vinyl plank flooring aka fake wood floors

I love, Love, LOVE the vinyl plank flooring, aka fake wood floors in my craft room!!

The carpet needed to be replaced in this room for a long time.  I knew I didn't want to put more carpet down, but I wasn't sure what would to do.  The room is open with no distinct boundary between the hall to the carpeted stairs and my kids bedrooms.  The stairs need to stay carpeted, as much as I HATE the carpet in there, to absorb the sound of the vaulted stairway.  And I still want the bedrooms carpeted for now.  So I was unsure how to change the flooring.  I read a few things on the internet about vinyl wood tiles.  I even bought a few samples, which sat in my garage for 2 years.  Then I looked at the flooring department at Lowes and found these vinyl wood tiles that I really liked and some metal pieces that are transitions between carpet and tile.  

photo from Lowes

They have texture and are beautiful.  And they aren't too expensive so I gave it a shot.

I cleaned out the mess in the room and stuffed it all in my kids bedrooms.  

They loved the obstacle course to their beds each night for 2 days.

I had to tear out the carpet, pull up the carpet tack strips and millions of staples, scrape off the dropped ceiling texture on the subfloor, patch holes in the sub floor, sand and sweep.  And then sweep again.  And then vacuum.  And then sweep again.  It was sooo dusty.  No wonder everyone in my house sneezes like crazy.  Gross.

The next step is priming.  There is a special primer for subfloors (I couldn't find it on the website, but it's in the same aisle as the tiles at Lowes) to be able to stick vinyl tiles to them.  I just rolled it on with a paint roller and an extender pole.  It was dry in about 30 minutes.

(Please excuse the poor cell phone photos.  I was knee deep in the project and didn't stop to grab my camera) Once all the prep was done, it was time for the fun part- laying the tile.  The subfloor had a pretty good line running down the length of the floor so that it was I used to make sure everything was straight. I put the first tile up against the line and worked my way around the room.  I snugged them up very tight to each other and staggered the placement so they all didn't end it the exact place.  The vinyl tiles are easily cut with a utility  knife.

I used metal transitions between the carpet and the vinyl.  It's not a perfect match color wise, but it looks pretty good in person.  I cut it to size with a hack saw, then pounded the included nails through the holes into the floor below, making sure to get the edge of the carpet.

I'm not a big fan of quarter round, so I found this lightweight, square molding that I like so much better.  I attached it with glue.  I wasn't sure it was going to work so I used craft glue in case it needed to be removed.  But it looks great and is holding up fine.

Here are a few more photos of the finished floor.

It's hard to believe it's vinyl.

I soo wished I would have done this a long time ago.  It is holding up perfectly- even with sliding the furniture around on it.  And the best part, the entire thing only cost a little more than $200.  Amazing!!

linking up to:  Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Organize and Decorate Everything, Primp