In buying a carpet, as in everything else, those of the best quality are cheapest in the end. As it is extremely desirable that they should look as clean as possible, avoid buying carpet that has any white in it. Even a very small portion of white interspersed through the pattern will in a short time give a dirty appearance to the whole; and certainly no carpet can be worse for use than one with a white ground.

673. A carpet in which all the colours are light, never has a clean, bright effect, from the want of dark tints to contrast and set off the light ones.

674. For a similar reason, carpets whose colours are all of what artists call middle tint (neither dark nor light), cannot fail to look dull and dingy, even when quite new.

675. The caprices of fashion at times bring these ill-coloured carpets into vogue; but in apartments where elegance is desirable, they always have a bad effect.

676. Foil a carpet to be really beautiful and in good taste, there should be, as in a picture, a judicious disposal of light and shadow, with a gradation of very bright and of very dark tints; some almost white, and others almost or quite black.

677. The most truly chaste, rich, and elegant carpets are those where the pattern is formed by one colour only, but arranged in every variety of shade. For instance, we have seen a Brussels carpet entirely red; the pattern formed by shades or tints, varying from the deepest crimson (almost a black), to the palest pink (almost a white). Also one of green only, shaded from the darkest bottle-green, in some parts of the figure, to the lightest pea-green in others. Another, in which there was no colour but brown, in all its various gradations, some of the shades being nearly black, others of a light buff. All those carpets had much the look of rich cut velvet.

The Curtains, Sofas, etc, of course, were of corresponding colours, and the effect of the whole was noble and elegant.

679. Carpets of many gaudy colours are much less in demand than formerly. Two colours only, with the dark and light shade of each, will make a very handsome carpet.

689. A very light blue ground, with the figure of shaded crimson or purple, looks extremely well; so does a salmon-colour or buff ground, with a deep green figure; or a light yellow ground, with a shaded blue figure.

681. If you cannot obtain a Hearth-rug that exactly corresponds with the carpet, get one entirely different; for a decided contrast looks better than a bad match.

682. We have seen very handsome hearthrugs with a rich, black, velvet-looking ground, and the figure of shaded blue, or of various tints of yellow and orange.

683. No Carpet decidedly light-coloured throughout, has a good effect on the floor, or continues long to look clean.