Choice of rugs

oriental area rugs

Patterned floorcoverings disguise wear and soil far better than plain ones. If you dislike definite design on the floor, or if your room is already full of pattern and you still must be practical, compromise with what is generally called self-tone fabrics. In these, several closely related shades of one color form an indefi­nite and unobtrusive design or feeling of texture.

If your problem is constant traffic, rather than cookie crumbs and muddy rubbers, looped-pile and hard-twisted (frieze) weaves are amazingly sturdy.

But beware of that fatal combina­tion—looped-pile and cats. Claw sharpening is disastrous to even the most firmly anchored loops.