12/09/2011

Designing a Striped Rug with FLOR

Continuing on yesterday's half-baked post, I put a FLOR rug in my office and wanted to share some of the hows and whys with you.

First of all, the rug is part of the redesign of this space. Redesign isn't even the right term since I never executed a design plan to begin with! Besides the rug, custom cabinetry will be added made to allow for more storage (the bookcase in back will be going elsewhere) and I'll be changing my desk + chair situation too. Maybe Santa will bring me a white patent leather Eames Time Life Chair like the one in this post! Finally, I'll probably change the paint color and will definitely put some art on the walls. Basically, things will be changing to make it prettier and more functional but until then, this is the current state...


 I decided to go with FLOR for a number of reasons including the following:
  • Custom Sizing - my space is long and narrow and I wanted a rug that would provide a lot of coverage because of my rowdy dogs. The rug I created is approximately 8' x 15'.
  • Durability + Cleanability - The aforementioned dogs can make a mess and I like that any dirty tile can be popped out, cleaned up, and returned to the rug without much hassle. As you might recall, I used to have an indoor/outdoor rug from Frontgate in the room because it could be cleaned "easily" with a hose. Well, cleaning a 9x13" rug with a hose is not an easy process, plus the rug started to ripple after cleaning and never flattened out again. BIG disappointment.
  • Color Palette Flexibility - FLOR tiles come in a huge variety of hues and I love that you aren't married to a set color scheme. You create your own palette plus you can easily alter that palette in the future. For instance, green stripes in a rug can be changed to blue simply by swapping out the green tiles for blue ones.

I knew I wanted a striped rug and first considered Parallel Reality, but didn't want to install it parquet style. So, I set off to design my own striped rug using pre-cut tiles. I choose the Feelin' Groovy style because of the wide range of colors and I liked the sheared loop pile.

I started the process by playing around with the FLORbuilder™ planning tool. I highly recommend doing that prior to placing an order (unless you're doing a plain Jane solid rug). It is fabulous...you can create all kinds of style and color combinations (and save each design), cut tiles, see how a rug border would look, change the color of the floor under the rug, keep tabs on the cost, and of course, you can order your creation directly from the platform. I spent too much time with it and came up with a few designs...





After I using the FLORbuilder™, I went into my local FLOR store to look at samples before I bit the bullet. It was nice to be able to see all of the styles in person because each one has a different texture. Everyone there is so helpful and I ended up working with Jessica, who was amazing. The order was very complicated because of all of the tile cuts and she helped me navigate through that mess. So, to create my 8' x 15' rug, here is what I ordered:

Feelin' Groovy
1/3 cut, with grain:
Magenta - qty 7
Seafoam - qty 7
Bone - qty 7

1/4 cut, with grain:
Sunny - qty 5

1/2 cut, with grain:
Sky - qty 10
Lagoon - qty 10



Everything about the process was great. FLOR shipped my order right away...I was amazed at how quickly it was processed and out the door, especially considering the custom cutting that had to happen.

Install was super easy too. Because I had FLOR do all of the cutting, I just had to put everything together and apply some FLORDots (the fancy stickers that keep all of the tiles held together).

All in all, I'm very happy with my new FLOR rug. It's the perfect balance of form and function for this space. Now I'm excited to get everything else on the list finished!

Happy weekend :)

7 comments:

  1. Don't all the seams drive you crazy? We put a FLOR in the family room for similar reasons (shape, dog/kid staining) and never liked it. The seams looked messy and we found it got dingy all over so you couldn't really just swap out a tile and make it look good - that tile would have just stood out. We ended up replacing the whole thing with a custom sisal. Given that it wasn't inexpensive, the supposed "pros" just never materialized.

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  2. Kate, I don't mind the seams in mine because of the stripe pattern and the smaller cuts. If I was going for a solid look, then yes, the seams would drive me crazy! Which style of tile did you all pick? I'm hoping that this one (Feelin' Groovy) will hold up well since it's meant for higher traffic areas. So far, all of the dog dirt vacuums up...fingers crossed that I will be able to keep it clean as time goes on!!

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  3. oh my gosh - so many choices for when/if you get sick of the current arrangement!

    Bethany
    http://powellbrower.blogspot.com/2011/12/dude-check-out-our-junk.html

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  4. Gorgeous rug!!!
    Found you via Mimi + Meg and am now following :)
    fashiontruffles.blogspot.com

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  5. Sorry I never thought to check back on the comments until now- I had one of the Martha Stewart styles which was a solid color but had textured stripe (not sure that makes sense - sort of like how corduroy has a stripe to it). I'd love to hear how yours holds up. The thing I liked about it was that we had it in a room with a terrazzo floor that was over the garage, which meant the floor got really cold in winter. The rubber backing on the FLOR tiles seemed to provide a nice barrier to that cold.

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  6. OMG! Kyle it looks SO great. I have been dying to see the final product. Thanks for the mention. I'm sending this on to corporate!! Enjoy!
    Jessic at FLOR

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