We are also readying our house for sale and put new carpet in the bedrooms and living room. We chose a nice quality "berber like" patterned carpet. It's cut, not looped, and had a slightly higher rating than the berber selections we were considering at Home Depot.

DH wanted to use a darker color in the living room, but for purposes of continuity we decided to use the same color throughout. The sand color looked good with all of the different wall colors.

Unfortunately, it's light so I'll be stressed trying to keep it clean until we sell!

Tnfarmhouse,

Very nice! That's about the color I was thinking for upstairs. Do you have a brand name and style you could share?

Also, what is that paint color? Love it!

Thanks! The wall color in your last pic is similar to my upstairs.

Annette, you may want to look at the Frieze. It's soft underfoot, pretty and easy to clean. There is a large price range and a million varieties of color. I know you're preparing for sale, but we installed ours upstairs 11 years ago and it still looks new.

Our carpet is a very very light sand, it is probably a good 15 yrs old by now. I haven't found it to stain, but then again I have no kids living at home to spill things. I spot clean as needed. I think a light, neutral beige or even light gray would be best for resale, IMO. . I agree, go with a standard cut pile.

Thanks all for you he help. I like what tn has done and may do that upstairs. For the master and sitting room maybe a frieze in a complementary color tone. My friend mentioned one she saw at an open house that had both a sand and grey in it.

Annette, we had to replace some carpet a few years ago and the choices were dizzying. Would it be an option for you to just offer a flooring allowance with the sale of your home so the new owners could decide what they wanted?

Lisa, the current carpet is so bad that I'm afraid it will affect buyers looking at the house. Also the agent said most buyers don't go for allowances anymore. It has something to do with how loans are done since the crash.

My draw to the Frieze was that it is so soft underfoot and it doesn't show dirt or stains. At least the color we have doesn't which is cream, browns, golds with a touch of black, all speckled. I think it also tends to warm a room up visiually.

Lukkiirish, do you have a pic or link to the frieze you went with? It sounds like what I'm looking for, I'm trying to tie in the sand color from the neighboring hallway with the grey and cream color palette I'm trying to use in the bedroom.

I would worry more about the cost than what is in style for carpet. For most buyers carpet isn't a selling point, like hardwoods are. Many buyers will plan to replace carpet with wood flooring sooner rather than later anyway. So put in something inexpensive and neutral. If you're buyer wants carpet, they're in luck. If they don't want carpet then at least then can live with a clean neutral floor until the time they choose to replace it.

Annette, It's been 10 years now so I don't recall the brand but even Home Depot has a low pile Frieze in similar colors. Here is the close up, the darker color is a black or dark dark chocolate and as you can see, it has a nice blend of creams, lighter browns and caramel. It comes in a variety of price ranges.

This is what it looks like from across the room, this pic is from 2010.

Aimeekm - I agree. Clean, neutral, and affordable is what I was looking for, although I think we ended up with a good quality carpet.

I can't stand carpet because of the maintenance and would want to replace as soon as I could if buying a home, but it would be nice to know that at least it's new and clean.

I think carpet has it's place amongst some buyers. I used to be a Realtor and lots of buyers don't have the budget or want to spend the $$ on wood floors. I also think in colder weather, it helps to keep feet and rooms warmer. We have it throughout our upper level and to be honest, I don't understand why people think it requires more maintenance. I vacuum upstairs as much as I have to vacuum the wood floors on the main floor.. I also have to wash the floors on the main floor but I don't wash my carpet.. In our situation, the wood floors require more care than the carpet does.

We put in a frieze last month, similar to the one lukkiirish posted. My vacuum doesn't like it at all. I'll be glad to move and let the new owners figure out how to vacuum it.

We have a Karastan frieze installed 12 years ago atop a solid rubber pad. I call the color "beautiful sand." Love it!

I think to some extent, carpet style preferences are regional. You are replacing the carpeting to help you sell the house so I would look at pictures of the sold listings in your area. Look in your price range and see what others have in their homes.

That's weird Missouribound, what kind of vacuum do you have?. Is the suction super strong or too weak maybe?

I do have to say, if I were looking to buy a home -- real light wall to wall carpet would be a total turn off. One stain, and the stuff is done for.