Someone gave me a big white Flokati rug, within two weeks the inevitable: i got my feet tangled and took a header so the two glasses of red wine i was carrying spilled all over it didn't they. It was promptly cleaned then folded away and awaits a new owner.

My home is for living and for guests and kids to feel free and comfortable in, not to be admired and worried about staining or making a mess. So flooring and furniture is always selected with these priorities in mind.

That photo looks cool i guess but i couldn't bear to live in it, or even be in it for that matter.

I don't have a comment, but like to know from you the difference between a modern living room and a contemporary living room. Show photos if you can.

In the '80's I had a beautiful monocromatic (off white look) in my living room. From custom couch to carpeting--it was magnificent. But here's the thing, if I ever was freaked one of my guests would spill something, then it wouldn't be worth it. These days, you'd be a fool not to have light fabric designed to repel spills or at least have easy clean up.

One Christmas party, our biggest idiot friend spilled his red wine on the carpet. No problem. I gave him a look like "are you kidding me?" and went to the kitchen to get a bottle of club soda--as he apologized, I put the club soda on the carpet and laid a clean white cloth over it to absorb the liquids. No problem. I'm glad for a short while, it scared that nit-wit to death!

I was helping a friend move. She put an ink computer printer down on the light tan cloth backseat of my car. After a 10 mile car ride, I unloaded the backseat of the car and found black ink had leaked out under the printer. I took paper towels sprayed with PoopOff! and blotted the ink off. It was amazing-there were no signs that ink had ever been been on that backseat! We were both so relieved. I have a bird and this cleaner is non-toxic even to birds. I don't work for the company who makes the cleaner either.

When I was little, I would spill chocolate milk every night at supper time, and my mom had it, so one night she shoved a wet paper towel and told me to go wipe down the table top, table legs and the hard wood floor. But when she came back from home goods one day she was like, you better not spill a single crumb or drop on this new rug or else! so we didn't until next year because my mom doesn't care anymore because the rug had crumbs crushed into the top and rock hard spots because of milk spills despite vacuuming helplessly.

I have too many to share but here is the one that stands out in my mind.... My young daughter asked to use my stamps and stamp pads. I agreed as long as she used them at my desk. Upon returning to the room I found she had been using the stamps not at my desk but on the carpet. She was no where to be found. I easily tracked her since she had stepped on the black ink pad before running to her room down the hall.
Oh yeah did I mention we had cream colored carpet? No regrets, though. The stains came out and she still loves to craft!
(Best investment is the carpet steam cleaner)

cat urinated on a dark blue dyed basket. stain is on a light beige carpet. loveseat forever on that side of the room
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When transferring meat sauce from dutch oven to serving bowl, I lost my grip on the pot and it (2/3rds full) fell to the floor and a river of meat and tomato sauce washed across the kitchen floor and 2 1/2 feet up the wall. Normally this would not be a problem, but my parents had "papered" the walls with white-bleached burlap. The sauce soaked into the burlap, which had to be cut out and replaced.

My Mom had a queen-anne style desk chair with seat upholstered in gold velvet. When I was 6 or 7 I brought home a tupperware container still full of pear juice (I ate the pears) in my brown paper lunch sack and left it on the chair. Unfortunately, the top was not on the container properly and a pear-shaped leak of pear juice ruined the upholstery. That stain was thrown back into my face for decades until my Dad finally had the thing recovered.

New year's eve 1999. My brother was having a big house party, and one of his drunk friends spilled red wine on my parents' light grey carpet. My boyfriend and I, being the only sober ones, ran out at 5 minutes after midnight to the corner store for club soda. The carpet is still there to this day, no stain :)

My daughter (now 5) knocked an unopened bottle of red wine off the bench when she was little. Sleep-deprived mother (me) remembered that white wine removes red wine stains so poured full bottle of white wine over to remove - oh dear forgot to blot the red wine first! Now have 2-bottle-size green stain on grey carpet. Have bought a wet vac!
The biggest carpet mess ever was also my daughter when she was about 3, I had put her down for a sleep in my bed and she woke up early, found my nail polish container, opened and painted herself, her clothes and the surrounding carpet with all 27 bottles of nail polish. Had to replace the whole carpet. sigh....

It wasn't a spill, per se, but after my eight year old ate much of an aptly named Rainforest Cafe birthday brownie "Volcano" cake and we were staying in a newly remodeled hotel with a pristine white bath.... You say photos encouraged, I say you'll pay me not to post.
I cleaned for three hours - there is no maid in the world that deserved that surprise.

On another note - my tipsy friend spilled red wine on a very expensive Scandinavian hand made white wool carpet. The owner immediately treated it with club soda and averted disaster. I was so happy I was her guest instead of the other way around!

Several years ago I gave a scary Halloween party for five Grandkids complete with baked hearts ( chicken breasts covered with roasted red pepper halves ) with blood gravy. After the party I discovered that sometime during the feast, someone had spilled the gravy, made with a whole container of red food coloring on my beautiful white shag carpet. It was not just a drip but a saucer sized glob! I scraped up as much as possible and drenched the area with a new carpet cleaner I had never used before. Much to my amazement, every trace of red disappeared. I use that cleaner for everything now and believe me, there's not much it doesn't fix. The carpet cleaner is Resolve.

To KathyK....I used hair spray to get red wine out of beige carpet. My nephew threw a pillow at my husband while he was drinking a glass of wine in my living room. Wine went everywhere! My son had heard of this and we were desperate so we tried it. Thank God it worked!

We were moving (by UHaul). Everything was in the truck. My husband, two young daughters, and I slept on the cream-colored carpet for our last night in that house. The 3 year old had, unbeknownst to us, given the cat chewing gum. During the night, the cat gnawed her mouth trying to get the gum off her face and bled all over the cream carpeting throughout the house. Before taking off, the cat went to the vet and I treated the carpet with hydrogen peroxide.

My daughter decided to work on a school project on my English dining table....with super glue. I have tried everything to take it off (without removing the table finish), to no avail.

Teenage boys, black spray paint, repainted skateboard deck flips thru air & lands on new carpet...painted side down. Thank goodness spouse had lighter fluid on hand to fill his lighter for his bad habit. It's the only thing that got it out.

I had a can of really dark floor stain spill. Luckily it was in my garage but the concrete to this day has a giant almost black stain the size of a kitchen table :(

I dropped a bottle of nail polish on my bathroom floor. It shattered and splattered everywhere. At first I had that sinking feeling in my stomach. But I happily discovered that non-acetone polish remover cleaned it all up without damaging the tile or the cabinets. Phew!

I think everyone has spilt something at one time or another, I dread anyone spilling Vimto though so try to keep a watchful eye out with younger ones!

I spilt black Kohl powder one time on the carpet near make up table, I was shocked at first, but hovered up as much as possible, then sprinkles baby powder on it , hoovered it again and it was much better, it was just a matter of couple of washes later before it faded.

Worst thing I ever spilt was not inside the house. As a child I accidentally opened one of those "honey bears" Mom had in a grocery bag and managed to spill honey across the entire back seat of the car - ruining my father's suede upholstery.... needless to say, my hide got tanned!

Whenever you buy furniture and items for your home...you should think of that purchase as in investment. Therefore; protect your investment by having everything treated by a professional before anything horrible happens to the pieces. We have worked with our vendors for 25 years and have two that we call to do this for us. They work with the trade industry here in California...If you have a need for something like this...I am sure there are some professionals where ever you are located...but if you are here in CA. feel free to contact us 714-970-8000 or 949-640-5000...we will be happy to assist you !

One more thing...never use a product as this will leave a residue on the piece and attract dirt and dust just as if it were a magnet and then the spot becomes larger and larger over time...

Spilled a half a gallon of blue paint on the carpet in my daughter's room right after moving into a new house. I almost cried! But I got it all out.......after hours of cleaning! My bad....always put down canvas or plastic before opening paint!

I was having a romantic dinner with my girlfriend. We had candles, wine, pasta, the whole nine yards. It was like a romantic movie, suddenly it turned into a romantic comedy when our cat jumped up on the table and hit the bottle of merlot wine and spilled it on our Italian leather snow white sectional sofa. My girlfriend got upset and started crying as this couch was expensive and we spent we had a lot of great moments and memories on this couch. I calmed her down and said don't worry as I had the perfect solution. Luckily, I had an Italian leather cleaning kit that my grandfather bought me sometime ago, I never use it before, but my grand dad told me it works like a charm and I trust him. So, I brought it out from the basement, took out the soft cloth included in the kit dabbed it with a little of the clear solution inside the bottle and carefully slowly rubbed the soft leather with the cloth. After rubbing it a let it sink in and just like my grandpa said within minutes "it was cleaner than a whistle", my girlfriend hugged and had a toast to my grand father.

Many years ago, my toddler son found the pint container I had filled with dark teal wall paint to use for a craft, before I had a chance to put it away. While I was in another room for one minute, he very generously shared it with his twin brother who couldn't walk, and was laying on our family room carpet. The container opened, and both boys had paint all over them, and there was a huge puddle of teal paint on our new light taupe carpet. I couldn't pick up the son laying in it without getting paint all over me too, so I had to strip all three of us down to our underwear, throw the clothes in water to keep the paint wet, and frantically call my husband at work. He rented a carpet cleaner and rushed home, and spent hours flushing water through the carpet to suck up all the teal paint. It worked, and when we sold the house soon after, you couldn't tell what had been there. The clothes we had been wearing didn't fare so well though; the little toddler socks and outfits were ruined. I learned another lesson about twins that day!

one of the most memorable accidents in our family wasn't exactly a spill. In my elderly parents' flat, we had just had the wall-to-wall carpets of the living room, hall and my parents' bedroom, cleaned at the cleaners and laid down 2 days earlier. Two days later I came home in the morning from work (I worked at the airport, on the nightshift) to see some of the neighbours outside their door ringing the bell. They said they had been hearing sounds of water from their apartment, and had been ringing the bell for some 20 min. without any answer. Naturally, I was worried, so I locked myself (and the neighbours) in, to step into [schplatzz] 2 cm's of water. My dad had gotten up in the morning to make some tea, turned on the tap to fill the kettle and turned towards the stove with the kettle and forgot to turn off the water, accidentally pushin a wash-cloth in the sink. As he was hard of hearing, he didn't notice the water running. Then he suddenly got a hernia-cramp, and felt the need to lie down for a while. So he went to his bed, lay down and promptly fell asleep for 1,5 hours at least! The carpets had soaked it all up, and it was only visible from the darker shade of dusky-pink...
The carpet cleaners came back to pick them up and when I was paying the second bill, I was surprised to see that they had only charged 1/3 of the previous amount. When I asked why, they said "It was almost cleaner than when we put it back last time" :D

A small can of white latex paint (with the top not quite secured) flew out of my hands in the dining room which has an expensive dark red oriental carpet over newly re-finished hardwood floors. Thankfully the paint missed the carpet but spread quickly over the hardwood and seeped into the many cracks between the boards. Spot-Bot to the rescue! I bought it as an "insurance policy" hoping never to need it, but it sucked up the paint quickly. I poured water between the cracks to dilute the paint and even that came up. The only residue is inside the dried paint inside the clear plastic vacuum head. I LOVE that machine and have used it many times to suck up assorted bodily fluids. I also used it when the toilet tank cracked and leaked onto new bathroom carpeting. Did I mention that I LOVE that Spot Bot?!

Had an overnight stay at the St. Regis Singapore on our way back home after a business trip. The room was newly refurbished in floral polished cotton, lacquered white trim and cabinets, full marble bath - dreamy gorgeousness after a hard week. Had a very early alarm to catch a 6'ish flight. As I was taking a shower, I became aware my husband was skittering around the bathroom, gathering up towels. Turns out he has been putting together the chocolate protein mix he had every morning. Looked for water to put in the shaker bottle and grabbed the Perrier ... Shake, shake, shake EXPLOSION! EVERYwhere!! On the ceiling, dripping down the walls, on the previously pristine white bedding, sheers and curtains, not to mention the white couch. Cut to the chase - got charged $800 for the cleanup. Did I mention the clothes I had laid out that got caught in the splatter pattern?

I remembered one more time when someone did a big no-no in my living room. An employee of my ex-hubby was invited over for drinks with his wife. They had a child, not a sweet little thing I might add, that they brought along--even after it was made clear this was an adult cocktail party.

The brainless mother gave her child (now rolling all over my off white couch) are you ready?--CHOCOLATE!!!!!! I could've killed her right then and there. I took it out of his hand before in was smeared everywhere, cleaned his hands and called it a night by saying (while her brat was screaming his lungs out) "thanks for coming, good night". My poor neighbors could hear that brat screaming, I found out the next day.

I NEVER invited them to my home again. If you're one of these inconsiderate parents, here's a great guideline regarding kids: Never, and I mean NEVER bring small children to anyone's house and allow them to do this--ever! I guarantee, you will spend many nights wondering why you aren't invited anywhere again.

I have plumbed the depths of Hydrogen Peroxide, as a stain remover, and have yet to find ANYTHING it doesn't work on: rust stains on old (real linen) linens, and stains made long ago on favorite white t-shirts. It removed blackberry from a white shirt, cleans the concrete patio beautifully in the spring (without killing the surrounding grass), removed red wine from a tablecloth, cat-related effluvia from my comforter, eye make-up (which is often greasy) from my white towels...the stuff is AMAZING...BUT you have to be PATIENT. I buy the Industrial Strength at the hardware store, mix it 30-50:1 depending on severity of stain, and SOAK, sometimes for several days. I have a special 5-gallon bucket set-aside for this purpose. I haven't used chlorine bleach, on anything, in 20 years.

My boyfriend put a salt over a red wine which spilt on a white carpet. It worked. It has to be done right away and left for several hours or a day, then vacuum cleaned. I use vanish carpet/fabric cleaner in spray. The sofa covering is more difficult, so it needs to go to the laundry. All the furniture and carpets are either white or light beige and it's a nightmare every time to clean and rescue it. I just don't like black leather sofas. Didn't realize that making my dream home means that I have to be careful all the time.

Some story years ago...I was at the office on Saturday (wanted to catch up with some work) when the cartridge finished in a printer. We got a new all-in-one printer machine and it had a different type of cartridge. I found a spare one and tried to do the same as always - pull the transparent plastic stripe. At the same moment my friend and colleague came in as I pulled the stripe and all the contents, very fine black powder just exploded. It went mostly on her, but then all over the room - curtains furniture floors walls flowers documents computers files. I started crying. Wanted to call ambulance for my friend who started coughing bad. Then found some guys on the production who had industrial vacuum cleaner. We all dressed up with face masks, gloves etc and in about 4 hours we cleaned the whole office. On Monday I asked my coworkers if they noticed anything, they said "No...why?" Never open a cartridge you are unfamiliar with.

But unfortunately I am terrified all the time of anything spilling or falling onto the furniture or carpets. That's very difficult to clean and the sofa fabrics absorb anything like a sponge. Life in unpredictable, imperfect. I wanted a perfect home looking like from the covers of interior magazines. I got one but now living in a constant fear of a "disaster". I hate to compromise on the interior but it should be somehow stain resistant and possible to clean. This is an investment for years. Can't just buy a new sofa. Unfortunately Ikea (where most of my stuff comes from) changes assortment often so I can't replace just one small part. Seems like I am a queen of "disasters". All possible stuff spilled out, coffee on the walls and ceiling, soup fell into open drawer of nightstand, tea on the walls, paint on the floor, hot cup leaving mark on the furniture. Impossible to count. But I love nice clean pristine interior.....

We had some of our neighbors in for the holidays. One of the gals tripped and splashed red wine everywhere in the center of a room of white carpet. One gentleman sat in total disbelief. In his mind he knew the carpet was ruined. I sprayed carpet cleaner on it and let it rest for about 20 minutes. All the while eyes seemed drawn to the mess in the center of the room. I dabbed it with a clean cloth and and in their own minds everyone quietly celebrated!

I would invest heavily in after market fabric proofing.

I once spilled a puddle of red nail polish on a white leather loveseat. Nail polish remover took it all off. With the clean spot, I had to finish cleaning the entire loveseat with said polish remover.

The first funny one was tripping on the way out of the kitchen and 2qspilling the entire contents of a huge glass of blueberry/spinach smoothie on my cat, who got the unhappy surprise of her life.
The second was being on a plane to California for a business trip and spilling the entire contents of a huge glass of tomato juice on my brand new Macbook Pro and all over myself. The funny part about that was I rushed into the tiny airplane bathroom to mop the sticky juice off my computer and try to clean off the long light gray cotton dress I was wearing.
Well, I accidentally left the door unlocked, and a few minutes later a fellow passenger burst in, saw me and screamed bloody murder. There I was, sitting on the bathroom floor with a huge red stain on my lap and blood-red paper towels all around me. It must've looked like i'd either been stabbed to death or my water had broken violently and sprayed all over the bathroom. I had been so upset but then I laughed until I cried...

We had just moved into our new home and PapaBear was finishing up some plumbing in the guest bathroom and my 2 yr old son thought he would help..picked up the orange pipe glue and dribbled it all down the cream color carpeted hallway. Needless to say...orange has not been a favorite color of mine.

Yet another red wine story. I was at a night club in the Caribbean islands, wearing a white muslin skirt and top I'd owned for about three hours. A waiter tripped while carrying a large carafe of red table wine, and it went all down the front of me. He was horrified and practically dragged me to the kitchen, where a dozen people tried to figure out what to do. Finally an elderly island woman who was washing dishes said, "Bring me some white rum." Someone did, and she proceeded to splash it liberally over my wine stains, which instantly turned bright blue. I wasn't sure that was an improvement, but she told me to go back to my room and soak the outfit in lukewarm water overnight. Sure enough, by morning the spots (blue as well as red) were 100% gone!

I have TOO many stories to share. I have 7 kids. Everything from " chili world" to pig poop on suede furniture.

My fave would have to be my own mess. While very pregnant , I thought the living room should have a new coat if paint.

Standing on a stool, I lost balance and spilled the whole can of mint green paint on the cream colored broadloom.

Knowing I'd get into deep trouble, I called my ex who was a custom Reno guy for advice.

Got most of it up, but placed a chair over stain. He was none the wiser, until we moved...

My ex-husband's wife knocked over a full glass of red wine. All over rug, new upholstered chair and ottoman. It looked like a bloodbath. She was mortified, I left the room to cry, and she then covered it all with salt. After dinner she tried to vacuum the salt up and proceeded to clog my vacuum with wet salt. The next morning I Googled "red wine stains-remove" and I got the fabulous formula of one cup of peroxide to one tsp of a Dawn dish soap. No more stain!

Has a hunter you clean your deer after you shoot it and my
black lab was there to get all the scraps on the floor. After 1 or deer and about 3 dozen beer we went home. He ended up throwing up on our brand new white carpet. Needless to say
My wife was not to happy after that!!!!

Spills - so many... Hubbie moved a lamp that lost its shade that spilled the glass of red wine on the latte carpet and beige wall of the house that was on the market. He took care of the wall and I FOUND that our bottle of Wine Out (effective) was empty. Used Advanced Shout as an emergency. Sprayed a lot then wiped it with wet washcloth, repeated rinsing with wet washcloth every 5 minutes. In the morning all was well with nary a shadow. Different house the pro stem cleaner asked me to forbid grandkids from drinking blue Gatorade, or eating ring pops that he found under their visiting bunk beds. Each took 2 minutes of steam to clean. We still love latte color palette, as well as steamed milk paint.

In high school one of my close friends was over for a party my parents may or may not have known was happening at their house. There was a bad combination of a "hand talker" and a glass of red wine involved and you can guess where the wine ended up... all over the light beige living room carpet. I immediately grabbed the cleaners and was relieved that the carpet wasn't stained but I guess I didn't notice the spots on the walls. Unfortunately my Mom did notice the red wine rain drops decorating her walls when she got home - busted!

I've used a ton of different cleaners, one that I have used recently at home in and in our showroom is from Rotostatic and I would highly recommend it! It's taken strawberry vomit from a co-workers kid, and black tar from a nearby parking lot out of our carpets, and now a few of our installers carry a bottle with them on job sites just in case. Whatever you use, just be sure to test it in an inconspicuous spot first to see how it will affect your floors!

Knocked over a full pot of hot coffee ... at my mom's house on her almond colored .... off white carpet...by catching it in the phone cord.. ... yes a real phone cord... long ago. used anything and everything i could find under the kitchen sink, rags, towels , carpet cleaners, most of it came up, but still the big spot was faintly there..... until carpet was shampooed

Bleach with no fix. Just large rug on rental carpet. Thankfully I have lived there 10 years with no new carpet. So I should not have to pay for it whenever I move.

My roommate, on the other hand, actually spilled a can of white paint on the carpet and was able remove all of it with dish detergent and elbow grease. To this day my hat goes off to her. I watched her get every bit of it out. She scraped the excess paint with a piece of cardboard onto a dust pan and the rest of it she used dish detergent and elbow grease. She kept scraping out the soap and paint until it was gone.

I knocked a full Melitta coffee filter off the counter, and it landed right on my cat. She went ballistic and spread wet coffee grounds all over the house before I was able to catch her and rinse her off. One of my less fun cleanups …

I spilled a full bottle of water all over my friends new carpet & rug I dropped the bottle &. Water went on the roof ! She was not best pleased ! I feel so bad about as I didn’t react quick enough to clean it

Buzz kill