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Design for Hackers: Reverse-Engineering Beauty (Wiley & Sons, September 2011) will help you see like a designer does.
Sign up for updates now »I’ve found a great new use for the old carpet tile samples my Architecture firm gets. I taped together some matching samples to make a rug for my pad.
I originally tried this with Interface carpet tiles and carpet tape. The Interface carpet tiles are good for this, because they have a nice, firm, rubber back to them, however, this makes the rug hard to overturn when you’re done taping the tiles together. On my first attempt, I used carpet tape. The tiles slowly spread out of position, and the goo from the tape oozed out onto the backs of the tiles. The goo from carpet tape is nearly impossible to get off of your fingers, much less off of your carpet.
This time, I used the felt-backed samples of Milliken, which are lighter and easier to flip over once bound together, but still keep their form nicely. This time, for tape, I used strapping tape, and taped “stitches” perpendicular to the seams, followed by a strip along the seams. Like this:
I think I got it right this time.
[UPDATE January 8, 2006] I did get it right. Over one year later, the rug is still intact. It even survived the move, which is no small feat considering the level of care, or lack thereof, that I put into packing.
[UPDATE August 10, 2007] Apparently this idea has caught on well enough that FLOR has introduced their own line of carpet tile area rugs, though the price tag is pretty steep: $50+.
Renee said,
October 26, 2004 @ 9:22 pm
How cool is that? Very creative and a great example of recycling!
Winston said,
January 8, 2006 @ 3:51 pm
I took those and hot glued the smaller samples to a corkboard bulletin board. It has all the same functionality, but now has nice colors, it’s hanging in my dorm room currently.
Rocsanne said,
December 21, 2006 @ 5:20 pm
Very interesting way of reusing available material! Unhappily I can not emulate either of you, because I have no samples around the house.
But I remember I threw out a huge piece of wall-to-wall eaten by moths (remained rolled up in the basement and got wet in a spring flooding.)
I know – wet rhymes with rot not moths, but that is what happened in my basement.
However, when it comes to area rugs, I am a little bit better, though I had to throw one due to over-wear.
josh said,
October 19, 2010 @ 7:12 am
I am on a budget and everything my family has , hes come from our apartment dumpsters. whenever someone moves out they give the place new carpeting and the are always scraps in the dumpsters. i have collected many different scraps that match our decor, but I haven’t decided yet what use for backing or how to adhere the pieces. I don’t think this standard carpeting will act the same way as your tiles.