UPDATE: 1 star for the rug; 5 stars for Wayfair's customer service. The rug never flattened out. The edges were flat to the floor, but the rug still had bubbles in it. Wayfair was excellent about accepting the defective return and processed my refund without argument.

The description said a pad is not needed, but I disagree. The backing is not coated and this is very slippery on wood floors. If I keep it, I will definitely have to invest in a pad. It arrived rolled, but it has a lot of puckering around the edges and doesn't lay flat. One of the corners is rolled up on the end which makes it a tripping hazard. I'm going to give it a couple more days to flatten out and will be returning if it is still an issue. The color is very different from opposite sides due to the way the fibers lay. From one end it looks like a pretty silver grey as shown in the item picture, but from the other end it appears very dark grey.