Designing with Fabulous FLOR Carpet Tiles

No, I didn’t misspelled “floor.” I’m talking about the fabulous carpet tiles from a company called FLOR.

I’ve been eyeing FLOR’s colorful modular carpet tiles for a couple of years now. I’m not sure where I first learned about them but I’ve been getting their catalog for a while and really enjoy looking through it. So many fun colors, textures and combinations. It’s almost overwhelming to decide what to get.

I finally decided that the small area rugs in my dining room (now library), foyer and kitchen needed to go and rather than shop and look through a gazillion area rugs again, I would try the FLOR carpet tiles. Besides, I wanted a square shaped rugs in the foyer and library (and just try to find one of those). Plus the idea of designing my own rugs was  really intriguing.

Though FLOR’s  product leans towards a more informal, modern style, there are patterns and textures designed to compliment traditional decors. My décor is a mix of antiques, rustic and modern and I was ready for something in these areas that was just plain fun. So I went on FLOR’s web site (www.flor.com) and played around with the “FLORbuilder design tool.” Here you can design your own modular carpets and then save and print out your designs. What a fun way to waste an afternoon!

I finally decided on a design using solid colors of “Made You Look” and threw in a punch of stripes with “Ins & Outs”. You’ve got to love the tile names (and company with a sense of humor).  You can order samples of the tiles you’re interested in to see the color and texture and I really recommend this. But since there was a newly opened FLOR store in Atlanta, I decided to drive into the city and check them out. Other than color and texture, I also wanted feel the quality and see how they were made. I’m really glad I did since I did make a couple of color changes. The colors you see on the web site are at the mercy of the monitor they are viewed on, so it’s best to see those samples. And though most of FLOR’s carpet tiles are often less expensive per square foot than a moderately priced rug, they are still a higher-end expense and it’s good to be assured that you are ordering is really what you want and expect.

When my carpet tiles arrived about a week after I ordered them, it was time to play!

Various design options.

Final design for the foyer rug.

Even though I had a specific design that I ordered tiles for, it was fun to rearrange them and see what other patterns I could come up with. I was like a kid with a new toy. Hey, it’s just neat to know that if I get tired of this pattern that I can redesign it. Or if I want to change my color scheme in the room, I can simply replace a few of the tiles with different color ones. I can add on or change the rug size. I love the versatility of this product! (The Installation Slide Show has a few of the variations that I experimented with on the foyer rug before I went back to my original layout.)

All of FLOR’s carpet tiles are cut just a smidge under a generous 20”. You’ll have to get on the web site to see the myriad of texture, pile, color, pattern and material variations. These are not your standard home improvement store carpet tiles.

Peal-off FLOR “dots” hold the tiles together at the corners.
All the tiles come with a special non-skid backing designed specially for hardwood floors.

The tiles are held together with “FLOR Dots” – adhesive stickers that are positioned at the corners of the tiles. The edges blend together so beautifully and precisely that you’ll hardly see seams. The tiles have a special non-skid, non-scratch backing made for hardwood and hard surface floors so you don’t need non-skid rug backing like you do with standard area rugs (a saved expense there). Other than playing around with different designs, it only took about an hour to stick together all the rugs.

As if all this selection and versatility isn’t enough, these tiles are fairly easy to cut into different sizes. The sales associate at the FLOR store recommended using a carpet knife but I cut them just fine with a standard utility knife. You just need to make light cuts in several passes to cut all the way through. I cut the black and red striped “Ins & Outs” in half to make a narrower border for the dark grey “Working Class” carpet tiles that are now by my kitchen back door and lining the main counter work area.

Kitchen work area corner runner with the stripped tiles cut in half for a graphic border.

Now I that I have my inspiration, I can’t wait to start bringing in some other elements into my kitchen and library to play off the colors and upbeat vibe of these rugs. Yea, more decorating! Besides, they just make me smile when I look at them. And you always need to live with things that just make you smile.