Out of all the renovations you can do in your home, selecting the perfect carpet for your rooms can be one of the most difficult decisions to make.

With all the styles, patterns, fiber types, and colors to choose from, you may find yourself in a whirlwind of questions and concerns.

Today, we’ll teach you how to pick a carpet color the easiest way possible.

Neutral colored carpet has been and will always be the top selling product in the carpet industry. Since carpeting is something you don’t renew on a routine basis, you’ll need a carpet color that works with the other colors you incorporate into the room. Neutral colors are perfect for this situation.

The most notable and popular neutral carpet colors consist of:

Since carpeting has become more of a focal point in interior design scheme, a neutral colored carpet will provide the perfect background for almost any other color palettes you include in your rooms.

These colors aren’t as popular as your neutral tones, but there are many homeowners that find ways to incorporate crazy carpet colors in their homes.

These colors are some that the average homeowner doesn’t really consider like:

A great example of these colors is Weston Hill carpet by Mohawk. With the right design scheme and an open mind, you can find ways to make carpet colors like this fit perfectly into any room.

One other thing to keep in mind when selecting carpet colors is your lifestyle. If you have more of an active household, a lighter colored carpet may not be the best bet for you. A darker colored carpet will hide any dirt that gets past your vacuum.

This will also apply to you if you own pets. There are, however, pet-friendly carpet options you can look through to aid in any accidents or damage your furry friends can cause.

Most importantly, select a carpet color that you love. You’re the one that will be looking at it every day depending on how long it stays in your home.

On Saturday, March 17, millions of people around the globe will don their favorite articles of green clothing when they head out to celebrate their Irish ancestry and commemorate the life of St. Patrick—the patron saint of the Emerald Isle. But there’s a lot more to the history to St. Paddy’s Day than an opportunity to drink Guinness and Jameson at a parade before eating a steaming plateful of corned beef and cabbage for dinner, and some of the history surrounding Ireland’s prodigal son may surprise you.

Although Saint Patrick claimed Bannavem Tabernaie as his place of birth in his autobiography Three Leaves of the Clover, scholars can’t determine the exact location of his birth because Bannavem Tabernaie doesn’t exist on any map known to man. What scholars have agreed on, is that Saint Patrick’s life started somewhere in England, Scotland, or Wales, during a time when the region was still under Roman rule. (Don’t get mad at us; we didn’t write history.)

Patrick’s family was part of the region’s wealthy aristocracy, but Irish pirates kidnapped and enslaved young Patrick when he was sixteen years old, and forced him to work as a sheepherder for six long years until he escaped. During his captivity, Patrick found comfort in the system of Christian beliefs his father had taught to him as a child. Later in life, Patrick claimed to have a vision of an angel that told him to return to spread the gospel, so Patrick walked more than 200 miles to get back to Ireland so he could begin his work as a missionary.

The Irish have a long and cherished the St. Patrick’s Day tradition of telling wonderful stories, but we’re sad to report that the story about Patrick ridding the Emerald Isle of its snake population simply isn’t true. Snakes disappeared from what is now modern-day Ireland during the Ice Age, and they haven’t found a way to slither back in the time since. Historians believe the story about Saint Patrick forcing the Isle’s snakes into the sea is an allegory of Saint Patrick spreading the gospel of Christianity across Ireland at a time when many of the island’s inhabitants practiced nature-based pagan religions.

Irish immigrants flooded the Eastern Seaboard of the United States during the 1800s to escape the famine in their homeland. Unable to afford bacon—pork was a dietary staple of the Irish back then, but it was too costly for most Irish families living in the U.S.—Irish immigrants paired potatoes with corned beef they purchased from their Jewish neighbors in New York City to celebrate the annual Feast of Saint Patrick.

Patrick is the anglicized version of Padraig, the correct Gaelic spelling of old Saint Patrick’s real name. Save the Patty for your next melt made of grilled rye bread with a heaping helping of Swiss cheese and onions. (Is this post making you hungry, too, or is it just this writer?)

Nearly 35 million people claim Ireland as their ancestral homeland, which, oddly enough, is about seven times the population of Ireland. In almost every major city in America, 5% of the population claims Irish descent (Miami, Florida, and Southern Texas are two of the few exceptions to that statistic.)

If you venture to the Breezy Point section of New York’s Queens Borough, 54% of the people you’ll meet have Irish ancestry in their bloodlines. Massachusetts has the nation’s largest population of people from Irish lineage; 24.1% of Bean Town’s population claims ancestral ties to the Emerald Isle.

Whatever you choose to do this St. Paddy’s Day, don’t buy a map from anyone claiming to know the location of a leprechaun’s pot ‘o gold (we’re sorry to burst your bubble, but leprechauns are fictitious creatures.)

If you have the luxury of working from home, there’s a good chance you already understand the importance of creating the perfect home office. If you’re new to the joyous world of working from home, let us assure you that having a well-organized, well-lit, neat, inspiring workspace is as crucial to your success as having the proper training and choosing the right career path is.

Working in cramped, cluttered, unorganized quarters will only slow you down and hinder your workflow. Staying on-task when your home office looks as if an office-supply store exploded on your desk can prove to be quite challenging; revamping your home office to create a more efficient—and less cluttered—workspace will improve your productivity and your mood, and give you greater peace of mind.

Chances are you have lots of underutilized space in your home office. Using wall shelving to free-up desk space is a great way to de-clutter your life. Shelving is more aesthetically pleasing than having an enormous filing cabinet crowding your workspace, and being able to see the things that are currently in a pile-by-pile filing system might make it easier to find that wireless mouse you always seem to misplace.

Some folks have a habit of hanging on to sensitive documents because they fear having their identity stolen by some jerk rummaging through their garbage can. Identity theft is a legitimate fear, of course, but the probability of someone digging through a bagful of coffee grounds, banana peels, and dirty diapers to find your bank records is much lower than the probability of a cyber criminal intercepting your info when you make online purchases over wifi at your local Panera.

Squash your document-related fears by destroying everything that you don’t absolutely need to keep. You can find a good document shredder on Amazon for less than $100, and if you’re willing to hand-crank a shredder, you can score one for less than twenty bucks. Regardless of which of those options you choose, a shredder is a worthwhile investment for anyone with a mailbox.

Depending upon the amount of time you spend in your home office on a weekly basis, you may have caught yourself wondering if your chair is a not-so-distant cousin of a medieval torture device. Spending forty hours (or more) in a chair that isn’t ergonomically correct could be the underlying cause of those all-too-frequent visits you’ve had to make to the chiropractor as of late. Investing in a good chair can save you from dropping a truckload of money on medical bills and spare you from enduring a great deal of unnecessary back pain.

Poor lighting can lead to eye strain, headaches, and lost productivity. If the overhead lighting in your home office is bright enough to illuminate an interrogation room, you should consider switching your current lighting configuration to a combination of lamps with dimmable LED bulbs. Since you’ll receive only one pair of eyes during your lifetime, it’s in your best interest to take good care of your peepers so you can enjoy your clutter-free home office for years to come.

At SURFACES, everything you could imagine about floor covering is discussed in great detail. From inspiring flooring trends to networking opportunities, all things flooring is at SURFACES.

This year, we have something to share with you.

Below, you’ll see one of fifteen videos where Joe interviews Mohawk representative Pat Eustice. Each video covers a multitude of first looks and sneak peeks at Mohawk’s new products and exclusive industry secrets that you won’t find out about anywhere.

Now, all of that is in one little YouTube Playlist.

Watch the video below for a little sample of what you can expect in the playlist.

The International SURFACE Event is a wellspring of knowledge that is so intriguing, we had to share it with you.

Click on this link to see the videos – Go to Playlist

As every avid interior decorator knows, all design trends will come and go. Some home decorating trends have greater staying power than others do, of course, and it seems that grey flooring is a fad that’s here to stay for the long haul. So what’s the big deal about grey flooring, anyway?

Installing grey flooring in a residential setting gives homeowners more options when selecting complementary hues, such as reds, oranges, white, and black. Whether you’re looking to class-up your dining room or give your living room a more modern look, you can bet your bottom dollar there’s a grey flooring option that will look fantastic in your home.

With literally hundreds of styles, materials, and patterns for homeowners to choose from in today’s marketplace, the process of selecting the right product for your lifestyle may seem a bit daunting at first. Fear not; you can simplify the process of purchasing new flooring for your home by eliciting the help of flooring professional.

Prior to making a purchase, be sure to do your homework on flooring contractors and labor warranties, as well as how the type of floor you want to install will perform under your home’s unique living conditions. You should feel completely confident that the company or contractor you do business with is in good standing with its previous customers and the Better Business Bureau.

Hardwood flooring is always a popular choice because of its natural beauty, sustainability, and durability. Today’s flooring manufacturers offer a wide variety of grey hardwood flooring options for homeowners to choose from, but hardwood floors are not an ideal choice for every family’s lifestyle. If your home experiences a high level of foot traffic, the finish on a traditional ¾” hardwood product may show signs of wear faster than the finish on an engineered hardwood product, a laminate, or a luxury vinyl product. Each has advantages and disadvantages, so be realistic about your expectations.

The best way to guarantee that you’re happy with your purchase is to educate yourself prior to making a contractual commitment. Don’t be afraid to ask your flooring professional lots of questions so you can ensure your new flooring will perform well over time and meet the demands of your lifestyle.