We bought an area rug made by Safavieh and it has a STRONG chemical smell to it, very much like floor paste wax. I discovered that the chemical toulene, used in some paste waxes, is also used in the latex that backs some rugs. We tried baking soda, no result. We ordered a product that's supposed to remove such odors, nothing happened. We had to get rid of the rug, couldn't return it because we had "treated" it! Please note that other rugs that we have from Safavieh do NOT have this problem. Some houseplants DO remove odors from the air by the way, but they don't neutralize them at the source. A bad rug will continue to off gas, even if houseplants keep the smell down. Toulene (banned in Cal.) has lots of lousy side effects when inhaled. A real shame that the latex backing used on affordable rugs can't be made without horrible smelling chemicals by now, in the 21st century.

Love the oatmeal “sample”. Before you decide, and I strongly advise you to have the store get you larger samples of the both. Wool is expensive and will last you a lifetime….don’t judge by those little pieces. I did find larger photos on-line from Home Depot and on my monitor, B.M. Taupe looks like tit would work on the walls, The rug itself, is made by Mohawk. Which leads me to the best ever rug pad…Mohawk SmartStep. My entire lower level and my master bedroom is wool carpet. I was advised by the store manager to invest in the SmartStep. It is far and away better than any pad I have ever used. The top is waterproof. As I was educated, it isn’t what lands on the rug which makes the stain. It is what seeps into the pad which does the damage. He even has his installers duct tape any seams.

Just keep in mind that the installation will have to be done very carefully because of the turn in the stairs. I would also recommend doing a waterfall installation instead of a tight installation.

I love the carpet, just not the wall color with it. If you look at it against the fireplace it looks lovely.