small cups for my legs

August 29, 2013 12:14 PM

What I'm search for may not exist. We have recently purchased a new metal-framed coffee-table with legs that taper down to ~1/2" at the floor. With the legs being so slender, they are creating little holes in the pile of the rug that they rest on. I'm looking for something like this, but perhaps only 1/2" wide so they aren't so obvious in the middle of the living room. The smallest I've been able to find is about 3X that size. Thoughts? I'm aware of the stick-on rubber/felt pads that are available and may need to go in that direction, but thought I'd see if anybody has some other ideas like above. thank you.
posted by jimmereeno to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

I think if you get ones that are as small as you are hoping for, the weight won't be distributed any better than it is already, and the holes in the pile of the rug will not be alleviated.

For my heavy curio cabinet with tiny legs, I've more or less matched the carpet color with the furniture cups.
posted by janey47 at 12:39 PM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you don't mind something plastic and re-purposed: contact lens cases have lids that are usually about 1 inch in diameter; some are even a bit smaller. And the plastic tends to be pretty robust.
posted by fikri at 12:47 PM on August 29, 2013

Yeah, the solutions you're considering won't help. The rubber and felt pads are for protecting hardwood floors from abrasion. Plastic or rubber disks the same size as the legs will bore holes in the carpet in just the same way.
posted by jon1270 at 12:55 PM on August 29, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for the thoughts everybody.
Any ideas on something clear and 1" diameter? I understand that something the same size of the leg won't help... but 2" is extreme.
posted by jimmereeno at 1:05 PM on August 29, 2013

Is 1" all that much better than 1/2" You are just crushing a larger area of carpet.

Rather than allowing the tips of the legs to crush the carpet fibers, could you literally get down in there and move the fibers out of the way, so the legs sit directly on the carpet backing, with just a few fibers actually being crushed?
posted by misterbrandt at 1:08 PM on August 29, 2013

(But if you really want smaller glides, Item #17 on this page are adhesive-back, 3/4" or 1" diameter white glides.)
posted by misterbrandt at 1:51 PM on August 29, 2013

I bought a chair at a vintage shop that had rubber stoppers on the legs.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:52 PM on August 29, 2013

Best answer: There are specific kinds of leg protectors for carpet. They have lots of small prongs on the bottom, intended to go through the carpet fibers and backing, thus bearing the weight of the furniture directly to the floor, or at least the underpad of the carpet, without crushing the carpet pile.
posted by paulsc at 1:54 PM on August 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

Any ideas on something clear and 1" diameter?

Is there a TAP Plastics near you? They'll have plenty of things for you to choose from.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:57 PM on August 29, 2013

Best answer: These little carpet cups work decently. They get bad reviews because they broke under the weight of pianos, or weren't flexible enough for furniture that was moved often. Under the weight of a normal coffee table, they should be fine. The little prongs on the bottom are slightly better at not crushing carpet than the regular flat cups, but it's not guaranteed to be 100% dent free.
posted by barnone at 2:00 PM on August 29, 2013