So long bare floor... Playroom carpet is finished!

I can't believe the playroom carpet is already installed! It only took about five hours from start to finish. The task seemed so daunting before I got started, but maybe that's because my other two carpet tile experiences were not this easy. In this room, the walls are fairly square and there isn't a whole lot of moulding to cut around.

The seams between tiles are somewhat visible, and my cuts along the edges are a little less than professional, but it still looks really great.

And the neutral beige grid pattern is so much better than the blue, dontcha think?

Just don't inspect the edges where the carpet meets the baseboards and we'll all remain friends.

Like my other carpet projects, I got these carpet tiles from a local discount home improvement store. And like my other carpet projects, I got an awesome deal on the tiles. I paid $233 for 216 sq./ft. of carpet (that's $1 a sq./ft. plus tax). Not too bad, right? I really don't think we could have done much better.

Honestly, this space has been undone for so long, it's near completion kind of snuck up on me. Now that it's so within reach, I'm scrambling around, gathering up everything from seating to storage.

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Click here to see the finished playroom!

Playroom carpet sneak peek

My intention was just to get started on the playroom carpet this weekend, but it went much quicker than I anticipated and I'm two-thirds complete already. Now if can just find a few hours, I might be able to finish by the end of the week!

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Click here to see the finished playroom!

Carpet for the playroom

My first step in creating a playroom was to find some carpet to replace the sea of blue. Because this space might become someones bedroom one day, I wanted to keep the color neutral.

After my experiences with discount carpet tiles, I'm not ready to pay full price for another flooring option, especially for a playroom. You can't use padding underneath carpet tiles, but Elise is used to playing on hardwood or area rugs, so I don't think she'll mind.
Yesterday, I went on the hunt for some new playroom carpet and here's what I came home with.

I know! It's beige! Well, kind of golden. I went in looking for something a whole lot darker, but this was the most subtle/tasteful option I found at the discount store. They had darker shades of brown, but the patterns were either super commercial looking or ugly '80s-ish shapes.

I wish I would have thought to bring my camera to capture some of the absolutely hideous choices in carpet. I'm talking large-scale geometric patterns that would only be appropriate in a) a casino or b) Chuck E. Cheese. They were pretty hilarious.

From far away, it has a sisal look to it, doesn't it? But it is.. um.. totally 100% unnatural and not sisal.

We still have to rip out the blue carpet, then paint all the walls. Yeah, I really haven't started doing anything yet, so the tiles are hanging out in the basement, off-gassing their little carpet tile hearts out.

Anyway, this color choice is kind of changing my vision for the playroom, but I'm OK with that. I initially thought my palette would be something like white walls paired with charcoal gray, plus bright accent colors. I really wanted to bring in some charcoal in the carpet or seating because we have a lot of dark brown in the rest of the house. But after some cursory searches for affordable seating that might fit up our narrow staircase, gray is not really an option.

I'm still planning on painting the walls white. Beige and white: I don't know who I am anymore.

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Click here to see the finished playroom!

Office/studio carpet

Are you getting tired of me talking about carpet tiles yet? Yes? No? Truthfully, I am getting kind of tired of carpet tiles, myself. Tired of installing them, anyway, but our basement office/studio needed some sprucing up.

The room was cold and uninviting, and we never wanted to spend any time there. And that's kind of a shame to waste an entire room like that.

A big part of the room's generally icky feeling stemmed from the floor. The peel and stick tiles were peeling and no longer sticking, at least in that one little area.

Actually, I think it's an issue with the concrete, but I'm not ready to deal with that at this point (or ever). We had an old area rug covering up that part of the floor, but it didn't add much to the atmosphere of the room.

I got some cheap carpet tiles, but used some for the hallway. I needed more to cover the floor but knew I wouldn't be able to find any more tiles in the same pattern. So on a return trip to the discount store, I got a coordinating tile in almost the same colors.

After much deliberation, I laid the striped pattern along the back wall because it fit the best square footage-wise and made the most sense visually. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have opted to lay two patterns in one room if I had all matching tiles, but at least it looks intentional. Sort of.

The floor is a little crunchy over the bad spot in the tile, but I'm going to ignore that. The carpet lays flat and isn't any sort of tripping issue.

It's actually starting to look like a real room, a room I might want to spend more than 10 minutes in! And all for about $75.

I'm debating whether to paint over the blah beige walls. Right now I'm leaning toward being lazy and not taking on another project. Maybe the room will perk up once I hang some colorful things on the walls.

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Linked to: Thrifty Decor Chick Before and After Party

Hallway mini-makeover

It occurred to me that I never posted photos of our hallway mini-makeover. I say "mini" because a hallway just doesn't have that much to make over, but almost every inch of it has been re-done.

Before from before we moved in

This hallway needed an overhaul. It was dark, the carpet was that ubiquitous beige stuff, and we hadn't gotten around to painting the walls. So when we renovated the bathroom, I decided to re-do this space too.

We installed a new ceiling light where there was not one before. So much brighter now! The vintage sconce on the wall before was so dim and just wasn't adequate for the space. Because it was original to the house, I hesitated to remove it. But then it shorted out and I was sort of happy we got to get rid of it.

Before

It was a little pretty, but don't be fooled. Someone had painted it with gold spray paint. Don't do this kind of stuff, people! Seriously!

I patched over this hole, but it was impossible to match the texture of the old plaster.

And believe me, I tried.

In the end, I fixed the problem by hanging a picture over the patch job.

Before, the walls were kind of a dull, green-tinted beige (what my mom would call "dead bug brown"), so I repainted them a lighter, warmer creamy color. I used the same shade as in the living room and dining room, but in a semi-gloss version because it's a high-traffic area.

I still can't get over the $18 price tag for this new carpet! It's commercial grade, but the vintage-looking floral pattern gives it a homey feel.

Ever since we moved in a little more than two years ago, I wanted to hang artwork in the hallway, but was waiting on the paint. After the paint was up, I got right to it!

I love how our hallway no longer looks like an afterthought. And even though it's a skinny, transitional space, it still has some character.
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Related Posts
Hallway carpet: done!
A story about carpet tiles and a $200+ savings
Hooray for the new hallway light
Artwork
  A somewhat orderly grouping of small artwork
  Giving old frames some personality with wood appliques
  Scrapbook + Shadowbox = Scrapbox
  I've been thinking about my doorbell...
  Today is the Day!
  Butterfly shadowbox
  Repainted key plaques

Linked to: Thrifty Decor Chick: Before and After Party

Hallway carpet: done!

I'm so excited our hallway carpet is done! I laid every last inch of it myself and have the dull carpet knife to prove it.

The base molding still needs to be replaced and I need to get some of those metal strips for the edges. The carpet tiles have a heavy backing and they don't require any sort of threshold strips, but I need to hide my raggedy edges.

Amazingly, I didn't take a photo of the carpet before we ripped it up. This is the only photo of it I could find, though it proves it wasn't much to look at. Boring, beige, matted. Please ignore dazed kitty.

This is what we found when we pulled up the carpet and padding. Strange tile. Not quite sure what it was exactly. It wasn't linoleum. Let's hope it wasn't something toxic.

After my dad scraped off the tile, we discovered the hardwood floor underneath wasn't in that great of shape.

There is a large ugly patch job, which I'm guessing was once a return air vent? It's either that or there's treasure buried beneath the plywood.

Before I laid down the carpet tiles, my dad put a bunch of screws into the wood to try to minimize some of the outrageous squeaks. It didn't eliminate the squeaks entirely, but they are much quieter.

I didn't think that I would be able to match the pattern of the tiles at all. The whole process was like putting together a puzzle when I wasn't even sure I had any matching pieces, but I found enough tiles that "connected" to run a long stretch down the middle. I decided to run the turn the tiles along the baseboards 90 degrees. There was no chance to match the pattern, and I thought it might look more purposeful if the tiles were turned.

After spending more than 30 minutes cutting around one piece of molding, I got smart and made a template from some scrap paper and scotch tape.

They make a tool for this purpose, but this poor man's version worked OK.

I traced the template onto the back of the carpet tiles with a Sharpie and it definitely sped up the cutting.

I think it looks pretty great for $18! I don't even think I could have bought a runner for $18.

Kitty and baby love the new carpet!

Check it off the 101 list!

A story about carpet tiles and a $200+ savings!

On the hunt for carpet tiles for the basement office, I made a trip out to Hood's, a local home improvement outlet store. They have a huge 99-cent carpet tile section with pallettes full of Mohawk and Interface carpet tiles. The only trouble is, you have to sift through to find ones that match and finding enough to cover a whole floor can be challenging.

A really nice man who worked there helped me find enough of one style and just as we found the last little bunch, I realized we had been collecting two slightly different designs. Same colors, same general pattern, but one had the floral pattern I was after and the other had leaves. I had spent nearly an hour sorting through tiles, so I figured, for a dollar a tile, close enough. I'll figure it out in the basement.

Floral

Leaves

When I got the tiles home, I organized them into two piles: floral and leaves. I thought I bought mostly floral, but the leaves stack kept growing. The final score? 40 leaves, 18 floral.

The stack of floral carpet tiles was sitting there and I had a thought... "I wonder if these would work for the hallway?"

Final installation will not include overlapping.

I quickly layed the tiles over the carpet in the hallway, just to get an approximation of what it might look like (and to check if I had enough). Good on both accounts!

We were planning on replacing the hallway carpet with carpet tiles from FLOR (the fancy designer division of Interface, the same brand as the tiles from Hood's), and I had even ordered samples. The total cost for the number of tiles we need for the hallway added up to more than $250. The cost for the 18 floral tiles from Hood's, $18 -- nearly 14 times less than tiles from FLOR.

Can you believe the two different types of tiles I chose are the exact same colors?

I must really love that shade of brown.

I like both styles of carpet, but do I like the FLOR carpet 14 times more than the floral pattern? Hmmm, no. This makes the choice very easy.

Now I just have to install them, which is going to be a big pain in the booty with all of the cuts around the doors. There are five openings in this hallway! And I also have to go back out to Hood's to find more carpet tiles for the basement office. Hopefully I can find more of the leaves or at least something that coordinates with the leaves.