apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Easy. Large silver-grey rug/area rugs, some solid, some subtly patterned. Cover most of the wall-to-wall with these large area rugs. That would even allow you to keep your green sofa. Let the wall-to-wall just act as a border around the living areas. (In the photo it looks more teal than emerald -- i.e., has a lot of blue in it. Is this so?)

as much as you may not Love this color it's a hard one to fight against- nothing you add to the mix can neutarlize it!!
( in the pic it looks more blue then green but I'll take your word for it)
What is becoming hot this year are darker richer jewel tones ( look at fashion, the red carpet at the Oscars had alot of purples, emeralds and rich reds)
The best way to pull this off is use very crisp neutrals like white and grey, then add in a few punches of the jewel tones maybe a plum, or peacock blue ( think Menjamin Moore 2060-30 Seaport Blue,2079-20 blushing red,or 2037-20 jade green)
don't overdue the accents, just enough to balance the rich dark floorcolor!!

If you're planning to hide the crazy rug (which seems like a good idea) don't get rid of a couch you love!
You could do area rug(s), Flor tiles, or lay laminate hardwoods. Or mix it up! If I were you I think I'd try to get Flor tiles for the bedroom and some faux-hardwood for the living room.

pls lose the ' beige' color on the wall, it's not helping at all!!even all white will create a clean pallet to bounce the rich colors off of...

Oooh. That's *tough*. I think the only way is to accept the carpet. Think of it as a boldly painted accent wall someone else left behind.

Can you paint the walls totally white? Then you could show off some really bold art on the walls and it might provide a nice contrast to the carpet. Covering up the carpet with rugs might just draw more attention to it...but something in seagrass or coir might look nice. AAAACK, good luck!

C:\Documents and Settings\Yaletown13\My Documents\My Pictures\gasl13_warmmodern.jpg

thank you for linking us directly to your computer, bgball.....
;)

Sisal rugs are surprisingly affordable even in size extra-humongous, and they're nicely neutral.

But a better idea -- ask the landlord if you can replace the carpet with something mutually agreeable. Fresh wall-to-wall or laminate is not necessarily more expensive than the makeshift solutions you're considering. Yes, you'd be tossing out or donating or CL-ing "perfectly good carpet"; but it's not like all the stuff you'd buy to compensate has no environmental impact.

i haven't witnessed someone trying to link a photo on his computer for awhile. but i just googled the file name and came up with this:

http://www.dominomag.com/images/galleries/rooms/gasl13_warmmodern.jpg

the wall color looks like the carpet color in the photo, but apparently the carpet color in the photo isn't representative of the carpet color IRL. if it's really that blue-ish color i think you could run with it and make it work somehow, or at least make it less offensive. i guess i'm having a hard time imagining what emerald green means in this context. bright green? deep green?

White walls would just make the Emerald Green carpet stand out more - and area rugs won't obliterate the carpet nor make the mix of greens with yellow (sofa) and blue (carpet) undertones look awful.

I'd embrace the green by looking for a taupe sofa and painting the walls a shade or two darker (or a brown sofa with lighter walls) but leaving the off-white trim and mouldings. Add a pair of off-white lounge chairs, and at least 5x8 red oriental-style area rug to anchor the seating space. Red, brown, gold and blue throw pillows and accessories (possibly even some Tartan Plaid thrown in for fun? Tartan Plaid draperies?). Medium wood tones for tables and cabinetry. Brass/Gold tone hardware and brass lamps. Artwork depicting dogs, ships, landscapes, etc. Play up the "Preppy Den" feel and have fun with it.

You cannot run and you cannot hide... that is some bold color.

Agree, can you give us more adjectives, description of actual color. That looks deeply blue green to me.

Here are my suggestions keeping in mind i really love all things green-blue.

1) work it, get a neutral slip cover for beloved sofa, and acknowldege the color in some SMALL accents. The walls will have to go white or grey.
2)above poster is right, the price difference between replacing and covering are negligible. Find a couple options and proposition the landlord.
3) drop the coin for flor tiles and go nuts, they are supposed to work pretty good over existing carpet.

You could put a very bright (several hundred watt) lamp by the entranceway.
Every time you or your guests enter, stare directly into the lamp for a minute or so... this will temporarily disable the color receptors in your retina.
Repeat as necessary.
;-P

I agree with the above posters, area rugs are not going to hide it, so unless you can afford to totally cover up or rip up the carpet, I would embrace it.

A long time ago, well before orange came back into fashion, we moved into a 70's time warp apartment. We were not allowed to redecorate so there was nothing I could do with it except go all out and throw sheepskins all around, 70s furniture and art on the walls, etc etc . If I had tried to hide it, it would have looked awful. In the end I got so many compliments that I count it as one of my more sucessful decorating attempts...

At least here you seem to have been blessed with a color which is considered more or less "of the moment"...

bgball's advice about jewel colors seems really valid. With a little imagination you could maybe use that carpet to create something really special :-)

Neutralize the walls, in a high contrast to the floors, then build up with a second color in prints, artwork, accent pilows. Anything you can think to break it up. You must embrace it, and move on! Good luck!

Don't sell anything yet. Move in. Live with stuff. Don't think about the pictures you've seen in catalogs, magazines and the web. See what happens. Do what moves you. This is what makes for an interesting room.

oh that's putrid

For those folks who are suggesting FLOR tiles to go over the carpet - this is from the Flor website:

"FLOR can be installed directly over almost any smooth flooring: Hardwoods, vinyl tile, laminates, concrete, and plywood. The only surfaces that won’t work are unfinished waxed floors, unsealed concrete floors, and carpeted floors."

http://www.flor.com/service/flor/install_facts.html

Eh, I've put carpet over carpet before. Visit your local carpet shop and see if they have any room-size remnants in a milder color. Take it home and cut to fit. It may not look glamorous around the edges, but if you arrange the furniture cleverly, guests may never even notice. This is a low-tech, rather low-budget solution, but if you're just renting the place for a year or two, you can make it work.

If you plan to be there a while, I vote for accidentally spilling bleach all over the carpet, and then offering profuse aplogies and asking the Landlord if he'll allow you to replace it with a lowpile neutral berber.

Oh! That's PUTRID!

lolz me and besimple made the same comment

and an additional lolz at the bleach idea!

This is a tough one because the problem is you don't like the color. I don't think it will matter how perfectly you decorate your home - you'll always be hating that carpet.

So don't throw your money away by buying furniture only because it matches the carpet. Those are the things you'll take with you when you move.

The best solution is to spring for some wall-to-wall in a neutral color. See if your landlord will help you out with the cost. But change it even if you have to pay for it yourself. You can find decent carpet - even remnants - at low prices if you shop around and look for a sale. Cheap is the word.

If changing the carpet is out, then I suggest a trip to the paint store where you will "color match" the carpet color using paint chips. Then, take all the paint samples that you think would go with it and play around with it until you come up with a palette you like. Here are a couple of ideas: blue/green, red/purple and yellow/orange; blue, blue/green, and green. Try different tints and shades. Then go find things in those colors.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

Your landlord chose it because it was going cheap on sale because no-one else wanted it ;)

I suggest going all-white everywhere else and introducing pops of colour in the same intensity as the carpet - no more than two other colours at most

Can you peel back a corner and see what's underneath? I once lived with awful carpet in a rental until I realized there was perfectly good parquet underneath. If the floor is okay, maybe you could have the carpet removed and stored. Then the landlord could reinstall it for the next victim. Er, tenant.

I would urge you NOT to get rid of furniture you love simply because it doesn't go with the carpet you inherited. Go to one or more big carpet stores that carry remnants and shop for one or two neutral colored remnants sufficiently large enough to cover most of the floors in the rooms. Once you have selected the color you want, have the remnant bound and use the resulting rug to cover the carpet. Bound carpet can usually be shaped to precisely fit within the dimensions and wall deviations of a room so don't be afraid to request coverage of bay windows and other wall deviations.

As someone who is currently living in a rental house with same 'emerald green' (pure green, NOT blue green- I believe the photo is lying a bit, making it look bluer...) wall to wall carpet, let me say, I PRAY you don't have a WHITE dog that sheds a lot, like we do!!! Our landlord wouldn't let us change the carpet, even tho it is about 20 years old....ugh. If yours is in good shape, I think you can make it work if you are decorating from scratch. It's just hard to do when you have all your furniture from your last house to work with, and you JUST bought a mod true blue leather sectional....yeah. Imagine the horror....next place we get WILL have wood floors, or I'm not stayin....

covering it with an area rug would just make it more obvious

i say decorate with your own things ignoring the carpet color(perhaps as you've already done, staying away from shades of green) and then pick one or two pieces, like a pillow or vase the exact shade of the carpet to accent the uniqueness of your colorful flooring without resigning yourself to change your decorating style around it

it would show that you accept it, admire it for it's quirks, but still have your own style...

Wow, I'm not sure what to say about that carpet color. It's definitely hideous. In one of my first apartments I had navy blue carpet similar to that, and have nothing but bad memories of it.

As other people said, if you can get your landlord to allow you to change it, I'd do that rather than spending money on all new stuff to go along with it. It would be awfully hard to cover up or try to ignore.

or you could always just move...

It seems you are either going to have to replace the carpet or replace/recover the sofa. I am betting that replacing the carpet in the room is cheaper (but not cheap...). Ask your landlord if you can replace the carpet. Try to talk him into splitting the cost, with the realistic expectation that you may have to pay for the whole thing.

Buying furnishings you wouldn't otherwise purchase in order to accommodate rental carpet is a bad idea.

AAH! I lived in an apartment with that same color carpet AND faux/pressboard wood paneling on the walls. Ugly, but so cheap. Rather than fight it, I went for a tongue-in-cheek hunting lodge look. My friends loved it! I suggest you let your mind go wild and brainstorm some ideas of what the color and apt remind you of. It doesn't have to be outrageous, depending on your tastes. For example, how about a clean northwest modern look with lots of natural woods, whites, and 1 or 2 pieces of beautiful oversized nature prints. Maybe something like "Derek's Blank Earthy Canvas":
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/fall-colors-2007-northwest/6-dereks-earthy-blank-canvas-033024

Definitely repaint though. The walls aren't working with the floors.

Before you resign yourself to the carpet, ask around about remnants at a few large carpet installers--you can get really large pieces of carpet at pretty low prices, and just cover all of that mess over.

I like the idea of an Easter egg hunt. It takes some work but, you could seem the ends of the remnants that msdaphne recommends. I did this in a room where I new the carpet was going to get destroyed if it was not covered. When I left I simple dumped the remnant in the dumpster and left.