It’s a beautiful rug and I want to keep it however, I was disappointed that the background color was a darker gray than pictured. While the colors are vibrant and beautiful, they don’t contrast as brightly as shown in the photos. I read all of the reviews prior to purchasing this rug, so I wasn’t surprised about the shedding and odor, all of which are not deal breakers when you consider that this is a 450.00 wool rug, not a 2000.00 rug and wool is going to have an odor for a little while. I throughly vacuumed this rug no less than six times and had to empty the canister after each time. Then I sprinkled a heavy application baking soda over the entire rug and let it rest for 36 hours. I throughly vacuumed it again removing all of the baking soda. The odor was almost completely gone. I’ve had the rug on the floor for a week now, it’s beautiful, I love it, and the investment is such that I won’t feel any pain in a few years if I get tired of it or want to redecorate. C. Scott