Selecting carpet can be a daunting task, especially when you consider all of the factors: cost, durability, style, and longevity. Will this carpet hold up to a busy family with lots of spills, and pet messes? I know those were the same questions I asked myself as we went through the selection process for our carpet. So, let’s dive into how to choose a pet safe carpet, when you have kids and pets!

This post is sponsored by STAINMASTER®, but as always, all opinions are my own.

What rooms will the carpet be in?

I don’t know about you, but for me there is something cozy, warm, and comforting when you have carpet in bedroom spaces. Being able to get out of bed and have your feet firmly planted on something soft and supportive gives me all the feels. I knew I wanted to keep carpet throughout each of the bedrooms, but also wanted to use carpet as our primary flooring throughout our basement living room/media room. This room is a central hub where our kids will run, wrestle, and where we will enjoy time together as a family.

Carpet on Stairs

Carpet on stairs seems to be a heated debate. The look of hardwood on each step is beautiful, but also the practicality of cleaning said stair treads daily as they collect dust isn’t for me. Plus as a mom to little ones, hardwood stairs seems like an emergency room visit in the making! One way to make your stairs still a statement instead of blending into your carpet is to select a different color and different pattern carpet for the stairs. BAM! Talk about a statement!

What Are the Carpet Options and How Do I Narrow Down?

If you are a pet owner or have little kids there’s a high probability that there will be lots of spills and accidents. Stainmaster® offers a wide variety of carpets, and when I say wide I mean it! We quickly narrowed down to the STAINMASTER® PetProtect® because the carpet fibers themselves, are made with the STAINMASTER® technology. It isn’t a top coat sprayed on the carpet that wears down overtime, but the actual carpet fibers themselves are backed with a lifetime pet stain warranty*!

Constant dog hair shedding also isn’t a problem either with the STAINMASTER® carpet because it easily releases the pet hair from the carpet with regular vacuuming. And when paired with the STAINMASTER® carpet cushion, it reduces pet odors. A winning combination in my eyes!

Selecting THE Carpet

Now that we have narrowed down the STAINMASTER® PetProtect® carpet, there are still dozens and dozens of carpet styles and colors to choose from so here’s how we narrowed things down.

Budget: Price can definitely dictate what carpet you can and cannot purchase. Carpet is an investment, and semi-permanent, so invest in quality if your budget allows.

Style: Do you prefer a thick shag, low pile texture? a thick plush? a pattern? or maybe a looped? Texture and pattern styles tend to be the most forgiving when it comes to wear. Plush and Shag are usually the softest of the carpets, but often times the high pile makes them a little trickier to pick up all those Lego pieces. All of these styles tend to show vacuum lines vs. a loop or berber which only shows minimum vacuum lines.

Tips to Select Carpet

Color: It’s important to bring samples home, see them in your own lighting with your surrounding furniture and wall colors. Carpet also transforms when it’s in large scale. Most carpet tends to look lighter when it’s covering an entire room vs. on just the sample. Be sure to match the tone of the carpet to the tone of your paint.

To help you select the BEST carpet for you, try out STAINMASTER® Carpet Selector Quiz. It’s a short, 6 question quiz that can help steer you in the right direction.

So here are the top choices we are debating between:
1. Scout – Patterned Carpet for our stairs

2. Bungalow – low pile/loop possibility for the family room and bedrooms 

3. Urban Escape – soft, patterned loop possibility for family room and bedrooms 

4. Deja Vu – probably the softest, low pile with a substantial pattern 

We ended up selecting STAINMASTER® PetProtect® Scout for our stairs. We LOVED the pattern, the loop texture, and the contrast within the pattern itself.

We also selected STAINMASTER® PetProtect® Urban Escape for our basement media room + all of our bedrooms as an elevated soft loop pattern.

I will be sure to keep you updated on how the carpet holds up to our busy, messy family but my hopes are high! Be sure to tune into Instagram @honeybuilthome for more behind the scenes DIY Projects, before and afters, and more!!

*Please review your retailer’s limited lifetime warranty for more details.