When developing a new color scheme it is wise to start at the floor and work our way up. Your floor space is comprised of a sixth of the total space in a room, just like your ceiling. This much space is bound to have a large impact on the overall color scheme. It can make you feel glad to be at home or make you work late to avoid it.

So if you buy a home with carpet or floor tiles you hate what can you do about it?

When carpet has been placed over hard wood floors, it is a simple matter of some elbow grease and some handy tools to make a huge difference by pulling it up. A little help from family wouldn't hurt either. However if the only thing under there is plywood sub-flooring that is a horse of another color, especially if you are not prepared to spend a lot of money. There are a couple of things you could do to make it more to your liking without breaking the bank.

Use the carpet color/s as a beginning spot for choosing new furniture covers or furniture that pick up some of the color in the carpet. A multi-colored print or floral could be just the ticket for creating a new color palette in the room. If worse comes to worse you could lay a large area rug over the center with some smaller complimentary scatter rugs on the edges, however sometimes replacement is the only good choice.

Sometimes all you can do is hide the ugly carpet. This is best done with a full size area rug that takes up nearly the whole room. This will cover the awful carpet enough that it will not effect your overall color theme in the room.

If you have an extremely large room that an area rug just will not cover or you already have a smaller area rug you can still minimize the effect of the offending carpet. You simply center the area rug and leave the old carpet as a boarder. Changing the focus of the room or layering carpets can go along way in changing its character.

When using this technique in a sitting room or family room couple the area rug with your couches and chairs to define the sitting area. In the bedroom place, the smaller area rugs around your bed and to keep from falling on bunched carpet in the middle of the night try double stick carpet backing.

When starting with good carpeting use it as a part of the new look. Look for fabric and accessories that compliment the current color but begin to shift it in the direction you like.

To completely revitalize a room you can change paint, furniture covers, window treatments and bedding. If something, you see reaches out and grabs you in a picture or piece of fabric take it with you to the hardware store and get some paint sample cards. Now bring those home, spread them out on the carpet, and determine the best look. Once you have narrowed, your choices pick up some small quart cans of it and test it on small areas of the wall or on poster board. This will give you a good representation of how everything will work together.

Now choose other fabrics that compliment the chose color and pick up the carpet as an accent. These fabrics can be new drapes, bed covers, window treatments or throw pillows. Keep in mind none of these must be an exact match to the carpet or walls. As long as the tones are similar, you can choose a range of color. This will give you a nice variety and serve as a connection between the old and the new.

If your carpet looks like it came from the disco era or is bright green shag and you are more in to neutrals then there is no covering or compromise the carpet simply has to go.

Carpets come in all kinds of textures and colors and even patterns, to choose the right carpet you have some decisions to make. First is how much attention do you want the carpet to get? Will it be the centerpiece of the color scheme or have a supporting role?

Having loud colors on the floor severely limits your decorating choices in furniture and wall color. After all that's what started this mess in the first place right? Choose quiet colors like grey or sage green believe it or not they can be quite flexible in a color scheme.

When shopping for your wall-to-wall carpets use your other fabric colors as a guide. Use one of the colors in say your window coverings then go a little darker for a warm homey feel or lighter for a crisp airy feeling. Do not forget the effects of natural lighting should the room face the west or south warm colors will make it unbearably hot, try cooler colors instead.

Colors and patterns in your carpet will impress distinct character on a room. You can choose either formal or informal floral patterns. If you have small hands and feet running, around either the two legged or four-legged variety, choosing patterns will help hide the unavoidable spills and accidents.

If you would rather not settle on a color on the floor neutrals may be what you need. Again, the same rules apply light color open and bright dark colors close and warm. Go with a speckled variety for high traffic areas as these do not show dirt and wear as badly.

If you want to spend, a lot of money opt for wool carpeting it is the most expensive. However, for longevity and stain resistance choose the nylon variety. Should you want the look of the more expensive wool coupled with the benefits of nylon choose a blend of the two. About eighty percent wool and twenty percent nylon should do quite nicely. This is a nice middle ground as far as price is concerned and you do not have to give up quality.

Leon Tuberman has 40 years of experience in furniture and interior design. His popular furniture store specializes in solid wood handmade Amish furniture for your home. They carry a huge inventory Arts & Crafts, Mission, Contemporary and Traditional style oak, maple, cherry, mahogany and hickory bedroom sets, living room and dining furniture that's handcrafted in the Heartland of America.