Posts Tagged flooring

Good Advice For Those Shopping For Carpeting, Tile Or Hardwood

Mar 10th, 2010 Posted in Shopping | no comment »

Are you tired making excuses for the ugly carpeting in your living room? Did you overhear a not-so-flattering remark about your bathroom floor from a guest? Embarrassing isn’t it? Or are you remodeling and looking for easy care flooring options?

When flooring is concerned you will find you have many options. Too many for some. Which makes it hard to decide and easy to go around in circles while trying to decide. Plus since you will be living with the choice for years you want to get it right the first time.

Let’s try to make it easy to give your floor a face lift.

Getting a new carpeting that lays down a sea of color from wall to wall can be exciting. You likely want to go with a nylon. Mid grade should be good enough. All the more so provided you go with the pad upgrade. Since it’s the pad that will determine how long lasting the carpet is and how long it retains it’s fresh new look

Then there’s the classic beauty of wood. You can choose a solid wood installation or you might consider one of the newer products like engineered hard wood. Gleaming laminate flooring is another way to go. Complete with a shiny prefinish it will run you less than solid wood and likely be easier to keep looking sharp.

You’d be surprised the difference wood flooring can make. Nowadays you’re not limited to oak or even domestic woods. African hardwoods to exotics are highly sought after options. Or you can make a real difference by opting for eco-friendly bamboo.

You’ll find ceramic tile has it’s place too. Like in the kitchen, bath, or your entrance ways or anywhere water might be an issue. Stylish and durable the range of colors can boggle the mind.

It’s not surprising that vinyl is still a popular choice. Especially for the budget conscious. Vinyl gives you a definite cost advantage over all other types of flooring most of the time. It’s available as tiles which you might consider installing yourself or continuous sheets which are best handled by a pro. Choice is never a problem with vinyl flooring as it comes in varied colors and patterns. Being moisture resistant doesn’t hurt either.

Adding an area rug to a room can introduce a splash of color that was lacking. Making your home more appealing than ever. These can make your room look more pleasant and inviting. Plus the right color choice can bring together all the decorating elements in the room.

Replacing dated flooring be it carpet, vinyl or wood won’t be cheap. But it’s the best way to add sophistication and elegance to your home. Leaving you to enjoy the newly installed beauty for years to come.

Doesn’t matter if you’d like to know more about bagless vacuums that make it easy to see results, find out if uprights are best, or read Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner reviews. You’ll find easy to comprehend articles that can help you avoid making a mistake at AskTheVacuumGuy.com.

The Wonderful Beauty Of Karastan Rugs

Dec 23rd, 2009 Posted in Home | no comment »

The year was 1928. The first loom was produced by Marshall Field, the American textile manufacturer and retailer that was capable of producing a woven rug. Karastan first introduced its machine-made carpets known as “Mystery Rugs”, the counterpart to the hand-made rugs. The machine technology was so advanced that Karastan put one rug up to a considerable challenge.

In the World’s Fair in 1933-1934, Karastan created a larger version of the Kirman pattern. During the display of the new rug, they let people walk across the rug, showing how easily the new Karastan could be cleaned. The rug came out perfect, amazing all who witnessed it.

These days there are many different styles of rugs as well as carpet made by Karastan. You also have many textures to decide from when purchasing a rug. You can go either with loop or cut piles, or both combined, berber, and even shag. You also have the luxury to choose the size which best fits your needs depending on the room size. There are several different choices these days depending on which brands you are looking for. Metropolitan, Carriage House, Sierra Mar, Antique Legends, Samovar, Ashara, English Manor, and Cabo del Sol are the top collection brands you’ll see around.

Karastan has continued to conduct research and innovate. Three new varieties of Karastan were born. SisalWool was created in 1992 to tap into the love of sisal. The problem with sisal was that the look appealed to consumers. At the same time, sisal was not pleasing to the touch and it stained easily. Karastan made a carpet with sisal’s texture and aesthetics, but incorporated the stain resistance, soft feel, and durability of wool. Pure New Zealand wool was woven through the back for long lasting performance and appearance maintenance. The Sisal Wool styles include Agave, Belize, Corvera and Zanzibar.

Following up in 1997, there was an extra step to the finishing of the rug named TeaWash. This would make the finish of the wool look antique patina instead of glossy. Also trying new shades of greens, gold’s and indigo, which created what is called the “abrash” look. This will give the Karastan the appearance of being older.

While in 2006 the Shapura was introduced. With this design you will notice that it may have a more traditional look, but also grabs up some great color to go into some of the interiors around now. They do this by taking the yarns and add in peaches, or light olive green even. This collection of rugs are very detailed, and give a bit of a worn look, this comes from some luster wash. Also named the “Peshawar”, this has a hand tie production.

Karastan are great rug choices especially since they are made on machines and have the appearance of a hand-made rug. They will always be the leaders of quality rugs since many new designs were introduced to us. You couldn’t go wrong by purchasing a Karastan carpet or rug.

This Home Decorating article is written by Abigail Foster from HouseofAreaRugs.com – your authorized floor rug store for flokati area rugs.