DIY - Cutting a round rug from Flor carpet tiles

In all three of our homes including this one we have utilized Flor carpet tiles in some fashion. We really needed a round rug to anchor our Burke table and Eames chairs. For color we wanted something pretty loud, something that would really make a statement on our dark floors, so as you can see bright pink it is! I have never cut Flor tiles but I thought why not give it a try, there are probably half a dozen ways to do this but this was my attempt.

The finished rug

I found an old used carpet tile that I had no plans for and drawing corner to corner, found the center.

I then drilled a hole in the middle. I put a bolt through the center with a washer on the bottom of the carpet tile and on the top.

My kids did not appreciate this next step. I dismantled their cardboard fort and put it down on the floor for a cutting surface.

I taped the tile to the middle of the cardboard.

I taped all of the tiles together. The center bolt is popping up out of the four corners that meet in the center.

To make my cutting arm I purchased a 4′ length of this L shaped perforated metal. I cut the end off and made a small “L” at the end. I then used a carpet knife and attached it to the flat side of the “L”. Lucky for me there were already holes in the knife for the bolts to go through.

I loosely attached the arm to the bolt in the center so that it could turn freely. I also placed some felt furniture dots on the underside of the arm so that it would slide along the backside of the tiles more easily.

Here is where I would like to say that it worked like a charm, but it did not work at all. I realized that the blade needed to be more straight up and down vs on an angle. After going around a couple of times I did realize that the knife did make a perfect circular score mark around the rug. I decided to just cut the rug buy hand now that I had the score mark. I just followed the score line around the rug, it worked pretty well. I then flipped it over and used the supplied adhesive dots to assemble the rug.

I am sure pink is not for everyone and maybe some day we will tire of it but for now we really like it.