9.08.2011

go green: would you FLOR tile?

our home has all wood floors.  except on the first floor where there are ceramic tiles (don't get me started on those wacky tiles...)  wood floors are beautiful and easy to keep clean, but with an ever-more-mobile baby around i need some floor coverings, stat!  at first i was thinking of traditional rugs - they're classic and easy to find, but then chris said, "what about FLOR carpet tiles?"  (i think he secretly flips through my magazines and catalogs when i'm not around.)  it was something we'd talked about a while back but i'd sort of ruled them out  for some mysterious reason.  but now i'd like to consider them again.



carpet tiles are a completely different beast than traditional rugs.  i have no idea how i'm going to decide which to use, but i thought i'd make a pros and cons list for starters and then open it up for conversation.  


so here's the big question: would you use flor tiles instead of a traditional rug?  why or why not?





PROS:
-FLOR is made with renewable and recycled content and is recyclable.  and FLOR is also an amazingly green company.  they reduce their carbon footprint in every area- from packaging and shipping, to their dyes, to using pre- and post-consumer recycled material.  awesome.  
-along that vein...they'll recycle your old flor tiles - and even pay for the postage!
-these tiles are super kid-friendly - they're amazingly stain- and moisture-resistant and if you get a stain that you can't get out, all you have to do is swap the single tile - not the entire rug.
-i can customize the color and pattern that i want.  and i can rearrange the pattern whenever i want to change it up.






CONS:
-whereas i can find highly discounted rugs, FLOR carpet tiles seem to have a price floor (haha, punny...) of about $12 per 20" tile.  that means for a 5x8 rug i'll need about 15 tiles and it'll be about $180.  ok, after calculating it out...that's actually not a bad price.  put this one in the pro pile.  i guess the con would be that the prices go up from there.  they can be upwards of $40/tile.
-yes, they have lots of options, but let's be honest...in the world of floor coverings, i can find waaaay more options if i look at traditional rugs.   since i've got a lot of straight lines and geometrics going on with my artwork, sofa, and table, i was hoping to bring in some softness through a pattern with some curve to it on the rug.  FLOR does offer some patterns, but most of them are graphic and linear.  cool if i hadn't already bought my artwork and sofa.  i'm just not sure i'll find the pattern that fits just right.  


i seem to have made a pretty convincing argument for carpet tiles.  any other pros or cons you can think of?  any other reasons i've overlooked?

here are the 4 FLOR designs i would consider if we decide to go this route.  which one would you pick?

 

1 comment:

  1. the lady in the pic looks like a girl i went to high school with, just sayin

    ReplyDelete