apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

depending on your relationship with your landlord, be honest with them about your feelings... you're their "customer". you might petition him/her to install carpeting (or other floor covering) more to your liking... with rents these days, if you were to decide to move, they'd likely be out-of-pocket (rent-wise) for at least a month... and a month's rent will buy a lot of carpet. perhaps you can even offer to split the cost in installing something that you (and likely the next tenant -- a good angle for landlord-interest) might like. heck, at more than a dollar per square-foot rental costs, even something like pergo looks like a good option when you compare SF flooring costs to SF out-of-pocket loss (rent-wise) for your landlord.

I would go with area rugs too. If you have bold, colorful area rugs, the background carpet will fade into the background. Plus, you can take them with you and have them on hardwood or whatever flooring you get next.

I would focus on learning to live with imperfection. If your unhappiness with the new carpet really has meant a loss of the one thing that gave you satisfaction and joy, then you may have an issue that runs a bit deeper than a distaste for ugly flooring. I think it's safe to assume that the friends you so enjoy entertaining come over for good company, not to judge your carpets.

They walk in the door and you say with a laugh and a sigh "ugh, can you believe the horrible carpeting that the landlord forced upon me??" Everyone sympathizes for a moment, then you move on to the fun. The elephant in the room has been dealt with and you've distanced yourself from the bad taste.

Good luck.

If the carpet is a very short cut pile these might work, they're huge bamboo mats and they're on sale for $100 for an 8x10, which is super cheap. They might work if the rooms are on the small side like they are here in NY.

http://www.cb2.com/family.aspx?c=170&f=3600&viewall=1

I agree with SFPoster. In the past, we have shopped around, found a low cost alternative that we could live with and then have gone to the landlord and told them that this is what we want, and we will contribute to the cost by either installing it ourselves or buying some of the carpeting. Either way, I think it helps to have a specific low cost alternative you can live with and present it to them, so they know you're not asking for a pie in the sky.

Area rugs help too.

Good luck!

I think you put an area rug down and do what mdo wrote. I bought a great house years ago- great except everything in was pink. pink counters, tile, carpet. I didn't have the money to re do it all at once, so I covered what I could and made a joke about what I couldn't. For parties I used to invite everyone to the "pink palace". When we did finally pull the carpet we had a going away party for it. My friends didn't care at all about the color of my carpets or counters- they cared about me.

SFposter has a good idea there. I'm considering something similar with my landlord. The walls are a dull cream color in the bedroom and livingroom while a nice, bright whitewash white in the bathroom and kitchen. I want to ask him if he could bring in a crew to paint the livingroom and bedroom. I'm willing to move my furniture and buy tarps to cover stuff if he would just make it brighter.

Embrace it. Use it to trigger an unexpected purchase. Use it to change your color direction.

Or use area rugs as mentioned above.

But I SERIOUSLY doubt your friends will stop coming, or judge you, for your carpet. They probably miss you!

I think mdo's advice is the key here. Sure, put down area rugs, or try to tie you wall colour into the carpet colour to make it more palatable. But really, what you need to do is not let something as inconsequential as carpet affect your emotional & social life. You need to get over it.

Beige does nothing for me but brown, depending on the shade can be decent, but not that motled marbled stuff from the 70's, that's definitely hideous but a semi solid brown carpet in a short to medium sort pile can be quite fine for a rental.

The thing is, landlords like to keep their places as neutral as possible to account for anyone's tastes who moves in as most neutrals will work with just about anything you add to the room.

So I'd embrace it, put down area rugs to break it up some and then go with it and bring your friends back in.

I got fortunate that my place I'm in now has a gray/blue-ish carpeting which is a nice neutral and not the standard brown/tan/beige carpet most commonly found in rentals now adays.

1) If you are paying market rate for you apartment, you could take this opportunity to find a place that better fits your furnishings. This will also give you a solid idea of how much more you might have to pay to find a place that you can be completely satisfied with.

2) If your place falls under rent stabilization or if you just have a really exceptional deal, find a carpet solution you like and can afford and approach the landlord about allowing you to replace the carpet. As long as he doesn't have to pay and your choice doesn't make his job of finding tenants difficult, there really is no reason to object. If he stills has a problem with the idea, ask him what sort of solution he would be comfortable with, and work from there.

i'm pretty sure you can't install FLOR tiles over carpet.

..cover the ugly carpet with an area rug if it bothers you so much and resume entertaining your friends,I'm sure they miss your company and don't care what's on your floor!