I’ve been wanting an cushy area rug for several months and though this is a labor intensive project, it’s well worth the effort for the money saved. Well, for me anyway. If you’re wanting to make one of your own, here’s how:
You’ll Need:
Bound carpet samples (call around to carpet stores and ask–if you can get them for free, it’ll cut the cost of your rug about in half)
Double sided carpet tape
Padding (optional–again, it’ll save you money if you choose not to back with padding, but I like the extra cushion)
Razor or carpet knife or rotary blade
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
1) Arrange the squares into the desired pattern
2) Send excited children to bed so you can work without interruption
3) Cut off the binding on any INSIDE seams, following closely to the edge (if you want to use a ruler, go for it but eyeballing it worked okay for me–the carpet was pretty forgiving about filling in the gaps once it was taped together).
4) DO NOT CUT OFF THE OUTSIDE BINDING. Cut off the inside seams only and save some “extra” binding to finish the edges.
5) Press carpet seams together tightly and remove one side of tape plastic, pressing firmly onto the carpet. Make sure the intersections of the carpet squares are neat and line up.
6) Run over tape with a rolling pin (or walk across it, etc) to get it to bond as tightly as possible.
7) Once one direction of tape has been laid, run tape the perpendicular direction (I removed the backing to the first layer of tape so it would bond to the second layer and give more strength to the intersection of four pieces). Run the rolling pin over the top of the second layer of tape and remove the backing.
8) If using the padding, carefully roll out along the length of the rug. Roll pin (or child) across seams.
9) Flip rug over and cut off excess padding.
10) Trim extra binding to about 1/2 inch and remove the stitching.
11) Remove carpet and backing, leaving only the binding.
12) Place dab of hot glue at the end and fold over.
13) Spread hot glue along length of binding and carefully wrap over binding of adjoining rug, making sure to pinch tightly along top and bottom while avoiding gluing carpet fibers into the binding.
14) Give the rug the vacuum treatment, cut off any excess strings.
15) Relax and appreciate the efforts of your work.
