The six colorways, and how to choose between them

Color is the one decision a screen can't make for you. A warm neutral shifts with the light, from a cool morning by the window to the lamps at night, and the same cloth can look like two different colors in two different rooms. So before anything else, we'll send you the real fabric, free, and the best place to choose is on your own floor.

Here is how we think about each one.

One cloth, six colors

Every cover is the same performance linen weave, heavy and tightly woven, with the dry, textured feel of linen and a finish that lets a spill sit on the surface long enough to blot. Only the color changes, so whichever one you choose, the bed wears the same way.

oat · a pale, warm cream, and the quietest of the six. It settles into rooms of plaster, limewash and pale oak, and it's lovely in a bright space where the bed should almost disappear into the floor. It shows a dark coat more than any other color, so it suits light-coated dogs best.

flint · a charcoal heather, cool and deep, with a texture you can see. It's the most architectural of the six and the one that looks least like a pet bed from across the room. It sits well on light wood, concrete and stone. Moli, the dalmatian in our photographs, sleeps on it.

chai · a warm mid tan, and the easiest of the six to live with. It sits beside oak, linen, rattan and leather, and it's the one we'd suggest if you told us nothing about your room. Cody, the shepherd in our photographs, sleeps on it.

dune · a warm greige, between oat and chai. A neutral with a little warmth in it, good in rooms that already have a lot of white, and gentle with tan and golden coats.

moss · a muted, dusty green, closer to dried herbs than to leaves. It brings a little of the outdoors in and comes into its own in the cooler months, in a room with plenty of wood or plants. It's the bed you see Mimi, the vizsla in our photographs, stretched out on at the top of our home page.

mocha · a soft, deep brown, warmer than flint and heavier than chai. It belongs in rooms layered with walnut, leather and low evening light, where it settles in like a piece of upholstery. It's also the best of the six at hiding a dark or brindle coat.

Choosing for your dog

Dogs leave hair, and hair shows most against its opposite: a black coat on oat, a cream one on flint. If you'd like the bed to look tidy between brushings, choose a color a shade lighter or darker than your dog. Oat and dune sit easily with cream and light coats. Chai and dune suit tan, golden and red ones. Flint, mocha and moss take gray, black, brindle and darker coats without showing every hair.

A contrast can be beautiful too, like a red coat on moss. It just means brushing a little more often.

Choosing for your room

The bed sits low, so you see it against the floor more than against the walls. On pale oak, flint, mocha and moss give it presence. On dark wood or a dark rug, oat and dune lift it. On a patterned rug, pick the quietest color in the pattern.

Then let the light decide

Order the samples and put them where the bed will go. Look at them in the afternoon, and again in the evening with the lamps on.

The rest of the room

The pillow covers are cut from the same cloth in the same six colors, in 20 × 20, 24 × 24 and 16 × 26 inches, so the color can carry from the floor to the sofa. And because the cover is sold on its own in every color and size, the color you choose now doesn't have to be the color you keep. A new cover changes the bed with the seasons or with a new room, and the core stays.

Like any upholstery fabric, it will soften in strong direct sun over time, so keep the bed out of a south-facing window if you want the color to stay exactly as it arrived.

• Order free fabric samples.
• The pillow cover · The cover.