I need a rug that really holds the room together, man.

June 7, 2006 9:56 AM

Help me find a cheap, large rug, or an alternative. Soon...

I'm moving into a new rented room. It's a good deal, but the room comes with an ugly old brown shag carpet. I asked the matron/landlady if I could remove the carpet (the corner I grabbed lifted right up, like it wasn't even really attached to the floor), and she said yes...but. The 'but' is that her husband, who spends a lot of time below my room, hates hearing the sound of feet on wood, so if I remove the carpet, I have to pad the *entire* floor. I didn't think much of it at the time, saying 'well, fine, I'll get a few rugs, and I'll cover the entire floor.'

Well, I guess I didn't realize how expensive rugs are. The room is about 15 x 15 (feet). I suppose that I could get away with not putting rugs under the bed and the furniture, but I'll still have to cover most of the space. I was thinking of spending maybe $200 or $300 at the most, but I'm realizing now that this was probably a fantasy. Since it's a rental, I don't really want to pay for actual carpet; I want to use something that I can later take away with me and use again somewhere else.

There is a bit of a time issue. I'm planning to move my stuff over on the weekend of the 16th...since I recently had back surgery, my mom is actually coming to town to help, so that date can't really be moved...and once my stuff is in the room, it's going to be a much bigger pain to change the old carpet. Between now and about 10 days from now, there is nothing in the room (not even a bed, which I'm also providing), so now is my best chance to get rid of the nasty green carpet...but only if I can show the landlady that I have something equally soft to put down.

I'm in NYC. The place I'm moving to is in the Ludlow Park area of Yonkers.

posted by bingo to home & garden (33 comments total)

buy several mismatched carpet remnants and cut to fit. apply carpet tape to the back to hold them in the proper position. Should be less than $300 for something that small.
posted by cosmicbandito at 10:10 AM on June 7, 2006

ikea has lots of cheap, interesting rugs. i don't know if any one of them would be large enough, though.
posted by (lambda (x) x) at 10:11 AM on June 7, 2006

Try going into a carpet store and asking for their discarded samples. (They may charge you a dollar or two per tile but usually, they're happy to give them away). Use duct tape on the back to "quilt" them together in a pattern of your choosing.
As an extra touch, see if the carpet store will sell you the padding. You don't need it for the whole room but the store might have large pieces you can use in the traffic areas.
posted by jaimystery at 10:12 AM on June 7, 2006

oops, I typed tile but I meant "sample". Carpet samples are usually retangular, carpet tiles are usually square. This makes a difference when you plan how many you'll need.
posted by jaimystery at 10:14 AM on June 7, 2006

Try Craig's List or ebay. I got a giant persian rug on ebay a few years ago for $150 that covers an entire room. It's machine made, but handsome and very thick underfoot.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:21 AM on June 7, 2006

Also, dude, rugs tie a room together.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:24 AM on June 7, 2006

Those Ikea rugs look damn cheap...sure, each one is not big enough to cover the room, but a few of them together sure would, if I'm reading the sizes correctly. What's the catch? Maybe they're thin? Compared to rugs at JC Penney or DWR they're practically giving them away. What am I missing?
posted by bingo at 10:24 AM on June 7, 2006

You just need one box of carpet tiles.
posted by defreckled at 10:24 AM on June 7, 2006

Hmm...some of those Home Depot rugs don't look bad, either. I'm not finding the carpet tiles.
posted by bingo at 10:29 AM on June 7, 2006

I don't know if you have a Big Lots or some other type of Surplus Warehouse type place near where you live, but they often have rugs much cheaper than you can get them elsewhere.
posted by MasonDixon at 10:30 AM on June 7, 2006

The Ikea rugs are machine-made from synthetic materials and are very thin. That's why they are so cheap.
posted by spakto at 10:34 AM on June 7, 2006

yeah, those ikea rugs might not be as high quality as something you'd buy from dwr -- that is, they probably aren't hand woven by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous aboriginal peoples of wherever -- but at those prices they're probably at least worth a look.
posted by (lambda (x) x) at 10:40 AM on June 7, 2006

Without a doubt Craigslist. I purchased 3 lovely room sized wool rugs for $200 bucks with underlay off a lovely couple. I am sure you can get a better deal.
posted by verveonica at 10:42 AM on June 7, 2006

Here's a suggestion, out of left field. We recently did an installation that used very cheap artificial grass plastic carpet. The gimmick is, it also comes in white. It was soft to walk on, looked cool, and was, as I said, very cheap. But it had a certain design impact. Sorry no link.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:43 AM on June 7, 2006

Hmm...the only ikea around here is in Brooklyn, and I'm getting the impression that it hasn't even opened for business yet. So it's going to be hard for me to go to one and actually see what the rugs are like.
posted by bingo at 10:44 AM on June 7, 2006

I agree with the carpet tiles. When you move out, you'll find that they are easier to move, compared to a giant rug. And if an area gets stained, you can just replace 1 carpet tile, or move it to an inconspicious place. If you can spend a bit more, "Flor" carpet tiles made by Interface Flooring are very high quality. They have lots of different styles too.
posted by Spurious Packets at 10:45 AM on June 7, 2006

before i suggested ikea, i checked and found a location on long island, and given my ignorance when it comes to the geography of nyc i figured that was close enough. the bulk of those rugs aren't available for online ordering, so if you can't actually get to a store it's probably not the way to go, apologies.
posted by (lambda (x) x) at 10:53 AM on June 7, 2006

K-mart sells rugs. I've seen them at the Astor Place K-Mart, priced for the college kids and a good size for a dorm room. They are kind of thin, though.

I got a nice thick 4x6 rug at Ikea for twenty bucks in the "as-is" room. It had a stain on it, but some cleaner took it right out. There's a free shuttle that takes you to the one in New Jersey on the weekends.
posted by hooray at 10:59 AM on June 7, 2006

If you have Cost Plus Imports in NY (I suspect they're a SF chain), they have interesting cheap rugs. Home Depot is also a source for cheap rugs (mostly kind of boring but sometimes you get lucky).
posted by doctor_negative at 11:01 AM on June 7, 2006

Home Depot also has some "as-is" - special orders that were never picked up, etc. I got a nice wool 8X10 for $75. i'm sure you can pick a couple of runners that would do - you won't need to carpet underneath the couch or certain tables, so you could save on square footage that way.
posted by blackkar at 11:04 AM on June 7, 2006

Ikea again. You can get huge rugs that otherwhere would be much more money. I got a nice Persian(-looking) rug, not chemical-dye-looking at all, big enough for a whole living room, for around $40. I have never seen a rug so cheap.
posted by yesno at 11:16 AM on June 7, 2006

Ikea is out in Elizabeth NJ - less than a half hour by car from the the Lincoln Tunnel. They used to run shuttles but I think they quit doing that. Very worth a trip when you are moving though.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:18 AM on June 7, 2006

Here's an outlet that sells individual carpet tiles. Measure what you need, then order.
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:19 AM on June 7, 2006

The only reason you're getting carpets is because the man downstairs can't bear the sound of feet on wood, right?

Then, sorry if this sounds stupid or obvious, but... why not just use on of those, what do you call them, sort of padded slippers that just make a soft wooosh woosh when you walk in them? Something like this, but even better, if you can find the type with no rubber underneath, just felt or similar. The kind used by fussy people to protect their very special floors... this is more or less what I was thinking of.

That's at most $15 instead of $300+. And much more portable.

You could at least try and see if they do a good job of muffling sounds for the downstairs neighbour, before investing more money in the carpets. (really, if it's cheap thin carpets you're thinking of, there's a good chance the slippers may do just as nicely or even better).
posted by funambulist at 12:45 PM on June 7, 2006

Regarding eBay and craigslist, boith good ideas:

If you're looking at 'oriental' rugs on ebay, make sure you know what the shipping cost will be, and check the seller's feedback. This category is rife with $200 shipping, falsely glowing descripions, and cagy sellers. If below 99% positive feedback, be very wary.

Besides looking at 'For Sale' on craigslist, post an ad of your own describing what you need. Lots of people have rolled-up rugs taking up space.
posted by wryly at 12:55 PM on June 7, 2006

Ikea and discount stores like Target are good, but the first thing I thought of for you are those interlocking tiles. Because they're so modular, they're more likely to work wherever you go next, and will be easy to install, remove, re-install, etc.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 1:40 PM on June 7, 2006

I was in Target last night and saw big 8'x10' carpets (not hideous ones, either) for $88. If you can indeed get away with leaving some areas uncovered you could get 2 in your budget.
posted by phearlez at 2:05 PM on June 7, 2006

Then, sorry if this sounds stupid or obvious, but... why not just use on of those, what do you call them, sort of padded slippers that just make a soft wooosh woosh when you walk in them?

It's not an option. The conditions for my moving in were that I would either keep the current carpet, or completely cover the floor with something else.

I went to Home Depot since this thread started and saw some possibilities. There isn't a Target in NYC (although there sure are a lot of Target billboard ads). I may go out to Ikea this weekend. Those interlocking tile things...I dunno, seems like if I was going to do that, I might as well just get a big mat.
posted by bingo at 3:49 PM on June 7, 2006

There isn't a Target in NYC

Actually, there is a target in Brooklyn-- at Atlantic and Flatbush-- right at the 2/3/4/5/B/D/N/R/Q subway lines Atlantic-Pacific stops. To be more precise, 139 Flatbush Ave , Brooklyn, NY 11217-1403.
posted by andrewraff at 4:33 PM on June 7, 2006

I know I'm late, but I, too, agree with the IKEA idea. I got some nice, handwoven rugs there for my apartment, which has hardwood floors. The handwoven ones are a little more expensive ($2-300), but they are beautiful, and with a pad underneath, my neighbors don't hear me too much. A lot of IKEA stuff is overrated, but a LOT is so inexpensive and nice that I used to drive to NJ from Boston to go there at least twice a year. Thankfully now we have one 20 mile out of Boston :-)
posted by WaterSprite at 5:38 PM on June 7, 2006

I'm late late late but I bought inexpensive rugs through walmart.com. I looked everywhere I could think of, and they had Shaw brand rugs in some decent colors (but I like me some shag.) Better selection on their site than Target or even Ikea and certainly cheaper. Online was an advantage because I am basically a lazy person plus who wants to fight that crowd on a Saturday?
posted by Miastar at 9:00 PM on June 7, 2006

Nobody is late. I'll be checking this for a while.

I'm not sure that I can bring myself to shop at WalMart anymore, online or otherwise, but I will check out Target and Ikea.
posted by bingo at 9:38 PM on June 7, 2006

You don't have to spend a lot of money to make a room look the way you want it to however getting the right colours is important. The colour of the rug should in general be in the same palette a sthe other colours in the room because what you are wanting to do is create a compliment to your room and not a statement. You can browse a huge range of rugs online, there are many good sites out there that offer great value for money. If you're in the UK you could maybe try out Rugs Uk these offer a huge selection of shag pile rugs in allsorts of shapes and sizes or you could tryout Cool Rugs who offer rugs that are different and very contemporary.
posted by therugmaster at 2:22 AM on March 7, 2007