Thinking about buying new carpets? If so there are six carpet color trends for 2024 interior designers think you should know about while considering your carpet ideas ahead of selecting new floorcoverings.
Floorcoverings are an important component in all your home décor ideas. Good quality carpets – and we'd always advise choosing good quality – are an expensive home purchase, especially when you factor in the cost to install carpet, and ones you're likely to be committed to yours for some years to come. So, getting the carpet color wrong is a carpet mistake to avoid, and could prove an expensive and even unsightly mistake.
We've asked interior designers for their expert advice on choosing carpet colors based on what they see being on trend for the year ahead. Below, they list their go-to shades, and tell us how to make them work in your own interior design schemes. And whether you view carpets as the finishing touch for a well put together room, or the starting point for the whole scheme, they will certainly add a welcome layer of comfort and luxury underfoot.
Carpet color trends for 2024
Carpet color is just one of the factors to consider; you will need to take into account which room you're buying for, and what other furnishings and furniture will be placed in the space on the new carpet. Are you looking for a textured carpet for a heavy use area, or a soft, luxurious pure wool floorcovering for your bedroom carpet ideas? And should carpet be lighter or darker than walls?
1. Light earth-toned hues – the timeless favorites ivory, beige, and taupe
We've got a feeling that the perennial light earth-toned hues will never go out of fashion, and we're relieved to hear that interiors experts agree that these natural shades of carpets will still be very much in evidence on our floors in 2024.
Interior designer Esther Lundstrom says, 'The favored colors for carpets depend on the style of interiors and the overall scheme you're working with, but earth-toned hues in general are favored for carpets.'
Are the paler earth-toned carpets better suited to one particular purpose room rather than another? British interior designer Naomi Astley Clarke says: 'Nothing beats a crisp, clean, neutral-tone carpet, particularly in bedrooms where creating a calm ambience is key.'
So if you're considering a pale neutral carpet for a bedroom you'll be in good company for 2024.
Using a paler earth-toned colored carpet as a backdrop allows you to add interest and pattern with furniture and furnishings, as well as bolder deeper colors on the walls. The perfect blank canvas for floors.
2. Darker naturals – mossy and olive greens
Some designers are predicting a resurgence in darker earth tones for carpets in certain applications. Esther Lundstrom picks out darker mossy and olive greens as the ones to watch for 2024.
Dubai-based interior designer Marina Braginskaya says these greens are 'a new and promising trend, especially for carpets,' adding, 'if you are choosing green, go for warm complex shades.'
Creating a room scheme around a deeper color carpet is certainly more challenging than sticking with the safer light neutrals, but the results can be rewarding and dramatic. We see these darker carpet colors working well in cozy living rooms, or for staircases, and they will fit in nicely with green hallway ideas. And since green is such a relaxing color to live with, wherever you decide to put mossy or olive green carpets, the effect can be as calming and restorative as a walk in a leafy forest glade.
3. Warm carpet colors: sienna, umber and terracotta
Sienna, umber and terracotta colors, all warm shades – are going to be popular in all areas of interior design for 2024 – whether you're buying carpets, choosing paint colors or thinking about new living room ideas.
These shades bring with them a natural warmth, but as they are still earth tones they are supremely easy to live with, and if you're considering making carpets part of your terracotta décor, it's good to know that they can work well with almost any other shade of furnishing or furniture.
Marina Braginskaya says that lighter and warmer shades will bring an airy and luxurious feeling to a room and offers some good advice for carpet-sofa pairings for you to include in your living room carpet ideas.
'The sandy-beige tones are great but we're going to see more caramel, saffron, sienna and terracotta colors. They are not the easiest as they all have a bit of retro image, but if you know how to combine them, they can be a perfect design statement.
'For example, cream-colored sofas on a terracotta carpet would be especially welcoming. Or let’s put some dark green armchairs on a caramel rug – one of the most fashionable combinations.'
4. Textured carpet designs in natural colors
Interiors experts are expecting to see textured carpets continue to grow in popularity in 2024. And that's not surprising. Texture is a great way to add interest and depth to any room scheme, and textured natural carpets and rugs are a good option if you're thinking about what type of flooring is best for a living room.
Designer Marina Braginskaya agrees and says: 'One of the big trends these days is texture. All the natural materials like sisal, jute combined with silk, bamboo and wool make really interesting effects. For such carpets we choose natural soft and warm colors, beige, sandy and cream, light straw colors. They work perfectly with textured rugs and carpets.'
Meanwhile, Naomi Astley Clarke extols the virtues of thick warm deep piled carpets. 'Covering your floor with a plush, deep pile helps to keep things toasty. This extra layer of insulation is not only soft under bare feet but can act as a visual anchor which pulls the design scheme together.'
5. Natural dyes and wool colors
No one can deny the luxury and comfort of natural fiber floorcoverings, they're good to touch and look at, and then there's the very real and important issue of sustainability in our interior design and furnishings choices. British designer Katharine Pooley is a huge advocate for natural materials, and is delighted that they are gaining popularity in our homes.
'A growing trend I have taken note of is toward 100% wool carpets using natural dyes, which tick the boxes of both sustainability, durability and beauty,' says Pooley. 'I love the new collection of runners by Tim Page launched earlier this year, they worked with weaver and textile specialist Laura Adburgham to create six new special designs. The designs are really intricate, unusual and beautiful and the natural dyes have a wonderful earthiness that is timelessly elegant.'
FAQs
Will light or dark carpet colors be on trend in 2024?
So what's the trend advice from designers about whether to go dark or light with carpets colors for 2024? The answer is... it depends. For instance, are you carpeting a heavy-traffic area such as an entryway or staircase? Well, in that case the general consensus is to choose a dark colored carpet. Are you carpeting a bedroom? Well, designers generally recommend an easy-on-the-eye paler neutral shade.
If you're thinking about buying carpet as part of your small living room ideas, either light or dark carpets can work, depending on the other furnishings and décor. 'For well-lit living rooms with good ceiling height, I would recommend thinking about a darker, or even patterned carpet or rug for added drama and volume,' says Naomi Astley Clarke, but adds, 'I like to pair a light-coloured velvet pile carpet with moody-hued walls in deep rust red, navy, or forest green.'
Some interior designers, Ruchi A Mohan founder of DesignbyRUCHI, included, see a time and a place for both in 2024. 'I like lighter and darker carpets equally,' says Ruchi, 'I like to use a colorful or darker rug in a room where all the furniture is light and neutral. And lighter neutral one to keep the room within the color pallet.'
Esther Lundstrom adds: 'Both lighter and darker carpet colors can work well, depending on lifestyle and color scheme in the rest of the room. For busy lifestyles, darker carpets are preferred as they will conceal dirt and debris tracking in from the outside.'
You'll notice a distinct lack of pattern in this carpet color trends feature, but, says Lucy Searle, Editor in Chief of Homes & Gardens, they still have their place in interiors. 'What I've been seeing recently are strong graphic patterns in quite bold colors,' says Lucy.
'For longevity, I would always advise going for patterned carpet in neutral shades that's easy to redecorate around; remember that choosing any carpet color, as indeed and fixture's color, can be limiting.'
Lucy Searle has written about interiors, property and gardens for over 30 years, starting within the interiors departments of women's magazines before switching to interiors-only titles in the mid-1990s. In 2018, Lucy took on the role of Global Editor in Chief for Realhomes.com, taking the site from a small magazine add-on to a global success. She was asked to repeat that success at Homes & Gardens, where she has also taken on the editorship of the magazine, which is the UK's oldest interiors magazine at 103 years old. Lucy is a serial renovator and also owns rental properties in the UK and Europe, so brings first-hand knowledge to the subjects she oversees.
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