiling as well. It will set off the ceiling beams much nicer than white, IMO.

Thanks so much for your replies!

For those that didn't look at the listing, I wanted to clarify that this same carpet in over three-quarters of the 2,600 square foot home! The same trim is everywhere as well. So, while this room is a concern for me, because there is so much oak color with the built-ins, my concern is more in working with the carpet being off in so many rooms. Replacing the carpet in that many square feet would be quite costly. Such a shame it wasn't done right the first time! It hadn't occured to me before though, that we could replace the carpet in just the great room, since the adjoining room is hardwood and is removed from the other carpeted spaces.

As for the undertone, honestly it changes to me in each room, but always appears "off" somehow.

Those that think to treat it as a neutral, do you think this works in the other rooms? I'll post a few more pictures. I don't want to have to paint every room honey or green!

Randita - My husband suggested carpet dying, but I've read horror stories of uneveness, dye coming off on socks, skin etc. Did you experience any problems?

I'm not very confident at all when it comes to decorating decisions. If we were to replace any carpet, my thought had been frieze. Do others agree, that frieze style carpet makes the space seem more casual? The carpet that's in the house right now, makes the rooms feel really formal to me. With little kids, and a limited budget, formal is not us!

Rosie - do you happen to know the specifics on the paint color you used?

another room

I'd consider removing the carpet and replacing with inexpensive vinyl wood plank. That carpet is going to be impossible to keep clean. It's so much easier and cheaper to replace flooring when the house is empty...

Ideally, I think I would just live with the carpet for a while, act like it doesn't exist, and then save up for putting in wood.
You could decorate around the carpet as well, painting everything to match, but you really don't like it anyway. Perhaps you could get a good price on the house that would offset the cost of putting in wood.

I wonder if there is a way you could sell the existing carpet since it's like new?

It's a beautiful house and the wood would make it that much nicer, IMO.

This post was edited by tryingtodecorate on Sat, May 4, 13 at 13:29

Nice House, good use of space. It can look so much better with some color on the walls. I have wood trim in my house and also struggled with paint color to compliment it. Eventually I hired a color expert to help. She chose BM Meditation for my living room. Its fairly saturated, kind of a greyish sage. I like it, it does go well with the wood toned french doors, fireplace mantel, banisters.

I also have light carpet in my living room. Its a 'Cut & Loop' carpet. They leave some loops cut, and some uncut and it creates a pattern, in my case small squares, its a subtle pattern. It does not look formal, and there is no footprint to deal with.
Here is an example

Here is a link that might be useful: cut & loop

I think the carpet looks OFF to you because of the wall colors. If replacing the carpet in the family room only is an option -- go for it. But large areas of carpeting in a previously occupied, empty house always looks a bit off to me. Get some paint samples and I'll bet the carpet won't be as much an issue. It's the walls and ceiling that are off.

I wasn't the one who replied concerning dying the carpet.

I lived with bad carpeting in my previous home for many years because 1) we couldn't afford to replace it and 2) the kids were small and I knew they'd be hard on it.

I just painted the walls boring off white during that time. Eventually, we could afford to replace the carpet with hard wood. Thinking ahead, perhaps you could replace one room each year with hard wood or carpet that you like.

Before long, you would have what you wanted everywhere.

The house you are considering is great! Nice room sizes and so many windows.I don't think the carpet color or the wood should deter you from buying the house. I think what makes things look off to you is caused by the lack of color on the walls. Boring wall color and the empty rooms definitely make the carpet a focal point. Once you add wall color,furniture and accessories you won't see just the carpeting.
Really with that color carpet you can use almost any wall color.The house needs color. Will you be using existing furniture or buying new. Think about your furniture and determine a wall color based on that. If you are getting any new furniture maybe an interesting colorful print would be the pop that the room needs and give you the casual feel you like.
I have similar color carpeting throughout my house and golden wood trim too. I love color and have a lot of different colors in my house. I know that most decorators would probably frown on this but color makes me happy. In my house one bedroom is a shade of purple. Another is an orangey red color. I have one that is a mid tone blue. I just recently changed my master bedroom from the beige tones that the previous owner had used to a rich blue-green color My great room is a gold/tan color. I think all the colors work with my neutral color carpet and the golden wood trim.
Here is a shot of my great room that shows the carpet and some of the wood trim.

Good luck on your house buying and eventual decorating.

I love that house and think the carpeting looks fine. I like dramatic paint colors, and would consider a gold, like the color badgergal has. Turquoise also looks great with that color wood and white carpet.

I second what Annie D said about dying. I did that with my first house and it was wonderful.
If you decide to live with what is there (another good suggestion) until you can replace, use spot shot for spots and stains. Works like a charm if you follow the directions. Available everywhere.
I also agree with the others that once you move in, your colors will make the flooring disappear, especially if you use rugs.