Home renovations are exciting opportunities to give your sanctuary a new look. Homeowners who DIY their home improvement projects are often left with a lot of left-overs, in particular, if they’re replacing their own flooring. While there are a number of recycling options available for old tile, vinyl, carpeting, wood, and laminate flooring, we have a few other ways of repurposing materials such as flooring in your home. Even if these ideas don’t suit you, you might know someone who would.
Carpeting
Whether you’re replacing an area rug or the entire floor, there are a number of ways you can upcycle your old carpeting or rug.
Scratching Post
Caticles is responsible for this idea. They used these repurposing materials to give life to an old scratching post for cats. Caticles strongly advises that pet owners use caution when assembling their scratching post and avoid using any toxic chemicals like glue or paint. The only tools required are pliers, a piece of carpeting, and a hex key in case your scratching post has any screws that require tightening.
Kennels
Carpet Call has another awesome idea. They suggest using pieces of old carpeting to line kennels or animal carriers so that your fluffy friends can travel on something soft. If you live in an area that has cold temperatures in the winter and your dogs or cats are primarily outside, lining their kennels with these repurposing materials will keep them from getting too cold. Although PETA does advise all homeowners to keep their pets inside when the temperatures get very cold. Carpet Connection also recommends donating carpeting to animal shelters. They’ll use it to line kennels with also. Just make sure these repurposing materials are either new or like new.
Soundproof A Studio
Carpet Connection suggests using old carpeting to help soundproof a room. If you are a light sleeper or live with one, soundproofing a room with these repurposing materials could be just what you need. Let’s not forget musicians. Providing them a soundproofed room to practice in will reduce the risk that their band practice could annoy the neighbors. Doityourself provides step-by-step instructions on how you can hang carpeting on your wall(s).
Read More: 5 Carpet Cleaning Hacks Everyone Should Know
DIY Ottoman
School of Decorating has a nifty idea for upcycling old rugs in your home. They used an old area rug to reupholster an ottoman in their home. The rug they used was purchased from another store, but if you have a rug in your home that needs to be upcycled, give it a try! Step-by-step instructions are available through the School of Decorating.
Gardening
Fox News has a list of ways to upcycle old carpeting. One such way is in your garden. If you’re getting ready to make a garden bed in your backyard, lay old pieces of carpeting underneath gravel or rock. Doing so will help prevent weeds from popping up. Carpet Connection also suggests using pieces of these repurposing materials when you’re working in your garden beds. Instead of getting your knees wet and dirty, kneel down on old carpeting.
Read More: Creating A Fantastic Vertical Garden For Your Home
Vinyl
Give Grandma’s old vinyl floors a new purpose. Check out this list of ways these repurposing materials can be upcycled for other uses.
Line Shelves
Janette, the co-author of The 2 Seasons, used a sheet of vinyl flooring to line shelves in her kitchen cupboards as well as underneath her sink. She was even lucky enough to find sheets of vinyl flooring that matched her floor. While sheets of vinyl are easy enough to buy, if you’ve recently removed vinyl flooring from your home, consider using these repurposing materials to line your cupboards and shelves. If that’s not your thing, post your old vinyl flooring online and see if any of your friends and neighbors would be interested in taking it off your hands.
Mats For Kids And Pets
A commenter on Hometalk suggested using pieces of old vinyl flooring as playmats in a preschool. Specifically, these repurposing materials were cut so that children could use playdough on them. They’d also work well for using when kids are painting or coloring to protect the surface underneath from unwanted color accents.
Read More: Starting Daycare: The Most Important Items You Need
Decorate A Doll House
If your kids have a dollhouse or you’re thinking of building one for them, pieces of vinyl flooring can be used on the floors of the rooms. This trick could also work with old pieces of carpeting and other flooring types as well.
Wood
Some people might consider it crazy to get rid of wood floors. But if your wood floors are damaged beyond repair or it’s time for something new, there are a number of ideas for ways to use these repurposing materials.
DIY Tap Dance Floor
Do you enjoy tap dancing? With the pandemic in full gear, trying to find a studio or class might prove challenging. The good news is, you can make your own tap dance floor. LiveAboutDotCome has a list of flooring types that will serve tap dancers well. At the top of their list are wood floors. If you have old pieces of wood flooring or even plywood, you can easily assemble it to make your own tap dance floor. Swungover has details on how you can build a dance floor using these repurposing materials.
Shiplap
Before you toss out your old wood floors, think about different ways you can use these repurposing materials around your home. Joyfully Growing uses wood planks to make a shiplap wall. A list of tools needed includes a nail gun, a stud finder, and a hammer. The planks they use were 12 feet long. They recommend if you’re trying to cover a wall that’s higher than 12 feet, to cut your planks 8 feet and stagger the seams.
Resurfacing
While we’re on the topic of resurfacing, Bless ‘Er House has an idea for how you can use your old wood floors to resurface a kitchen bar. In this tutorial, they used stikwood which is a peel and stick product but there’s no reason why you couldn’t try using old wood flooring for the same concept.
Wainscoting
Last, on our list of ways to repurpose your old wood floors, this idea is brought to you by EasiKlip. They provide instructions on how homeowners can use leftover pieces of wood floors as wainscoting.
Read More: The Best Options For DIY Home Improvement During COVID-19
Laminate Flooring
Leftover laminate flooring also has a number of other uses around the home. Check out these clever and crafty ways these repurposing materials were used.
DIY Bowling Alley
A backyard bowling alley is probably our favorite way, so far, of using old laminate flooring. Ideas2Live4 has all the details you need to use these repurposing materials in your backyard. Considering it could be a long time before some people will be able to frequent a bowling alley, this will give them a chance to enjoy their game and work on their score.
Make A Dining Room Table
Home-DZine used leftover laminate flooring planks to help make the table photographed above. They recommend not having any more than four planks across for the width. As far as the length, they can be cut to any size you need. Pinewood was used for the table legs and the stain was picked to color coordinate with the laminate flooring. Such a beautiful and functional way to use these repurposing materials!
DIY Craft Room Desk
How To Nest For Less combined leftover laminate flooring and kitchen base cabinets to design her own custom craft room. Plywood was laid across the base cabinets and then the laminate flooring was placed on top, using its interlocking design. According to the directions provided, it took about ten minutes to install the laminate flooring on top of the plywood. No glue was needed for the installation of these repurposing materials.
Tile
There is no end to the ways that leftover or repurposed tile can be used. Pinterest is full of ideas on the various ways you can use tile to give any number of household items a facelift. We found a few neat ideas.
Photo Coasters
First up on our list of ways to use your old or leftover tile flooring as repurposing materials are photo coasters, courtesy of PopSugar. For this project, 4″ x 4″ tiles were used along with 4″ x 4″ inch photographs. Additional supplies included mod podge, a hot glue gun, felt, and sealant. The entire project can easily be done in a day, making this the perfect gift for the holidays or Mother’s day.
Read More: Homemade Gift Ideas For Mom
Decorate a Table Top
Seeking Lavender Lane gives us the low down on how to take an old, outdated patio table and turn it into a serious conversation piece using repurposing materials. In addition to the tiles, a large piece of plywood – big enough to cover the table – was also required. The plywood was placed over the table. It’s recommended that the plywood not be heavy because the addition of the tile will weigh it down. Place the tiles on the table and then trace around them. Then, mix the mortar and begin applying it. The table will need to dry overnight.
Cheeseboard
Thanks to The Nest, you’ll be the envy of all your friends when they see this incredible cheese board made from a 12″ marble tile. Additional materials used include superglue, felt, and sandpaper. Use the sandpaper to smooth down the edges of the tile. Place the felt in all four corners of the tile and glue them into place. After using the tile to serve food, wipe it down with soap and water then dry it off.
Address Plaque
Last on our list of ways to repurpose tile flooring is this address plaque by Instructables. The creator of this gem painted the numbers and then applied glow powder to make the numbers glow-in-the-dark so that visiting guests would be able to read them at night. The tiles were attached to plywood and hardwood boards framed everything to give it a finished look. And the best part about this plaque is the secret compartment that holds a spare house key. Who would have thought something so intriguing could come from using repurposing materials?
Whether it’s old or new, the leftover flooring in your house can be used for a number of other projects. Even if you’re not up to it, you might know people who are. And if nothing else, these repurposing materials can be donated to Habitat for Humanity, as long as it is new or in like-new condition. Have you tried one of these ideas? If so, please let us know! Tag us on Facebook or Instagram so we can see how you use your repurposing materials.
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Photo Credits: Unsplash.com | Pixabay | Caticles | Joyfully Growing | Bless ‘Er House | EasiKlip | The 2 Seasons | Ideas2Live4 | Home-DZine | How To Nest For Less | PopSugar | Seeking Lavender Lane | The Nest | Instructables
Sources: Caticles | Carpet Call | PETA | Carpet Connection | Doityourself | School of Decorating | Fox News | The 2 Seasons | Hometalk | LiveAboutDotCome | Swungover | Joyfully Growing | Bless ‘Er House | EasiKlip | Ideas2Live4 | Home-DZine | How To Nest For Less | PopSugar | Seeking Lavender Lane | The Nest | Instructables | Habitat for Humanity
