With a new baby in the house and a need to have our home thoroughly clean, we started from the ground up. We've got hardwood floors and use carpets throughout our home. We've rented the Rug-Doctor cleaners which worked okay but the results were never that great and the effort involved was time consuming. With the baby, time is our most valuable commodity.
We were seeking a carpet cleaning option that required little effort but maximum results and we found it with Chem-Dry carpet cleaning from Home Depot.
We scheduled a pickup of our three rugs and we didn't have to do anything as they rolled them up and took them in their truck. Five weeks later we got the rugs back and they were completely dry and as clean as they have ever been.
Instead of steam cleaning which uses a lot of water and takes days to fully dry, Chem-Dry uses a hot carbonating extraction process which lifts the dirt to the surface where it is then removed. This avoids issues such as mold or mildew that wet carpets can get after cleaning.
The only drawback was it took a few weeks to get our carpets back but we're so glad we turned to the pros for this job.
Chem-Dry is a full service cleaner and will clean all types of carpets but we were happy to know they also did rugs. Call or visit your local Home Depot for more details about Chem-Dry.
Disclosure: The Home Depot works with bloggers such as myself to conduct product reviews. They do not tell bloggers what to say about their products or how to say it. THD fundamentally believes that people should be free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. The Home Depot often provides product - free of charge - to bloggers for review as they did for this post. The Home Depot's policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.
File this one under "simply amazing."
Artist Jonathan Brechignac has undertaken an incredibly ambitious project. He's spent more than a year creating carpet for his home using a Biro pencil.
That's right -- a pencil!
I learned about the project thanks to a post on Bit Rebels by Richard Darell, who writes, "With just a few (quite a few) Biro pencils he's managed to create one of the most intricate patterns I have ever seen to date. The insane carpet, yes they say it is sort of a prayer carpet, has details that you can't even dream about."
2011 is slowly winding down (eeeekkk!!), so that means we'll start to see more trend forecasts emerge for 2012.
If you're considering a flooring purchase within the next several months, we've got a sneak peek at next year's flooring trends thanks to Shelley Pond's post on the official SURFACES/StonExpo Blog. A full look at 2012 trends will be available at the SURFACES Trends Hub, a new concept that debuted at the 2011 show (pictured below.)
Love color? Get ready to see some vivid flooring choices inspired by color palettes of Eco Carnival (rhythmic patterns, bright botanicals and tribal geometrics), Colour Capital (angular shapes, bolts of color, clashing patterns) and The Abyss (illumination, shadowy lighting, wave patterns and surface textures inspired by sea creatures).
Prefer a cleaner, more streamlined aesthetic? Shelley highlights Majestic Minimalism as "the perfect marriage of tradition and modernity" inspired by the Baroque and Rococo periods. Muted hues like plaster of Paris come alive with accents of royal red, Princess blue and tuxedo black.
In July, I received the chance of a lifetime and joined fellow DIY/shelter bloggers for a design challenge sponsored by Shaw Floors.
Our task was simple: Build a room from the floor up. And because we were hosted by Shaw Floors, our room's floors were the key component. After being split into teams of two, we picked our flooring from Shaw's new HGTV flooring line.
My design partner, the fabulous Julia of CasaSugar, and I immediately bonded over our love of the color gray, which made our flooring choice easy. We went a little wild with our paint color and furnishings to balance the contemporary neutral, and the finished result is a sleek, posh studio that we think is as inviting as it is inspiring.
The most exciting part of the experience? Our rooms are a part of Shaw's 30 Days of HGTV campaign, which kicks off today! Go to the Shaw Floors Facebook page to vote for your favorite (*cough* - it's no contest, right?). Every day you vote, you're entered to win your own Shaw flooring from the HGTV line.
