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We're Floored...again!!
If you recall, when we did the nursery for Little G, we used FLOR tiles because I had seen a demonstration of them on the Martha Stewart show. If you will also recall, I had grand plans for cutting my FLOR tiles into an intricate pattern and once I tried cutting the tiles I decided to go with plan B.
Plan B has worked well for us, so we decided to get some FLOR tiles for our great bedroom redo of '09. FLOR has some really awesome new styles that they have introduced this Fall including:
A La Mode with its lovely blue and brown tones installed in a parquet pattern:
Or Best of Both Wools shown here in Dorset Stripe and Suffolk Stripe in alternating rows...or below in Dorset Stripe in a parquet pattern:
In the end, we decided to go with the 5x7' Martha Stewart Collection Landscape Rug Kit in Acorn shown below:
Since we opted for only a 5x7 rug, that meant we were working with only 12 tiles and I didn't think the checkerboard pattern would match our style in an area rug, so I decided to have the shaggier rug in the center surrounded by a 1/2 tile border of the shorter shag.
Our tiles were shipped right after placing the order and were at our door in only a few days.
Upon opening the box, there were instructions, an introductory letter from Martha Stewart and an envelope of FLOR Dots, which are the adhesive you use to stick the tiles to each other:
Here you can see that the back of each tile has a sticker on it with the name of the tile and the color as well as some arrows to indicate the pile of the rug. This way, if you are putting the same tiles all next to each other, you can make sure the pieces all flow the same direction:
Here are some of the velvet twist FLOR tiles as they arrived out of the box:
Also in the box was a handy metal ruler. I hadn't purchased the ruler the last time I got the FLOR tiles and I should have. Since it is a metal ruler, you don't have to worry about the carpet knife getting caught on it when you are scoring your tiles:
Also, the back of the ruler has these convenient markings for 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 tiles...thereby eliminating any math you might have to do to split the tiles...which are 19 inches and change (rather than a nice, easily calculable 20" even):
The Short Shag tiles came out of the box a bit squished:
You can see the pile a bit better once I ran my hand through it:
So now it was time to get down to the business of cutting these things...I was a bit nervous because last time it was a disaster and I didn't have any extra tiles this time to work with. I placed the ruler on the back of the tile and marked the half length:
Then I took my trusty carpet knife:
And promptly cut the square inaccurately. You can see here that my knife skipped a bit so I had to go back and fix the cut. This worked out ok in the end because I was abutting the cut edge to a short shag rug with a taller pile that could hide my mistake...but if I were lining up the shorter piles squares next to each other, I would really have to make sure my cuts were exactly perfect:
I, thankfully, got the hang of cutting the tiles and was able to move on to separating the cuts. Once you score the cut a few times, you fold over the tile and separate the carpet...it's as easy as that:
The entire process of cutting the 6 tiles I needed for the border of my rug took about 20 minutes...then I was ready to lay them out on the floor and get ready to put the rug together:
I was working by myself so I don't have a picture of me attaching the FLOR dots to the tiles, but it is super easy. Since I had a custom design, I did need a few extra dots, but I had them from my last project so I was all set. One of the great things about the FLOR tiles is that they attach to themselves, not to the floor, so you don't mar your floor and you can easily move the area rug around once you have put it together:
One quick go over with the vacuum cleaner and you could barely tell where the seams were!
In all, from the moment I opened the box until I had vacuumed the rug and taken this picture, the process took me less than an hour...and that includes a 10 minute phone call from my sister-in-law who was coming to visit that day. I should also say, this project was completed in the time Little G took his morning nap!
I think it looks great and I am really pleased with the quality of the rug and how once I knew what I was doing, the ease of customizing it to my needs. So guess it is safe to say that THIS time, I really AM floored! (sorry, I couldn't resist).
