Welcome back to the second part of my carpet extravaganza! If you remember last week, I took you on a carpet shopping journey as I picked out the perfect carpet for my friend’s home office. As I pointed out in my previous post, my friend is a bridal gown designer and she needed a beautiful space in her home to allow her to be creative and get her work done. She also just went into remission from Ovarian Cancer and just needed a pick me up.
For the carpet, I purchased the Soft Spring Platinum Plus Collection, Model: Exhilarating II, Color: Brown Sugar. After waiting for the carpet to be delivered, almost like a little kid on Christmas… I was so excited to get started, I could hardly stand it! Once it arrived, I rolled up my sleeves and I got on with my carpeting and decorating plans for this room. Which included all new paint, upholstered wall panels, a desk built from a door, (imagine that) DIY shelving and even a custom cork board! I documented this entire process, as I made over this room from the ground up, literally… and I can’t wait for you to watch the tutorials and then read the step-by-step instructions. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how fun this entire process can be! I bet you never thought of carpet installation as a glamorous or easy task to undergo. I was right there with you for a long time, the whole installation process just seemed a bit daunting and overwhelming, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! Thanks for joining me, now lets get started!
First thing’s first, aside from your carpet and padding, here’s what you’ll need:
A Tape Measurer
A Square Ruler (Dry Wall Square if you want to get technical!)
A Staple Gun
A Seaming Iron
Seam Tape
A Carpet or Utility Knife
A Seam Roller
A Stair Tool (Looks like a putty knife, but is heavier)
Tack Strips (if you don’t already have them. This only applies if this is the first time carpet has been put down in this room, if not they will already be in place) Roberts makes a great one, 100 per strips, per case covering, 400 lineal feet! Only $19.97 available at The Home Depot, click here to learn more!
Last but not least…
A Kicker
I can’t wait for you to watch this carpet installation video tutorial, that I have put together to show you, step-by-step How 2 install the carpet of your dreams! You will be blown away by how easy it is!
Here are the Step-by-Step instructions if you want to print them out:
Step #1. You’re going to start by rolling your carpet and padding out on the driveway or anywhere with a lot of space. Using your measuring tape and a carpet or utility knife, you’ll want to cut off the excess fabric, making it more manageable.
Still being sure to leave enough excess to give you a little extra wiggle room.
Step #2. You’ll need to fold and roll your carpet and padding the correct way, to make it easier to get to the room you are putting it in. To do this, rather than rolling up a huge roll and knocking everything over as you go inside, umm… not that this has ever happened to me 🙂
Fold your carpet and padding in half and then roll it up. This makes it so much easier!
Step #3. Installing your padding. If this is a new room that has never had carpeting you will need to put down tack strips onto the floor along the floor boards, about an inch inwards. This is very easy to do. If you have wood flooring down, you can just take a hammer and hammer the strips into place, the bottom side of the tacks will go into the wood securing it. If you have cement floors, then you need a strong glue like a Gorilla Glue to keep them in place.
Step #4. Now that your tack strips are down, get out your staple gun. Put your padding on top of the floor, cutting the excess off and staple onto the inside edge of your tack strips. Be sure to leave the tacks exposed because they need to latch onto your carpet later. Once you get all of the padding down in the whole room, you’re ready to start laying the carpet! Yay!
The Home Depot makes very female friendly staple guns that do the trick and are easy to use.
Click here to take a peek! At under $10 you are getting a major steal!
Step #5. You need to remove any previous seams. If you had carpet in the room before and hallway carpet for example, then this applies to you. You will only have a seam if your previous carpet was pieced together at the doorway to meet a connecting carpet.
Basically, this means rather than one huge piece of carpet throughout the house, the rooms have been sectioned off and are in separate pieces. If this is the case, then this applies to you, if not move onto step #6.
To remove the seam, turn up the edge of the adjoining carpet that your old carpet was seamed to. You will see a piece of thick tape, about 3 inches wide. Now heat up your seaming iron and place it on the tape. This melts the glue, allowing you to pull the tape right up so you can add new seam tape in-between your new carpet and adjoining carpet holding them together. Once the old tape has been removed, it’s time to move on to getting your new carpet in place and and adding new seam tape.
I used Roberts Grooved Base Deluxe Heat Seaming Iron available at The Home Depot for $79.97 click here to check it out!
Step #6. Place Your carpet down in the room.
Step #7. You need to have a starting point which should be your doorway.
Once you get the carpet down in the doorway, you’ll have a place to start pulling it from the opposite direction, making the the room nice and even. In order to make this starting point, you’ll need to make two relief cuts, letting your carpet wrap to fit into the door way. You’re basically cutting diagonal lines starting from the doorway and moving away and outwards as your cut away. *See video tutorial to watch me do this. This part of the carpet that you just cut will either be fused with seam tape to the adjoining hallway carpet, or it will need to go down on a tack strip and be covered with a door seal, to give it a finished look against the non-carpet flooring in your hallway. You would do this by locating the center of your door frame and using a ruler or dry wall square to make your cut. Next, put down a tack strip, then place your padding and carpet on top, and seal with a door seal, which are available in wood or metal. The wood can be stained to match the hallway flooring.
In the case of this room, it has adjoining carpet so I need to make a new seam by fusing the two carpets together in a nice straight line. To do this, I’m going to place my new carpet under the adjoining carpet, and make three small cuts to let me know where the seam will be and where I need to make my big cut, to remove the excess carpet. Next, using a ruler or dry wall square, I am going to cut off the extra carpet, being sure to make a straight line.
Step #8. Cut a piece of seam tape to fit the doorway and place down on the floor in-between the two carpets.
Click here for the seam tape I used under $5!
Next, you are going to place your seaming iron on the tape, allowing it to heat up for about 10 seconds per area. Then glide it down the seam tape. As you make your way slowly down the seam tape, use your fingers to pinch together the two carpets making sure they are nice and even and press down onto the now hot glue from the tape underneath. Last but not least, take your seam roller and apply a good amount of pressure onto the seam.
For a full step-by-step look be sure to watch the video tutorial above.
Roberts 4 in Star Wheel Carpet Seam Roller is fab! Click here to learn more, also from The Home Depot $19.97
Step #9. Time for the kicker! No pun intended! First off, I know you’re probably wondering, what in the world is a kicker. It’s a device that is not nearly as scary as it sounds… that when you place it on top of your carpet and next to the edges of your room, it helps literally kick the carpet into place over the tack strips creating tension.
I love Roberts Econo Adjustable Knee Kicker available at The Home Depot for $65.00 click here to check it out!
First you need to adjust the teeth on your kicker depending on your carpet thickness, if your carpet is thick, you will need a higher number making the teeth longer as opposed to a thin carpet, then you can adjust to make the teeth shorter.
Next, place the kicker head about 2-3 inches away from your floor board. Then, place one hand on the handle and the other next to the head, using force from your knee, kick the padding at the base of the kicker. This doesn’t hurt but it does secure your carpet into its place, on top of the tack strip. As you move along all of your floor boards with your kicker, take your stair tool which looks like a heavy putty knife) and wedge it along the seam, where the carpet meets the wall to get it nice and secure.
Step #10. Almost done! Flip over the edge of the carpet that is now hanging over the floorboard, using your carpet or utility knife, cut off the excess carpet being very careful not to cut off too much, because it will need to fit underneath the floor board.
Step #11. After you have cut off all of the excess carpet around the entire room, take your stair tool and push in the carpet edge underneath your floor board. You’ll want to do this entire kicking process on one wall, and then do the opposite wall, making sure to get it nice and tight. Then repeat for your adjacent walls.
Roberts 2 3/4 in. Wide Carpet Stair & Tuck tool rocks! Click here to learn more! $9.97 from The Home Depot!
Step #12. Vacuum your new carpet to get rid of any excess fibers.
Step #13. Sit back, relax and enjoy your beautiful new carpet!
Here is the office before and after my carpet installation! The room also has a new paint job and some chic upholstered wall panels all from The Home Depot!
We can’t forget about the decor, check out these before and after photos!
To see how the finished office came out, watch this video I put together showing you all of the fun, easy and affordable DIY projects I did to give this room a much needed makeover, using mainly products from The Home Depot, even the fabric!
If you liked the upholstered wall panels I made, you can learn step-by-step how to make them yourself with this video tutorial!
I hope by reading this post and watching my videos, you’re getting inspired to have fun with creative ideas and thinking outside the box! The possibilities to utilize products and supplies we wouldn’t normally think of are endless, like this Home Depot orange bucket, that I turned into a pretty waste bin using paint, rope and a hot glue gun, all courtesy of The Home Depot.
You never know what you’re going to find at The Home Depot, and what’s going to spark some fabulous creativity. Be sure to keep your eyes open, the next time you head over to shop and you will soon realize that The Home Depot has so much to offer women! Not only paint, flowers and shopping for men, but endless girly and elegant DIY projects as well!!
Thanks for joining me and I’ll see you next time on How2Girl!
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