advice on carpet for hallway,stairs&landing

we have a dark hallway that gets no light whatsoever. at the moment there is wine carpet down and i don't think it is doing the place any favours. so i'm looking for advice on what colour and what type of carpet is best for a hallway, stairs and landing. we put natural colour carpet down in our own room and it was the sorriest thing we ever did. every stain or mark shows up on it so that's the only colour i won't go for.

all opinions welcome and colours for walls would be great too!!

thanks

You need mud coloured carpet

Or go for wood in the hallway and mud coloured carpet on the stairs.

I think if you go for any light colour it will show up the dirt. How about terracota? Its not dark and its not too light. Dark colours make space a lot smaller, so lighter colour will just open it up for you.

I personally am a fan of light coloured walls (buttermilk, light peach etc) and a green carpet for the stairs or else terracota. Its just a matter of personal taste really. Hope that helps.

have you painted the walls in a light colour? Used mirrors to bounce light? Halls take a lot of traffic so light-coloured carpet probably isn't on. Light-coloured vinyl or tiles, now, that should work...

many thanks for your replies. personally i think tiles would be great but my other half thinks not. i'll have to start some subtle persuasion me thinks!

We put a straw coloured carpet in our hall, stairs and landing about 7 years ago. It is 100% wool (which cuts down on static ... and doesn't attract the dirt so much) and is self patterned. I can honestly say it looks as good today as when it was new and it gets lots of traffic (2 kids) and not too much hoovering. I would point out that going for pure wool was expensive and I do get it professionally cleaned every year or so but for sound deadening and comfort you can't beat a carpet.