Dress up your floors

Adding new elements to interior décor and enhancing the look of a house can be an exhilarating experiences. These elements can be anything from drapes and blinds to cushions and carpets. Creating the right interiors is just as essential as the intelligent designing of homes. While planning our home interiors, it always helps to have an eye-catching centrepiece in the form of carpets or floor rugs to enhance the look.

Dressing up floors with artistic carpets or floor rugs is as important as dressing up walls with art works. No wonder, while the interiors of a house are carefully tailored and finely detailed to create a comfortable ambience, carpets are slowly but surely finding a new home in luxurious living. They are increasingly being explored by home owners keen on creating personal spaces with dash and panache.

Choice of materials

Available in a wide variety of materials like acrylic, polypropylene, nylon, wool, cotton and jute, carpets enhance the room’s décor in an elegant and artistic way. They are also available in an assortment of range and designs that have evolved over the centuries to suit a variety of tastes, climates and budgets. While carpets in wool and silk are much sought after, those in cotton and several vegetable fibres too do not lag behind. The style of the carpet is another factor to consider as the choice ranges from contemporary and traditional to braided and south-western.

The history of carpets dates back to the 16th century when Mughal emperor Akbar invited some Persian carpet weavers to set up a workshop in his palace. His successors further encouraged the development of this craft. Though the motifs used in ancient carpets were purely Persian, over the years, various other designs were introduced. Today, carpets are available in as many designs as the regions of the country and their usefulness.

While artistically designed carpets in rich colours are generally picked to be laid in living rooms, wall-to-wall carpets in the colours of one’s choice are chosen for bedrooms. Likewise, the study and children’s play area require different carpets altogether. In fact, carpets afford us the luxury of getting bold with them for the look we want. However, the hot trend of the season is to go in for bright coloured carpets as they add to the bold and bright look of our homes.

However, choosing a carpet is not always easy. So you’ve got to know what you’re doing and where you’re heading.

Here’s a tip: never pick a carpet and paint the room later. Carpets are available in a wide range of colours and designs. Therefore, it makes sense to buy them according to the furniture and wall colour of the room.

What you should consider

Before you set out to buy a carpet, here are some factors you must consider:
The design theme of your house – is it formal, casual, ethnic, artistic, etc. What are you looking for in a carpet - foot warmer or just something that will add to the glamour quotient of your home.

The floor it has to cover – living room, bedroom, study or children’s play area.
The wall colours of the room it will take the pride of place in. The size of the room it is
intended for. The advantages of laying carpets or floor rugs at homes are many.

Apart from transforming the look of homes from staid to stunning, carpets keep our feet warm in winter, especially in cold regions, and offer the added advantage of a soft, cushy feel when walked upon. They are almost ‘must-haves’ in homes with small children as they double up as soft pads for little ones who are either crawling or learning to walk. This is not all.

Carpets also retain the beauty, durability and shine of a hardwood floor. And, they are great space markers in modern open plan homes.

Since home décor items relate to one another, it is advisable to go in for carpets that best suit our needs and flow with the design of the house. Let our carpet express our attitude.

For carpets, without doubt, are the most exciting, the most immediately noticeable and the least expensive elements in decorating.

Carpet care

Do not place heavy furniture on carpets. If you have to, then reposition furniture on carpets periodically to avoid permanent indentations on them. Never drag furniture on the carpet.

Keep carpets away from direct sunlight to avoid the harmful effects of UV rays.
Always clean them with a vacuum cleaner, using it in the direction of the pile.
Never use synthetic carpet shampoos to wash them. Instead, clean them with ritha (antawalada kai in Kannada).

Never fold a carpet as folding leads to the breakage of threads. Roll them instead.
If liquid spills on the carpet, clean the area immediately with an absorbent material. Avoid rubbing the area hard as rubbing will only push the liquid deeper into the carpet.
Sun it upside down periodically to keep it germ-free.