Carpet colours and quality

[BlackCatSleeps]

I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts they could share on my carpet dilemma!

We've got wooden floors downstairs apart from in the lounge which is carpeted (a kind of light toffee colour). I want to get new carpet now for the stairs, landing and three upstairs bedrooms.

So, do you think it would make sense and look nicer if that was all the same carpet? I'm wondering if the stairs and landing should be a stronger (more durable), darker coloured carpet and something fluffier for the bedrooms. But would that look odd?

Also, I've never actually got bedroom carpets before (moved house, new carpets etc).....so on practical terms how does it work with all the STUFF!?

Generally you need something harder wearing for hall, stairs and landing because of the traffic. Wool and synthetic mix 80:20 is good. Lots of people go for polypropylene carpets these days, but I think you can really tell it's synthetic if it's cheap, especially if it's looped pile. Don't go too dark or it'll make things gloomy by absorbing light and every speck of dust and dirt will show. Try samples in different places at different times of day.

For bedrooms, there traffic isn't the same so you don't need to buy heavy weight and can look to save money here if you like. We have 100% wool in two bedrooms and polypropylene in the boxroom.

When it comes to getting carpet fitted - move most things out, but fitters can work around a bed.

Oh and we have carpets that tone, but aren't identical throughout the house. Some people love that look, I think it's a bit dull as we haven't got our rooms decorated identically.

I read ages ago (so perhaps out of date advice) that consistency of colour throughout makes smaller places seem bigger, or rather different coloured carpets break up smaller spaces into seemingly even smaller spaces. We've gone for one wall colour and one carpet throughout and although our place is not big everyone comments on how big it seems. You can get different wearing carpet for different areas but keep the colour consistent. I didn't as it was cheaper to buy a whole roll and with the savings, and anticipating wear, I just plan to recarpet when it's 15 years old.