Love this rug!  It looks as nice as it did in the photos.  Truly.  We did unpackage it and let it air out/offgas for a few days while rolled up.  Smell was fine when we unrolled it for supersensitive me.  One side was a little "curly" so we put some heavy stuff on that part of the rug so it would lay perfectly flat.  Easy peasy. No pad needed for where we are using it and it feels good underfoot.