Flor It

A couple of weeks ago, I nearly accosted the UPS man as he was coming up the walk with this box:

That’s the parlor Flor rug that I ordered (from Flor.com) a couple of weeks ago.  Remember?  From this post way back here?  Where we Photoshoped a bunch of different Flor rugs into our parlor to try and help us decide on which rug to order?  Well, it finally came…yippee!  The poor UPS man.  The box was heavy enough as it was without me attacking him.  And to recap, for those of you who haven’t heard of Flor rugs, they’re actually 20″ rug tiles that you piece together in any configuration you want.  And their tiles are made out of recycled polypropylene material meaning they’re green and durable.  And since our space needed a custom sized rug (5×7 was too small and 8×10 was too big), the Flor tiles were just the ticket for an amazing parlor rug for our desk space.  I opened the box to not only find birds chirping and angels singing their glorious song, but also the directions and stickers.

You literally stick the tiles together.  Oh yeah, and do you recognize which rug we chose?  We totally went ballsy and purchased the blue, chevron (on sale) rug.  Booyah!  To start installing/putting our rug together, we first had to get rid of the too-small rug.  We first propped up the desk:

Putting the cut off tops of our balusters to good use.  Then we pulled out the old rug and rolled it up.  Eventually, the rug will be moved to the second floor into our guest room.  That is, once we stop using the room as a personal closet.  Then I started laying out the tiles and arranging them into a chevron pattern.

Not all the tiles were exactly identical, some stripes were a little off compared to other stripes, so there was a considerable amount of tile shuffling going on.  Colby helped with this process.

So did Goose.

Once my “helpers” awoke from their naps, I finished tile shuffling until I was completely happy with the configuration, which looked something like this:

Then it was time to stick it.  You know, like the move from 2005-ish, about gymnastics.  I love that movie.  While sticking the tiles together I kept hearing Joanne in my head yelling “Don’t do it Vic.  This is a really bad idea.  If you get on this tramp you will have a cardiovasectomy.  I’ll have a cardiovasectomy.  Think about your wenis!”  We certainly weren’t about to have any cardiovasectomies when it came time to sticking the Flor tiles together, it was a breeze.  You see, the box of tiles came with a whole mess of these round stickers.

And all you have to do is attach the stickers to the backs of the tiles to join them together.

You put one sticker at each of the four corners and then around the borders, you just attach the two tiles together.

I have to admit this was one of the features of the Flor tiles I was skeptical about.  I was a doubter.  I couldn’t fathom that these round stickers would be sticky enough to hold a rug together.  Especially a rug where we would be rolling our desk chairs around on.  But man these stickers are sticky!  I’m impressed and no longer a doubter, just a full on supporter of the Flor rug system (and no they didn’t pay me to say that…I’m just a Flor-natic!

Once we stuck all the tiles together, slid the rug into place, and dropped the desk back down, we stepped back to take a look at our nearly completed office space in the parlor.

Sheer bliss.  Although I’m debating whether or not I ordered enough tiles.  I’m seriously considering ordering three more to make the rug go from wall to wall but I’m not sure if that would look silly.  I welcome your feedback on this issue.  I’m thinking three more tiles and Colby thinks it looks fine.

I was also quite surprised at how well my desk chair went with the rug and the art gallery combo.  I thought for certain it would look like one hot mess.  I’m sure I’ll switch it out eventually for an old, wooden rolling desk chair but for now it’s the bees knees (I never quite understood that saying).  And here’s the view of the space from the dining room.

Definitely digging the rug decision and I’m so grateful I took the risk and didn’t play it safe with the dark gray rug, which was the second choice.  I’m also quite pleased with the quality and durability of the rug.  I wasn’t 100% convinced after ordering it that it would be durable or flat enough for our pair of rolling desk chairs.  But the rug is holding up like a dream and seems much more durable than the first rug, which is already really worn out after only a couple months of abuse.

And since this is probably going to be one of the last parlor/office space makeover posts for awhile, let’s take it back to move in day back in 2010 to see what the parlor used to look like.

Holy changes Batman!  I love looking back at the old pictures of the house.  they really give me a sense of accomplishment!

Pssst…so it’s a certain German Short Haired Pointer’s birthday this week!  Goose officially turns two on Thursday.  Our boy is growing up so fast!  And of course he gets presents and a party….I kid…kind of.  Anyone else celebrate their pets’ birthdays?  Just us?  Okay…now we can officially claim ourselves as weird.