CHAPTER 16
RUGS AND CARPETS

This brief survey of floor coverings deals with the charactet
and suitability of rugs and carpets, their color, texture, pattern,
cost, durability, and the kinds available.

A floor covering makes a room comfortable and gives it a fin-
ished appearance. In winter it is usually well to have a carpet or
a large rug in all the rooms in the house except the kitchen and
bathroom. However, in the summertime, or at any time in the
tropics, bare floors appear clean and cool.

One of the first problems to settle in the selection of floor
covering is whether to have a large rug or a wall-to-wall carpet.
Some advantages of a rug are that it can be reversed to prevent
wearing in spots and it is more easily handled and cleaned. How-
ever, rugs and carpets can now be dry cleaned without removal.
Rugs are adaptable for use in different rooms and also in different
houses; those who move often should have rugs of standard sizes.
Broadloom carpeting can, of course, be bought in any desired
length and treated as a rug.

Carpeting from wall to wall makes a room seem larger than a
rug does; it can be made to fit irregularities such as bay windows
so that they will not appear to be separated from the room. Con-
siderable expenditure to fit specific places is justified only in an
owned house, however. Wall-to-wall carpeting permits having
inexpensive floors in a new house, and in an old one serves to con-
ceal worn floors. See page 302.

The ideal floor covering for the house or apartment of average
size is the same wall-to-wall carpeting in all the rooms on one
floor, except, of course, the bath and kitchen. This sameness pro-
duces remarkable architectural unity and spaciousness and conveys
feelings of quiet, warmth, and luxury. It also suggests a pleasing
slightly formal effect which is just the opposite of that produced
by scatter rugs.

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