Tom Damitio

Wall-to-wall was quite the mid-century carpet trend in our parents’ and grandparents’ days. Breakthroughs in nylon fibers, electrification, and the proliferation of appliances like the portable vacuum made Americans happily turn their backs on the days when cleaning the rug meant taking it outside and beating it. New was best, and labor-saving devices made all sorts of decorative choices possible.

Now everything old is new again. Wall-to-wall carpeting is the standard for many modern homes, and we take our appliances for granted, so we long for the sight of refinished hardwood floors and want to replace our vacuums for brooms or swiffers. If you’re wondering how to go about accomplishing that, there are plenty of sites that will demonstrate how to determine if your house may have attractive looking hardwood under carpet as well as how to rip it up and refinish that wood so that its natural luster adds another dimension of beauty to your home. Pinterest has plenty of suggestions for carpets, rugs and wood floors as well.

Other than trends or stylistic choices are there other reasons you might want to get rid of your wall-to-wall carpet? Yes! What are they?

• A worn carpet will make a whole room look shabby, even if it’s only worn in spots. On the other hand, people have a tendency to excuse older wood as being antique, vintage, or distressed. Hardwood is easy to keep clean looking, unlike wall-to-wall carpet.
• Synthetic Carpets trap allergens and lessen the air quality in the house. This can be a real problem for people with severe allergies or asthma.
• It’s much easier to replace an area rug than a roomful of carpet. This is true whether your reason for replacing your carpet is the condition of the carpet, a desire to try something new or change things up, or display an antique carpet as a room centerpiece.

Once you’ve decided that you want to make a change to a hardwood floor, how do you go about choosing your area rug? The sky (and your budget) is the limit. You can choose to cover most or only a small area of your hardwood. Perhaps you’d like to try layering a smaller antique rug over a jute area rug to add more texture to your space? Or maybe you want to display several smaller rugs instead?

Bond Products encourages you to use your imagination. Take your time in choosing a carpet or a remnant to rebind and display. You may have hardwood throughout your house and different rug uses for each room. Perhaps the best thing about area rugs is that they are so easily removed or put into rotation, so changing your rooms as the seasons change is suddenly possible.

If you’ve been thinking about switching your carpet for a rug, what are you waiting for?

 

 

As the days fly past and we approach Memorial Day, it’s now the time of the year when porches and patios become rooms in our houses that get good use again. We take our outdoor furniture out of storage, set up our grills, breathe the warm spring air, and listen to the insects hum as we enjoy our meals alfresco again. The homemakers and decorators among us get to flex their creative muscles and extend the indoors to the outdoors, so it’s a good time to talk about outdoor carpets and which ones work well in these types of spaces.

For decorative purposes there are any number of rugs and mats that can be used to add color or spruce up a space. They are made from natural materials like jute or bamboo or from man-made fibers like nylon, polypropylene, or acrylic. Because these rugs are smaller and can be picked and moved or put into areas that are more protected from the elements, you have a large variety to choose from. Remember that rugs made from natural fibers can be very beautiful, but they are also far more vulnerable to staining and mold growth.

Of course, if the space you want to use will be open to the elements and the carpet will be regularly exposed to rain and moisture, it’s a good idea to use a marine outdoor carpet or an indoor/outdoor carpet. This type of carpet has an olefin top layer and a rubber backing. Olefin fibers are the only type of carpet fibers that will float on water. This is because they are made to resist moisture absorption and not only water, but dirt, fading, stains, and mold. It’s ideal for boats, but it’s also great for patios, garages, pool areas, and basements. Many olefin-fiber carpets can be hand washed with a mild bleach solution as well which makes for easy cleaning if they do get mildew or mold.

Grass carpet is another option for sports applications like an backyard putting green or for homeowners in drought-stricken areas who still enjoy seeing some green in their recreation space. Grass carpets are available in a number of grades, but if your space will be getting wet, look into getting a high-grade grass carpet with a marine backing. It will last longer and remain in place better.

If you already have your rugs in place and are concerned about maintaining them, Bond Products offers a marine-style Instabind product that is ideal for boat interiors and outdoor carpets. If you notice damage when you pull your outdoor carpets from storage this year, don’t fret. Like other carpets and rugs, outdoor carpets can be rebound simply and easily. Check out our catalog for options or call us today with your questions. We will be happy to help.

Winter is finally over, and we can begin to enjoy all of the pleasures of spring now: warmer days, open windows, flowers, bird singing, and trees in leaf. Spring is also a time when people clean out their homes and begin to make plans for renovating or redecorating. All of the new life around us makes us think about other new possibilities. Unfortunately for people with certain health issues, spring can also be challenging to live through.

Previously we discussed how wool rugs affect allergies. This time, since we are moving into spring, the time of the year when pollen most affects people, we will go over how other flooring options can help or hinder the buildup of allergens in the house. Before you decide on your next home improvement project, whether that’s turning a remnant into a rug or restoring an antique carpet, you may want to learn more about how different kinds of flooring impact people’s health.

Obviously, hard floors, whether hardwood, tile, or laminate, are easier to keep clean and particulate free. That’s because sweeping or vacuuming them is simple. Anything with more surface area will have places for pollen and other allergens to collect. With that in mind, tightly woven carpets are a better choice than a loose weave, and the shorter the individual carpet strands, the better. Allergy sufferers should avoid shag carpets in particular. Additionally, man-made fibers like nylon and polyester do not absorb moisture and are not the preferred food of molds. Make sure to vacuum man-made carpet regularly, however, as gravity pulls every allergen down to the floor and lands on them too.

In addition to vacuuming, it’s also important to shampoo or clean your carpets, especially during this time of year. If you prefer antique or high value carpets, make sure to add something to your spring budget to get them professionally cleaned. You do not want to make a mistake and ruin an expensive carpet with a quick or amateur shampoo job.

While you are focusing on your flooring and carpets, take time to check their overall condition. Carpet mending is best done when snags or holes are smaller. If you find that the bindings on your rugs are wearing out or are loose, now is the time to address that as well. Bond Products has a long history with carpet, and we have a large inventory of products to help you bind, repair, or refurbish your area rugs. If we can be any assistance to you in helping you make them cleaner, safer, or revitalized, do not hesitate to call us with your questions.

 

Our TV and Radio Segment is tentatively scheduled for an airing on April 2^nd, 2016, with HomeTalkUSA with The Cajun Contractor Michael King.  You can catch your radio interview LIVE on the Lifestyle Talk Radio Network (www.lifestyletalkradio.com) at 11:00am EST and your TV segment at 11:00am EST on the BIZ TV Network (www.biztv.com).

Click here to go to Bond Products’ page on HomeTalk’s website.

Last time we discussed some of the area rugs trends for 2016. One of them was rug layering, and here we’ll talk about what makes this design trend fun and aesthetically interesting.

First of all, every hard floor needs a nice area rug. That’s our motto. It’s also true that hard floors allow for easier changes to design – which is good for people who don’t like to be stuck in a rut, but prefer to mix things up a bit every so often. Layering your rugs adds depth and scale to a room which not only makes it more interesting, but actually pulls the eyes down and gives your guests additional style elements to enjoy and admire.

The first rule of layering, of course, is to put your most interesting carpet on the top so that it can be seen, so it will be a highlight of your room. What rug layering does is allow you to work with a smaller but more interesting or valuable rug without that rug looking inadequate for the space it’s occupying. What you’re doing by layering rugs is giving that primary rug a frame and filling up the floor’s open area at the same time.

Any carpet that lies beneath that top layer must be fairly neutral and complement the primary rug. This means that the bottom rug can be a less expensive rug, a bound remnant even. One of the current trends is using natural fiber rugs, like sisal, underneath woven rugs. That way you can juxtapose two textures with each other. That bottom rug should cover most of the room’s floor space, ideally leaving only 12 to 14 inches of space between the rug and the walls.

As with other style elements, don’t feel compelled to color only within the lines. Most pictures are framed as rectangles within rectangles, yes, but sometimes it’s fun to include different shapes. Don’t be afraid to layer at an interesting angle or use a uniquely shaped hide rug as your top layer. An animal hide rug is often a small rug, given that it’s the shape and side of the animal that it belonged to. Many people are hesitant to use these kinds of rugs because they will be swallowed up in a large room. Layering solves this problem nicely.

Another problem layering can solve is covering up a bland carpet that you otherwise might get rid of. If one of the rooms in your house has a beige wall-to-wall carpet you despise, adding a beautifully bound area rug on top of it can fix that. You may have an area rug you love that has a stain or hole. Choosing a coordinating smaller rug to cover any issue will allow you to keep it and still use it in your design scheme.

There are so many fun design opportunities for carpet layering. Why not try this yourself in a room you’d like to spruce up? It’s a simple and inexpensive way to make a change, and if you need any carpet supplies to accomplish it, Bond Products can help.

 

Many of our customers are looking to express themselves creatively, whether that is something as simple as binding their own carpet remnants or exploring interior design. Since what is popular for decor and carpet changes all of the time, we thought we’d mention some of the more recent trends.

Contrast – Pulling the old and new together is a recent aesthetic trend. In terms of carpet, this could mean adding a luxurious bound carpet to a distressed floor in a warehouse apartment or laying an antique rug over spotless tile.

Texture – Designers are pushing fabrics that people yearn to touch. This may mean faux fur upholstery or natural fiber rugs made of seagrass, jute, or sisal – anything that makes you want to run your hands over it when you’re looking at it is in.

Layered area rugs – If one rug on the floor looks fabulous, how great would stacking multiple rugs look? One of them, of course, needs to be fairly simple to pull this look off. Nicole Gibbons of So Haute recommends starting with a simple sisal rug and allowing 12 to 18 inches of size difference to allow for proper framing and contrast.

Natural fibers – Besides the aforementioned sisal, nubby wool rugs offer a soothing color scheme when other design elements are brighter and more intense.

Bringing the outdoors indoors – If you haven’t noticed, going green is all the rage these days, and architects and designers are currently excited about ways to incorporate natural elements into indoor settings. This goes beyond just buying houseplants or using recycled materials – like reclaimed barn wood – for flooring or furniture. The idea is to highlight life, whether that is indoor waterfalls, plant walls, greenhouse or conservatory space, or choosing bright area rugs with florals or leaves to position strategically on those hardwood floors.

Do you sense a pattern to the above suggestions? That’s right, the natural look is in. If it’s organic or – even better – alive, that’s what the people seems to have an desire for in 2016. Goodbye nylon, and hello wool and seagrass.

Of course, if none of the above types of design trends appeal, you should always feel free to find any rug that will enhance your surroundings and make your space feel more beautiful or more comfortable. Trends are fun to follow, but they change all of the time, whereas most of us do not redecorate entire rooms on a yearly basis. Still, it’s fun to incorporate something different into your decorative scheme, and one way to do that is to switch out your area rug!

 

Bond Products’ own Brian Milnes recently flew down to New Orleans to tape a spot on Home Talk TV with the Cajun Contractor Michael King. Home Talk USA is a weekly Q&A format talk show that provides useful and timely information about the specifics of home improvement to contractors, homeowners, and DIYers. Brian is also planning a follow-up radio interview with Mr. King. The television spot will air this Saturday on February 27, so set your DVR or watch it on Vimeo here after it airs.

Brian will be talking about all the ways to use our carpet binding tape, Instabind. It’s always exciting for a company when its product sells itself, and that has been the case with Instabind. A quick Google search will reveal how many DIYers have used our products and recommend it to others for:

DIY carpet binding

Car and truck floor mat projects

A vintage Jalopy interior

Boat interiors

Carpet remnant projects

and many other uses. Instabind is simple to use, inexpensive, and versatile, and we are proud that it has proven so helpful to our customers that they want to tell other people about it on their own blogs and within their own crafting communities.

Finally, Bond Products has a new catalog. Take a moment to go through our full line of helpful products. If you need staples, staple guns, mallets, mallet caps, L-cleats, or finish nails for your flooring project, shop our Pro Drive HD™ line of supplies. When it’s too cold outside to enjoy mother nature, it’s just the right temperature indoors to start or finish a DIY project. Happy crafting!