Happy Herringbone Hallway!

Remember a couple weeks back, when Henry and I were envisioning together a completed hallway runner! Well, we finally got it done. But it sure took a while.

And why did it take so long, because we had to wait for more tiles! And all that waiting and pouring over the images I'd already taken, made me realise that there was another micro project I could do while I waited. The back entry coat hooks!

The mini back story here is that about 8 months ago, I bought some new hooks, only to be reminded by our walls that the gallery side of the hallway is concrete. And after some attempts with all sorts of concrete options, I decided to face the music and buy some of those 3M sticky hooks. And honestly, they worked fine. Until they started falling down. And for the life of me, I don't know why I never considered hanging the hooks on the other side, but I didn't, until I did. 

To note, those other holes aren't from me. So I just left them! Yep, it's a rental! But I was finally able to use the hooks I previously bought.  One additional thing I learnt from having hooks on the other side, was that they needed to be higher, so I hung these ones higher. 

And with the jackets up, and the quick pull tabs removed on the 3M hooks, it looked like this. Even Patches came to check it out. But we both were really waiting for more tiles. 

And then they finally came, and I cut them until my heart was completely content. Or the hallway was full. I think those two things happened at the same time!

And because I already had decided that I wanted it to go wall to wall, I cut a whole ton of little pieces for the sides. Which of course Henry instantly thought he needed to rest on. 

And then I had to make a hard decision, individually cut each tile so it fit the hall width perfectly, or just pretend that our hallway doesn't have quarter round moulding. Of course there was the option to pop off all the quarter round, put the carpet down, and then reinstall the quarter round on top, but come on, this is a rental! And that's at least a full Saturday, never mind when we later move and I have to do the same thing again. No thanks. And I didn't want to custom cut the pieces because then I can't use them again later, again rental reminder!

So I decided I would just pretend that we didn't have that moulding and I would cover it up with my standard cut sizes. 

And TA DA!

It's done (mostly)! I haven't resolved what to do about when it comes into the living room, but it's all down and stuck together. And as promised, our closet is still in the hallway. 

The final thing I want to do is add some additional frames to the gallery and complete it all the way to the back door! But beyond that, it's finally done! And I love the mix of colours and textures. It's a little bit of carpet heaven. Well, beyond our bedroom and our living room!  

Help! I'm trapped in the hallway and can't get out!

Remember when I started our hallway runner, only to discover I wanted more colour and I didn't have enough tiles to really pull it off. Well, because I'm really inpatient, I decided I could playing with some options in a digital hallway (i.e. adobe illustrator).

I came up with a couple of options, all really based on the design I started with. Which is really just cutting some tiles on the diagonal, and some not. 

But, I quickly realized that I could do this over and over and over again for hours. And though it was fun and kind of satifying, I just knew that once I had the new tiles in person, I wasn't going to fully follow any plan I came up with, because that just how I roll. I like to work things out as I go. So I decided to do the next best thing to DIY, which for me is shop for DIY materials. And to my amazement, I was able to snag some cheap green and blue tiles from the FLOR outlet, and then just ordered 2 orange Fedora.

And as soon as they arrived, I cut them apart and fit them into the hall. 

I love how all the color brings so much life to the hall, but honestly, I really struggled with those blue tiles. They just weren't the right tone. PERFECTIONISM ALERT! 

So I decided to go into the Flor store before ordering any more online to make sure that I got exactly the tone I was looking for. And guess what. They happened to have a couple of the one I wanted in stock. So I bought them. And just look how much better they go with everything. 

And then of course I cut them. 

It just so happens that this is one of my favorite colors, so of course I thought they were perfect. But changing those two pieces made me realize that what I really wanted was a herringbone pattern hallway. And so I experimented with all my half cuts and came up with this. 

And that's when I knew I was in trouble! Because I loved it! And so then a whole bunch more cuts lead to this. 

And after a little clean up it looked like this.

But I still didn't have enough tiles to complete the project, so back to ordering more! But I definitly feel like it's moving in the right direction. 

And even Henry can envision a finished hallway. Or is he looking at those boxes by the back door. What are those you ask, only the wardobe for our BEDROOM! But trust me, at the speed I'm moving, they will still be there when I finish the hall. 

Run, Run, Runner! A Hallway Runner!

Since carpeting the bedroom and the living room, our hallway floor has just seemed so empty and sad. Even with the bright walls, and the smiling faces of our loved ones, it just seems bare. And for a space that connects every room in our apartment, I thought it was time to add a little warmth with a carpet runner.

I started with some basic measuring and sketching to figure out just how many tiles we would need. It turns out that our hall is 1 + 3/4 of a tile wide and 14 tiles long. So for a wall-to-wall runner, I would need around 25 tiles and for a 1 + 1/2 tile runner, I would need 21 tiles.

So, I put down some random carpet samples that I hadn't yet returned. Because this was a simple experiment, I cut nothing and went with the 1 + 1/2 style. And for the most part it was ok. It served the purpose of warming up the hall and making it acoustically less of a tunnel. But it wasn't that interesting. And those side pieces collected a whole ton of dog and cat hair, which meant endless vacuuming.

But Henry made the best of the additional vacuuming time, by doing this. Which I'm not even sure why he needs to smell the vacuum but he did and of course that's why we call him Helpful Henry! But even with all his funny antics, the hallway was still a bore. And after several months of thinking about different designs, I decided, why not just cut some pieces up and work something better out. Because that's how I roll! 

And so by cutting up some project scrapes, I came up with this. But because I didn't have enough tiles, it ended up like this. 

Plus, many of these are samples that I need to return. That's why I didn't cut it to fit perfectly, and I'm also not totally sold on it being done because I need to hunt down a couple more cheap tiles to fill the gaps. I also totally want more colour and less grey. But all in all, a vast improvement to what it was. And I'm totally sold on having it go wall-to-wall.

Now for some serious cheap carpet tile hunting!

Tiles Vs Tiles - Round #1

For years, we've lived with all tile floors, everywhere! And since we live in a rental apartment, that is also a basement, we needed a flexible solution that wouldn't break the bank and could also move with us. Plus, we wanted something that would be easy to clean, because with two pets (Henry, the dog, and Patches, the cat) you find yourself, more often than you want, with a rag and a spray bottle of pet cleaner. All of this made me think that carpet tiles would be the perfect solution for our cold floors.

And I think that I almost instantly fell in love with FLOR's All Dolled Up in Teal! The sample I ordered only reinforced my love of this tile! The colours work with our bedroom's yellow walls (which you can see below in the last image) and what's not to love about teal and green! 

The only kicker about this carpet, is that it's $22 a tile! And I need more than a couple of them. 

I need 44+ tiles to make it around the furniture in our bedroom. I say 44+ because there are bound to be cutting errors and I want a little flexibility in placement. I could settle for 47. But even a little math tells me that 47 X $22 is more $$ than I want to spend on carpet. 

FLOR has lots of different styles at different price points, and though this is starting to sound like an ad for them, it's totally not, I'm just obsessed with their tiles. But back to the different options. I got thinking about using different colours, which could be cheaper mixed in with my fav. Using the FLORbuilder, I came up with a basic idea. 

But as you can see, those 32 tiles still cost $576.94. Well beyond what I want to spend! But there was still one more option for cost savings, the FLOR outlet, where good carpet goes to find it's forever home with those who only want to spend $6.99 a tile. The cost comparison looks like this. 

The only problem is that because the outlet is an outlet, things are constantly moving in and out. Meaning that to create a floor for less, I would need to watch the store, buy ones I like, possibly wait, then buy a couple more. Which, I can totally accept as a process, if it means nice carpet for cheap. 

Plus, I have a couple of remnant carpet tile samples from a previous job, I thought I could incorporate, since I will probably use them again to show colour and texture, they might as well be part of my flooring rather than collect dust in a pile (at least that's my logic right now). UPDATE: Make that almost 2 dozen sample tiles. I never would have guessed there were that many in that storage pile!

Though this is an amazing price, it's important to keep in mind that at the end of the day, I will only be the owner of 26 tiles, and the user of 21. Sorry Patches, those tile are about to get some use!