Carpet should coordinate with the permanant elements of the home, such as the wood floors, and any stained woodwork. Anything else in the home can change, such as paint colors and furniture.

Take a blank white sheet of paper and cut a small hole in the middle. Place that over your samples. That will help you to isolate the color undertones. Do the same thing with your wood floors and any other permanent elements in the home. You should match your color undertones unless you are planning on changing out the wood. For instance, oak is often orange, which is a mix of red and yellow undertones. Carpet that coordinates with it will have a bit of the red or yellow undertones. No cool tones like greens or blues. A lot of "taupe" carpet IS actually "pink beige", but that does work well with a lot of the red toned woods.

hollysprings: thank you so much for posting! It's that color theory that has me soooo frustrated. Your explanation helped me feel a lot better that I'm not crazy for seeeeeeing that pinkish undertone in the sample I was looking at here at home! I was starting to think it was all in my mind!!

Our woodwork is an orangy oak & I really don't want a "taupe" that's "pink beige". Would you say bringing a sample outside in sunshine gives you the truer color of the carpet or inside the house with daylight coming in the windows? (does the color of the woodwork affect (or reflect) the tone of the carpet if inside?)

Again, Thank you So much!