FLOR: Go Green At Home With Recyclable Carpet Squares

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Go Green With FLOR

There’s one room in our house that doesn’t get much attention. Our living room. It’s a lonely space in our house. The only reason we venture into the room is for our once a week piano lessons. After that there’s the occasional 5 minute practice sessions throughout the week. Otherwise the room is dark and empty.

FLOR to the rescue

Our living room has hardwood floors and the area carpet we were using was very thin. Not a great space for hanging out.

Thanks to the new FLOR ^[2] store on Newbury Street in Boston I was able to work in person with Kelly, one of their fabulous designers to create a new area rug for the room. Maybe this will up the activity in our lonely living room?

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FLOR carpets are made from design squares that essentially fit together like a large puzzle.

There’s more to love about FLOR

1. Design: Every 19.7-inch carpet square is made with renewable and recycled content
2. Manufacturing: FLOR’s manufacturing processes use renewable energy sources and technologies which help reduce their emissions and waste
3. Use: When FLOR gets stained beyond repair, you can replace individual tiles – not a whole rug or whole room of carpet (less waste!). With three young boys, this is by far the biggest selling point for me.
4. Delivery: FLOR’s local production (Georgia, USA) limits flying the product all over the world, which significantly reduces transportation costs, emissions and, ultimately, their environmental impact.
5. Reclaiming: Designed to be taken apart, FLOR’s face fibers and backing materials can be recycled into new product through their Return & Recycle Program ^[4]
6. Standards: Most FLOR styles meet or exceed the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Green Label Plus ^[5] standards or low VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)

If you’ve never worked with FLOR before it’s a pretty incredible (and simple!) process.  At the store Kelly showed me a variety of options that would go well with the color combination already in the room.

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We wanted to add a pop of color, so after much deliberation a blueish carpet was the winner. The number of design options are overwhelming (in a good way). That’s why working with a designer really helps narrow down the choices and it’s free! If there isn’t a FLOR store near you, it’s still simple to design a carpet on-line.

I’ve worked with FLOR before and have a block print carpet with a whimsical pattern that Wissam (pictured above) helped me design. That’s what makes FLOR so wonderful-you can really create any design.

The carpet squares come in boxes that look like this.

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The carpet can be pieced together any way you like. For this carpet it didn’t really matter how the squares were lined up.

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The carpet is held together with FLORdots ^[9]. These are one-sided, non-toxic adhesives that stick to the bottom of each square – sticky side up.  The square then adheres to its carpet square neighbor – not to the floor underneath. I was concerned that these dots wouldn’t hold the carpet together, but they do. There have been no issues at all.

So now the new carpet is in place and the room is looking warm and inviting. Only time will tell if this will be a new hangout spot in our house.

If you’re interested in learning more about FLOR you can also find them on Twitter and Facebook ^[10].

Have you ever been to a FLOR store or tried a FLOR carpet?

Disclosure: Thank you to FLOR for providing me with a designer and carpet for this review. The opinions expressed in this post are my very own.