[john and helen]

always willing to help sally.... i have had some fantastic offers of help on here,
we look forward to when we can meet up with you all one day

[shygirl]

wev replaced our cream/beige carpets with darker tan, just so they hide the dirt more, though most of our house is wooden floorboards, so it kinda matches them too.
we have a green carpet upstairs that hides the dirt well.
my mother had a dark red carpet but the white dog constantly moulted and you could see every single hair!

[SallyintNorth]

Two- or three-tone patterning / shading / stippling is good.  Totally plain - any colour - is a nightmare.

80/20 wool / something just a little harder wearing is practical.  But check density - some 80/20s seem very keenly priced, and have less weight of wool per square metre 

Coconut matting at entrance is magic.  Get a good big one though, that all 4 paws have to walk on before they hit wool 

Hate, loathe and detest Scotchguard.  IME, once dirt does show - and with pets, and a smallholding, dirt will show! - once it does show, if it's Scotchguarded you really can't get the dirty patch clean. I think the treatment stops the washing water/soap getting into the fibres  .  So my experience is that after the first year or so, carpets and furniture treated with Scotchguard look and are more dirty that ones that were not treated.

I also loathe beige carpets (in my house) with a passion.  Simply not practical.

Of all the colours I've had, pale but not too pale green seemed to cope with dirt pretty well.  Anything tending into orange/red/brown will too, but may not suit your décor so well.

The other thing is to look at what's outside the entrances.  If you can get some pea shingle/gravel down, that does a stonking job on cleaning and drying feet before they ever get inside the house - and that's furry feet as well as human feet, in fact perhaps even more so.

[Penninehillbilly]

perhaps not possible in this case, but we are in the process of replacing floors after being flooded, we are going for Indian flags for the passageway and kitchen (now with underfloor heating), they should be about 22mm, would have prefered something british but our stone can't be cut that thin. should be good for dogs and wellies though :-).
Like the idea of the local mud colour, and would always have a small pattern in there.

[Torrin37]

As suggested, match it either to the colour of your mud, or if you have a dog that shed's a lot, match it to the colour of their fur  Either one will help with how much you have to clean it! Always get a bit of a pattern tho, even if it's just a mottled kind of look - much better for hiding dirt   

[Bionic]

Luckily I have a poodle so he doesn't shed. At least thats one problem I don't need to worry about.
Its strange how tastes change. Its very difficult, if not impossible to get the big pattens in carpets now (perhaps thats just as well  ), the whole carpet shop mainly had books with variations of beige/brown.
I fancy a green but OH doesn't, I would also love red (see my rag rug project in crafts  ) but OH doesn't.
Oh, decisions, decisions
 
 
 

[Fleecewife]

I think a mellow green would be lovely - like walking barefoot on the lawn 

[Torrin37]

I love red - my favourite colour - but would never go for a carpet in red - MIL had one and it was the absolute worst carpet ever for showing dirt/hair/dust etc

[Lesley Silvester]

I fancy a green but OH doesn't, I would also love red (see my rag rug project in crafts  ) but OH doesn't.
Oh, decisions, decisions
 

My OH never questions what colour I choose.  Apart from our sitting room, we have laminate flooring throughout the ground floor, although I agree, you would be better with carpet on steps. The laminate I chose is oak effect and designed to look very old, ie dirty, so I can always convince myself the floor doesn't need washing, it's just the design. 

[happygolucky]

I love real wood floors......with Indian rugs or similar.......this house was carpeted before we moved in with cheap and pale beige but the house is way too big to change it, although the floor  boards are beautiful, it would still cost a fortune sanding and treating them.  We have a heavy duty carpet cleaner that comes out at least once a week...and I am sure my husbands constant use of the Dyson is making the carpet more and more threadbear .............just hope our next house does not have beige.......Just a note that in a small house I  had, we  had some very expensive pattern axminster and I loved it, it did look very nice and did not show any stain up and because the room was small we could afford expensive carpet!!

[Rosemary]

We have tiles or oak flooring downstairs, carpet on stairs and landings and in Lorna's room, tiles in the bathroom and pine boards in our bedroom and office. Although the carpet is a sort of beige it's mottled and that hides a multitude of sins but tbh it vacuums up really well.

The hard floors are great though. We have underfloor heating and it's great in the winter 

[Bionic]

I did investigate hard wood flooring in the lounge but its a big room and would cost about £3,000 
 
Went and got some more carpet samples yesterday and now looking at a sort of peachy rust with bits in.

[Lesley Silvester]

We did consider real wood as we had dogs but were discouraged by the staff in the carpet/flooring shop as they said that dogs' claws can damage real wood quite badly when the dogs race round and skid across the floor, unless it's hardboard which costs the earth. They recommended laminate, which quite impressed me as the real wood is more expensive. That was why I went for wood effect laminate.

[Rosemary]

Now call me tacky but I so love tartan carpet...we have some in our boiler room and its wonderful...I def would have tartan as it looks good and hides a multitude of sins

Me too I wanted tartan for the stairs but Dan said "no" in such a way that I knew it really was "no". I love tartans and plaids generally - some lovely stuff at the Highland Show in the NSA / "Campaign for Wool" tent.

[john and helen]

get some flotex down..... you can scrubb the stuff til your hearts content