Rug Binding 101

   So - I'm in the middle of painting the main floor when I suddenly realize that my livingroom rug HAS GOT TO GO! I love this rug but it's green and brown and beige circles - nice. The living room colors are purple, blue and yellow - definitely not gonna be okay.

   Not to worry, I have a purple rug (handy, right?). The only problem is that it's a remnant so the edges aren't finished, it looks like a crazy frayed mess.

 On to the internet I go....I'm envisioning myself hand binding a rug with a curved needle and embroidery floss for the next 5 years.... GAK! After about 11 seconds of searching I find this awesome product from a company called Bond Products, Instabind. For well under $100.00 I get a 54' roll of instant rug binding! The website is really nice, there are videos of how to use the binding, clear pictures of the colors and styles available, prices right up front and super zippy shipping!

   

   Two days later, the binding arrives. Its a piece of binding attached to a 2" wide section of adhesive. The adhesive sticks to the back of the carpet, you run a little bead of hot glue along the edge and in no time flat you have an amazing carpet at a fraction of the cost of buying finished rugs!

     The entire process took me about an hour to do a 10'x12' rug. You simply make sure your rug edges are straight. I used a rotary cutter for that because cutting carpet with scissors is a nightmare! Peel the paper backing off the binding to expose the adhesive. Stick the adhesive strip to the back of the carpet starting in the center of one side of the rug. When you get to the corner, cut the adhesive strip up to the binding, bend it around the corner and keep going. The adhesive gets stronger as it sets so you have time to fudge it around if you don't get it perfect.

    Once the tape is all on, you go back around with your hot glue gun, run a little bead along the edge and press the carpet down firmly. When you get to the end, you overlap slightly and glue the ends together.

   This was so simple and so inexpensive. I paid $80.00 for the rug at a remnant sale, $10.00 for padding and $54.00 for the binding. I don't think I could have purchased the rug for under $500.00 - Whoa! High five ME!

   Now back to painting the livingroom!