Decorating Tips: How to Hide Ugly Carpet

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Decorating Tips: How to Hide Ugly Carpet

Staff Writer · Mar 3, 2010

There’s not much you can do about replacing an ugly carpet if your landlord won’t do it. You could spend  a lot of money replacing it yourself, but that doesn’t make much sense because you don’t own the place. The only choice then is to hide the ugly carpet, and there are tricks you can use to disguise it. Here’s how:

Area Rugs

This is the tried and true method of hiding ugly carpet, and it seems as if this decorating tip as been passed on from generation to generation. Use area rugs to cover spots on the carpet or to attract the eyes to something other than the carpet underneath it. Buy area rugs that compliment the carpet and the furniture. Don’t make the mistake of buying an area rug that is so drastic in color or theme to your decor that something looks wrong with the room, even more than the ugly carpet. You can find used ones in good condition at yard sales or your local dollar store. Don’t buy expensive area rugs, because you don’t know what carpets you’ll get in your next apartment or house. Think of it as a temporary solution.

Living Room Furniture

Use every piece of furniture you have, such as couches, chairs, bookshelves, an entertainment center and a playpen to cover up the ugly carpet. Place furniture on top of stains and spots that you want to hide. Follow general principles of arranging furniture so that your living room doesn’t look weird in your efforts to disguise the carpet. However, if you do it right, you could make your fireplace, windows or bookshelves the focal point of your living room and not the ugly carpet.

Bedroom Furniture

Hiding ugly carpet in your bedroom is easier in an apartment, because there’s often not much of an area to hide. Your bed will help to hide it, but you can also use a computer desk, storage tubs, bookshelves and other furniture to hide the carpet. Follow the same tips for the living room in the bedroom, as well.

Plants

Use your indoor garden to hide ugly carpet. Consider placing some of your plant containers on the floor under window sills or near the windows. This will draw the eyes to the plants instead of to the carpet. The containers will also cover the carpet, and if you choose interesting containers, people will forget about the carpet. They’ll focus on your choice of planters. The plants themselves can also be fun to look out, especially if you grow exotic flowers and plants.

Dim the Lights

Don’t have the brightest lights on in the room with the ugly carpet. If you can’t see it well, it won’t look as bad. This may not be a practical tip if you need to work in the room with the carpet, but if you’re entertaining, get creative and use the dim lights to set a theme for the night.

Don’t trash an already ugly carpet. It would be awful to lose some of your security deposit to pay for damaging it. After you’ve rented for a while and have proven yourself to be good tenant, your landlord may be more willing to make the investment to replace it.

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