Back to the decorating tips!
Many of us apartment dwellers are required to cover between 75-80% of our floor area with some kind of covering--to help abate noise. Labs shed pretty much year round, and loose fur tends to meet up with dust to form tumbleweeds that roll under furniture and into the corners. Living in the city, a fair amount of dirt blows in the windows or gets tracked in on shoes and paws. So finding a floor covering that hides dirt and dog hair in between vacuuming is a must. Obviously, light colored carpets are a challenge, unless you own a steam cleaner (and really like to use it...often). And one other thing--as my friend Caitlin says, Boo's tombstone will read: "Wait...I ate WHAT?" Unexpected "messes" can kill a carpet. So what's a girl to do?
Favorite Option: Seagrass. I love seagrass. I have three seagrass rugs in my apartment and they are a very dog-friendly option. With a much larger and looser weave then sisal (which is impossible to clean), you can dig into the nooks and crannies to clean out any "messes"--and let me say, without going into specifics, that Boo once regurgitated a truly revolting, nauseating mess, that I rinsed right out of the seagrass (rubber-ish backing not withstanding). Dog hair and dirt are virtually invisible. So are crumbs. I was painting last week and noticed that Boo had stepped in some paint and then walked across the carpet. I grabbed a pot-scrubber, got it wet, and quickly brushed the paint right out of the rug. Phew! My rugs were ordered online at naturalarearugs.com--I think that the site offers very reasonable prices for stock sizes. My only mistake in purchasing these was that I ordered a khaki-colored canvas binding (stock color, versus custom). This binding gets fairly dirty and is much harder to clean than the rug itself. Next time I will pay more for a custom, darker color (like brown!) to avoid the dirty edges.
Runner-Up: Wool. I used to have a kilim, which, thanks to the pattern, also did a fairly good job at masking dirt and dog-hair, but it was a more heavy, dark (brown!), and wintery look than I was trying to achieve. I must also admit that after a year of dogs sleeping all over it, it was really hard (even with a professional cleaning) to get rid of a strong "doggy" smell. One other option I tried was a solid color (brown!) broadloom that was cut to order at a neighborhood carpet store. The dog hair didn't show, but any other lint sure did...and there were the same odor issues....
Want to Try: FLOR modular carpet tiles. If you haven't already seen their catalogs, check them out at at flor.com. I love the idea of this: 19" square carpet tiles that can be removed and rinsed out in the sink and put back in place when dry--or you can replace a single tile if necessary!! What a perfect solution for dog owners! Dog gets sick, you peel up that tile, clean it, and put it back. Rest of carpeted surface not affected. You can order samples from FLOR--I just have--I'll report back.
