Dying carpet?

[atolhurst]

The carpet in a room I want to paint green, is deep blue. This simply will not work and needs to be 'cream' or 'natural'. Does anyone know whether it's possible to dye carpets at all? Or do I have to face facts and re-lay it?

[buildersmate]

It certainly isn't going to be possible to change a deep blue carpet to cream - which implies removing blue dye from the existing, not adding it.

[CT]

Do you have the paint already? If not maybe you could find a different shade that compliments the carpet more.

[WendyS]

The general rule of dyeing is that you can move from light to darker shades but not the reverse. You certainly wouldn't be able to strip the colour out of anything the size of a carpet I'm afraid. Guess it's "hands in pocket" time and facing up to buying a different carpet unless you're prepared to change the colour of the wall to tone with the existing blue colour.

There is a saying "Blue & Green should never be seen" but actually I've seen these two colours used together quite effectively when the colours are clear colours. If they're "muddy" then it might not work, but why not look at a few House & Garden magazines first just to see if you can see any examples which might work and save you the cost of a new carpet.

[joko]

the phrase is red and green should never be seen...

[B00]

Nopw, wendy is right, it's bue and green. Though personally I think they go well together.

[Debbie60]

You can change the colour of carpets in your home. It is a technical job and needs to be undertaken by trained individuals. There is a company based in Oxford called The Carpet Dyeing Company that dyes carpets. The other respodents are right. You can't dye a dark colour light but you can change colour 'familes' and you can make quite subtle colour changes to carpets. On very light/white carpets it is possble to dye to jus about any colour. Carpet dyes are not like paints in that theyare translucent so the colour of the original carpet interacts with the dye to provide the new colour The carpets that are best for dyeing are wool, nylon or wool nylon blends. Polypropelyene can't be dyed.

[Stu27]

You CAN do it yourself. I have just done mine. It was my first attempt and it was easy enough, although quite time consuming. It took about 13 litres of dye and about as many hours of my time for about 250 sq ft. You can of course only go darker, but I'm well pleased with the result.