The colours are quite true to the photos and it was purchased as a runner since our new adoptee is a blind dog and she needs textural guidance around the house.  The colours are bright and cheerful but the rug absolutely requires an underlay as it is incredibly slippery on hardwood floors.  As the dimensions of the rug are a bit odd, the narrowest underlay we bought for its dimensions was still too long.  It will do for now and is definitely much more appealing to us than the usual run-of-the-mill beige/taupe/brown blahness found in most DIY stores and local carpet stores.