Beautiful colors, picture was true to life. Sheds, but no more than your usual machine made area rug. People made mention of a strong smell, but I didn't notice anything. The only complaint is that there are small spots (so far I've only found two) with some hard, white "plugs" that I assume are adhesive, that come up through the tufts, so if you're walking on it in your barefeet you think maybe you stepped on something.