When we moved into this house, we had no idea what actually lurked beneath the stinky, old carpet at the far end of the living room…
We assumed there was hardwood flooring, because we saw some underneath the carpet in other parts of the room, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case…
We sanded and refinished the wood floor part of the room earlier this year…
…and after four years of trying to figure out what to do about the concrete, we finally decided to just cover it up with some super-soft/sisal-look FLOR carpet tiles!
(Note: We still have to install shoe molding at the bottom of our baseboards.)
It took a few tries to settle on a pattern/color, (True story: I changed my mind on the pattern three times before I finally settled on the “Suit Yourself” tiles in the photo above- ha!) but the folks at FLOR were an absolute delight to work with and they made the whole process so easy. Even their packaging labels are cheerful…
Love that! I’m a big fan of simple/sunny graphics!
And I love the way it *looks* like our wood floor goes all way to the end of the room now, too. (Shhh! Don’t tell!) We laid our tiles in alternating directions to create a slightly more contemporary look…
You can use FLOR carpet tiles wall-to-wall, or create area rugs like we did. It was super simple to put them together using the clear stickers (a.k.a “FLOR dots”) they came with.
First, you lay all your carpet tiles down on the floor, in the arrangement you want them to be in.
Then, wherever four carpet tiles come together, lift the corner edge of one carpet tile up and stick a FLOR dot to it (sticky side up), using the lines printed on the sticker as your guide. (photo 2)
Next, pull up the three carpet tiles around the carpet tile you stuck the FLOR dot to, and let that first carpet tile fall to the floor (photo 3). Then, press down the other three carpet tiles (photo 4) and repeat those steps until all of your carpet tiles are stuck together!
They hold together really well, but you can still pull them up and wash them in a sink if they get dirty. (True story #2: We didn’t even use FLOR dots on the area rug we initially created in our dining room, and that sucker stayed together just fine without ’em! True story #3: We’re thinking FLOR carpet tiles are the way to go in our dining room because we’ve had to throw away three dining room rugs because a certain four-legged family member had one too many “accidents” on them over the years. If an accident occurs on one of our FLOR carpet tiles, I can just pick it up, wash it out, and stick it back down. And if I can’t get it clean, I only have to replace that one tile– not the whole rug. Yesss!)
They’re so soft and easy to work with that we’ve decided to use them in our hallway and reading room, too. We were thinking about having more hardwood flooring installed in those areas, but using carpet tiles will be a lot less expensive and look just as nice.
Now if I could just figure out what to do about this dude and his over-active bladder.
Grrr.
PS- Stay tuned for an exciting FLOR Carpet Tile Giveaway a little later this week!
___________________________________________________________
Need design inspiration? Need help arranging your furniture?
Check out my e-books!
LOVE our FLOR flooring! We actually used it to cover our entire 2nd floor (Cape Cod – small bedrooms and tiny hallway) b/c of our critters and worries about tummy troubles on that front. We are definitely going to make an area rug for the living room, just have to figure out what kind of pattern we want to do. I will keep an eye out for the give away! Yours looks great!
Looks great. We have considered those for the flooring in our basement. I wonder how well do carpet floor tiles hold up to heaving foot traffic.
I’m most intrigued by the Flor tiles. We ripped up our carpet because of our 4-legged babies. We painted the concrete, which looked great for a few years. Now, not so much. I’ve been torn about what to do. We could repaint, but I really didn’t want to do that again. Carpet’s not a good idea since we still have a 4-legged baby who occasionally leaves her mark (and always on rugs or carpeted areas of the house, never on the concrete or tiled rooms!). Hardwood or laminate flooring are both options, but I’m tired of a cold house, and carpet adds to the warmth. Again, I really like this carpet tile idea.
I really like the way this looks in your room! My mind is spinning now with some ideas for my own home. I have seen FLOR tiles used a lot, but this is by far my favorite look!
how easy!! and i love that the clear labels are there to help…it looks really nice.
I love Flor! Yours look great (: The room is beautiful. The rep of Flor came to our design class last year and talked to us about the products they use. That sticker is made to imitate the pads of gecko feet, which are very sticky! I love how their stuff is all sustainable!
Wow Layla this looks fantastic and this product could be a solution to many decorating dilemmas we all have at times.
bee blessed
mary
LOVE Flor tiles- they are amazing! So happy they worked out for you guys. It looks great! Looking forward to the giveaway!
That looks great! I never thought about using those tiles but I think it might be a great solution for our workout room! I’m off to the website!
This looks amazing! I always wondered about the quality of these sort of carpet tiles. I’m glad to hear they work so well!
As for your dog, you might check out something like this? http://www.amazon.com/PetZoom-Park-Indoor-Potty-25-5/dp/B002ZHRTAK
It looks great and I love that it makes a home for the piano, which seems like it should have a soft spot!
A question: did you use underlay or do they not require it? I’m needing to re-carpet a room in my place which will be a library/music room. I’m in Australia and they always put underlay under carpet here, but the decent stuff can be almost as much as the carpet! Now I’ll have to find out whether we can get Flor here!
It look so beautifull, i love the wooden wall
What a great solution! The tiles you chose are beautiful! I really like the color and design! 🙂
I love this idea! I had forgotten about the Flor tile, too. Thanks for the reminder. This may just be the perfect solution for our entryway rug.
Yours look great.
Wow, that looks so nice! I love this whole concept, especially since we have a dog and a toddler. Do you mind me asking if the price is comparible to other flooring options? Thanks!!
I may have to look into getting some tiles for our dining room. I have two boys (3 and 7) and this seems like the way to go without replacing an entire rug every time they spill! Do you know if they send samples?
Thanks Tanya for asking about the price. I, too, was wondering about that. We are currently living in a lease property in Sandestin, FL and I find the tile floors to be toooooo cold for my California feet! This could be a great idea and then when we move, we could just pack the FLOR tiles up or leave them for the next tenent. These are way cool – I can’t wait to go check out the colors and patterns.
As always! Way to go, K & L! Perfecto!
P.S. We have a puppy and he loves his pee-pee pads. We have a large back porch and Charley has a bell hanging from the French doors. When he needs to go potty, he “noses” (or thrashes with his feet, depending) his bell and tells me he needs to use his pad! Works like a charm. So far — no accidents!
I love how it just looks like an area rug. And I love the piano on the rug, it becomes like a destination instead of a mistake. Very pretty!
The FLOR tiles look awesome! There truly are so many awesome patterns, I would have a hard time picking just one. I love your choice!
Great idea for your flooring dilemma- the carpet tiles look really nice. I may have to try those for my keeping room- I want an area rug in there, but I am so indecisive about just what look I want. These look like they would be fun to play with mixing and matching.
What a terrific idea. This may be my answer for a small room that I will be re-doing shortly.
I love the cable design… reminds me of a big comfy sweater. Can’t wait for the give-away.
Thanks so much for posting this.
This was EXTREMELY helpful because we to have a family member with 4 legs ad he (Thomas) is sometimes at the house by himself a little too long(if you get where I’m going with this). We just got new vinyl flooring but we do need to add rugs. This is the perfect solution. YEAH!!!
this post made me LAUGH, and you know what our dining room rug suffers. 🙂
xoxo
shaunna
What a great solution! It looks perfect and no one would ever guess there’s concrete under it. Do you find it stays in place well? (well, I guess it would with the piano on it, but without something heavy would it?)
Yes- we made an area rug made out of FLOR tiles in our dining room and walked on it without even using the sticky FLOR dots for several days!
Thanks for sharing!!! I am going to look into this. . .area rugs for our large living room are soooooooo expensive. . .this might be an option? Didn’t Ree’s girls have this done in their new bedroom too?
What is the second pattern you are using? The lighter, striped one? This might be the perfect solution for our dining room.
It’s called Soft Spoken! 😀
My daughter has Flor tiles…they look and feel fabulous. That was a very clever solution to a strange floor problem in your living room…good job!
Brilliant idea!!! Looks so nice!
This is so definitely something we are going to look into for our dining room!!! I’m so pleased with yours!!! Beautiful. Your blog is a great source of ideas for me and I’m thankful!!! Merry Christmas guys!!
I have Flor tiles in several locations and love them, especially the individual tile washability. A couple words of caution. Depending on the style, some tiles have a backing that leaves fuzz on those stickers, rendering them useless for reapplication (e.g. “toy poodle” and “house pet”). Also, Kit-Cat may see the carpet as his own personal scratching post. Doesn’t hurt the tile, but I’m constantly pushing tiles back into position when my “boys” get enthusiastic.
This was such a smart and pretty solution.
I’ve been looking and wishing for some FLOR carpet tiles for some time. I’ll be watching for that give away. 🙂
Love what you came up with. Is it rather stressful to do so much reno/change before the holidays or is it exciting and just the deadline you needed?
Love it!
FYI over active bladder is one thing to tell you something is wrong with your pet…i heard it on the animal channel i believe
Hi Nicole!
We’ve had him checked once, but I’m thinking we need to bring him back in. It’s getting a little out of control and I know that can’t be normal. 🙁
It could be kidney issues. Good to get him checked out!
Sounds peeeerfect except I have large square tiles already on the floor now. I can’t imagine how these would work over the grount lines. Would imagine that they wouldn’t come out flat if simply layed on top of the existing tiles. I wish it would work for me. Would save me so much $.
A FLOR Giveaway… nice!! I love what you’ve done with yours!
I never realized the floor didn’t go to the end of the room! How strange! Great solution though, especially grounding it with the piano. It really makes it seem like an area rug!
I know, we were so bummed when we discovered the concrete under the carpet! 🙁 But these FLOR tiles really worked out great for us! 😀
Looks amazing!! Don’t you love when a problem’s solution becomes a thing of beauty that looks deceptively purposeful?! That’s my favorite happen-chance.
And what genius to use it in a dining room! I am so in love with that idea! I have been debating about what to do in ours.
We need to cover the whole middle of these antique hardwood floors. (Did you know they used to only finish the outside of the floors where they showed and leave the inside a mess because it would be covered by a rug??)
I can’t afford an area rug (that I like) that big. (In fact, for years, we have had two 5 x 8’s butted up together to form a “bigger” rug.)
I would love a sisal-ish look, but it definitely needs a wash-ablility factor since I have 4 children. 🙂 So I have been in a quandary (love that word) about what to do…
I think I may have stumbled upon the perfect solution here! Thanks for sharing! Now to go check out their website. Oh, and that giveaway??? I’m all ears! 🙂
Layla! You totally read my mind. I have been agonizing over what to use as a rug at our rental home which my daughter (and her long haired chihuahua) live in. What is it with chihuahuas anyway?? Geez it seems they never become housebroken!!! Aaaaagh! Anyway, just as I was thinking about it I pulled up my email and voila!! The answer to my prayers! You are a genius! Thank you!!
Thank YOU, Kim! 😀 I hope they work for you…we’re loving them!
What a great solution! Love those! And pull one up and wash it in the sink??? How awesome is that!!
I know, right?! Although, I’m hoping I don’t have to anytime soon- LOL! 😀
What a simple, fashionable fix! The rug looks like it belongs there and you’d never know there wasn’t wood floor underneath! Awesome.
Thanks, Carrie! SO glad we finally found something nice to cover that mess up! 😀
What a great solution! We had just picked out samples to order from Flor today, and this style (Suit Yourself) is one of them. Is it really soft? We’d be using it in our living room, and needs to work for crawling knees (8 month old), and our 4-legged baby (chocolate lab). So, soft and easily cleaned are top on the list 🙂 So happy to see it worked well for you in the living room! Will keep my eyes open for the giveaway this week! Horray!
I am so happy you posted this! I’ve been looking at these and now I am convinced! They were a great solution to your problem too.
We used Flor in my daughter’s room from the time she was a newborn to age 3, They are great for young children and the accidents that come along with them. I loved being able to cover the hardwoods with something soft for her to crawl around on but was also easy to clean up.
smart solution and looks great! can i also just say that your wood floors look incredibly expensive!! i love how the edges are a little bit darker, giving the floors a lot of depth and character. they look far richer than the prefinished flooring that is exactly the same tone throughout. well done!
Ooh, these are great! Looks beautiful, sounds reasonably easy to install, and love the convenience of being able to pull up one square at a time. Will definitely have to look into these for options for our basement and possibly our bedroom.
For our 2 small dogs, we went with a litter pad…which is a plastic boot tray with an old towel in it. So..if they can’t hold it they have an option. They caught on really quick. Our little girl just doesn’t have good overnight bladder control. Easier to wash a towel than carpet.
And… we used the carpet tiles in our basement. Ones with a rubber backing that resist mildew. Love them. Love your site!
Very interesting and something we may use! Thanks Layla!
doggy diapers…
This looks really good. Thank you for sharing. We have a similar problem where we have recently made an addition. Our plans are to continue with the project after the first of the year. I really like this idea as our area is a transition area between two different flooring types…this would work out great! I even showed my husband last night and he likes the idea. So, after the first fo the year, I can’t wait to get back into this project and get it completed. We enjoy DIY jobs, but sometimes it does drag out, but we are ok with that.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas. I am always inspired!
The tiles are a wonderful solution and they look just great. Thanks so much for posting on this product. Since I live in Canada, I emailed the company to find out some more information…..fingers are crossed that I may find a supplier in Calgary who carries them!! Or, I may just have to use it as an excuse for a road trip….I always wanted to hit the California coast! Hee hee 😉