<p>In the course of having the exterior of our home repainted, we’ve had a small disaster. </p>
<p>The painters (who are fantastic btw), spent several days cleaning the doors, trim, window frames with a bleach solution and caulking/sanding etc prior to painting. I have a rarely-used glass door which exits from our master bedroom to the lanai that they cleaned as well. On day 2 of prep work, I opened this door to let the lunatic, yapping Chihuahua, who was being held hostage in the master as a courtesy to these very nice painter guys, out for a bathroom break. When I did this, apparently some bleach solution that was still in the weather stripping of the door dripped across the carpet… and now I have a lovely arc of bleach stains.</p>
<p>The carpet is a khaki-colored berber that is in very good shape…not nearly ready for replacement yet. So I wonder if there is a way to restore the color. Anyone with similar experiences out there? This carpet is no longer made and I have no extra scraps.</p>
<p>Google ‘carpet-dyeing’ or ‘carpet-dying’ (which sounds like a medical condition but is really just poor spelling). It is possible to have someone come and fix this, or even to learn to do it yourself…which probably isn’t worth it for such a small area. I would guess that having someone come sooner rather than later is a good idea.</p>
<p>If the carpet extends into one of the bedroom closets, you can have a good carpet installer remove a piece from there, cut and patch it in. A good patch is uundetectable unless there is a difference in color in the area by the sliders due to sun fading.</p>
<p>Depending on the size, you’ll now have a missing piece in the closet, which you can live with till the next carpet change (if taken from a corner), or have the full carpet removed from the closet, leaving bare flooring. Fine if you’ve got carpet over hardwood, far less desireable if carpet is just over a plywood subfloor.</p>
<p>Another trick, size permitting, is to steal a piece under an existing large piece of furniture, (dresser, armoire, etc.) which will stay in the same footprint. As long as the furniture covers the bare area, it’s unseen.</p>
<p>I’ve no experience with carpet dyeing; I’d imagine color match difficult depending on the type of weave but a true artisan can do wonders.</p>
<p>We had our carpet dyed when we first moved into our house - the carpet was only 4 years old, but hard used. The dyeing looked perfectly acceptable, and didn’t alter the feel of the carpet or the appearance of the fibers any more than just steam cleaning would - in other words the carpet was damp and looked a little matted for a few days, then was just fine.
My concern would be color matching, we had all the carpet done at once to hide pet stains.</p>
<p>If the bleach spots are clustered just near the door, you could cut out a rectangle of carpet the width of the opening and install a tile or slate ‘landing’ in the space (say 36 X 30 inches, for example). This could look like a custom upgrade and has the benefit of keeping the rest of your carpet clean(er) as pets and folks pass through the door. If you don’t like the idea of tile you could install a piece of complimentary, but darker, carpet there, and again, it could look like a custom upgrade. We used the tile idea at the back sliding door when we moved into our slightly used home and I kick myself for not having the installer do same at the garage door at the same time.</p>