We purchased two of these rugs as runners for our hallway. I absolutely love them. The colors are vibrant and yet not overly so.  The rug is soft and has a lot of cushion to it. We purchased the thicker rug pads to go underneath and I don't think it needs to be paired with the thicker pad. You can see in my attached photo that the rug pad is not quite as thick as the rug, but is noticeably thick underneath and raises the rug more than I'd like.  The rug took some time to lay down at the corners, but that's to be expected as it came rolled. Overall I think this is a quality piece and we've received many compliments on them.