It's beautiful. Very durable for high traffic areas. I vacuum it daily, and it does shed. When I shampoo it I use an upholstry attatchment on my shop vac, and I use a 1 gallon pesticide sprayer for detergent and rinse. It is time consuming but it gets it looking brand new. I have 3 large dogs so I clean it about once a month. If you don't have 3 large dogs you won't need to clean it nearly that often.