Are you re-carpeting your home? Perhaps you’ve bought a new house and you’re choosing carpeting for each space. Maybe you’ve added on to your home in order to give your kids more space, and need new carpeting for the new room. Whatever the case, you’ll need to make an informed choice here. The carpeting used in any kids’ room needs to be able to hold up to a to a lot of abuse, while looking great at the same time. What should you consider?
Stain Resistance
One of the first things on your list of must-have qualities for the carpet is its stain resistance. Kids are great at getting things everywhere, and often those things leave a lasting impression – think Kool-Aid or Playdough. The right carpet will have excellent stain resistance. Don’t forget that you can add even more stain fighting capabilities with an application of something like Scotch Guard.
Ability to Hide Stains
Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do about stains. They’re going to happen, and you can bet that this is going to occur in the kids’ room, no matter how resistant the carpet might be. In this case, you want to make sure that you’ve got the right color so that the carpet can help hide the stains. This is really about trade-offs. The best all-around choice for stain hiding is a marbled, neutral color carpet (think marbled beige).
Durability
You want to go with a carpet that’s going to give you years of hard use and still manage to look good at the same time. In most cases, this means avoiding high-pile carpeting, and you can definitely cross shag off the list of options. A loop-style carpet like Berber might be the best choice here, but compare your options and choose one that has the longest lifespan within your budget.
Comfort
You can count on your little tykes spending a lot of time on the floor. Whether they’re playing astronaut, house, doctor, army, or some other impromptu game, the floor is their theater. Make sure that the carpet you choose is soft enough to be comfortable for them. This also applies to the padding used under the carpet. Ultra-thin industrial carpeting and padding might be cheap, but it won’t be comfortable at all.
Add Area Rugs
As a note, make sure you invest in some kids’ area rugs for the home. This allows you to extend the life of the carpet by covering sections of it up, but it can also help your kids express their personalities and interests over time without you having to rip out and reinstall the carpet every time. For example, you’ll find a ton of themed rugs out there, from space exploration to mermaids to oceanography.
Comfort
You can count on your little tykes spending a lot of time on the floor. Whether they’re playing astronaut, house, doctor, army, or some other impromptu game, the floor is their theater. Make sure that the carpet you choose is soft enough to be comfortable for them. This also applies to the padding used under the carpet. Ultra-thin industrial carpeting and padding might be cheap, but it won’t be comfortable at all.
With a little bit of thought, and some time spent comparing your options, you can find carpeting for the kids’ room that offers the right look, good comfort, and excellent durability.