Carpet may be the last thing on your mind when you’re setting up a new office. But it’s really a foundational aspect of workplace design and office space planning. Floor Daily has an excellent trend prediction piece online for 2012. It provides an overview of what business owners and office designers are looking for right now including:

• Low prices for good quality flooring
• Slip and trip resistance
• Easy maintenance
• Neutral colors with great texture
• Sustainable materials to boost LEED points

Stripes and geometric patterns are definitely in right now while bold colors are used for highlighting various areas. In fact, employers are increasingly using contrasting flooring to demarcate different types of workspace. That’s partly in response to the open office trend where work environments tend to run together without as many vertically dividing elements. Read the whole thing to see what other business owners are thinking about when they look down.