First, do you want self-stick tiles or ones that requiring glue? The peel-and-stick type are easier and less messy to put down. However, they are also more prone to curling edges and loosening.

Next, what size of tile do you prefer? You can get planks that resemble hardwood flooring. Tiles are often found in one square foot sizes. There is also an 18-inch size. Each size can lend a different look to the room. Also, the 18-inch size will have fewer cracks for liquids to get under and to peel up later. The one-foot size or planks may be easier to handle when laying the tile, however.

What patterns do you like? You can find many different designs. Some are simulated to look like hardwood flooring. Others may look like various stone floors. Still more are solid color. These can lend themselves to interesting designs where you alternate tiles of different colors or maybe use a different color tile to edge the room or highlight a focal point. You can also find other designs such as floral.

What is your price range? While your first instinct may be to go with the cheapest tile, this probably isn’t your best option. Vinyl tile vary in thickness and durability. If you are putting the tile in a very light traffic area, you may be able to get by with cheaper tile. If you have pets and/or kids or lots of foot traffic, then you will want to get a floor that will hold up to the abuse.

Where are you planning to put the tile? Bathrooms and kitchens tend to be high-moisture areas. In this case, the tiles that require gluing may work better since the self-stick tiles may loosen over time. Tiles coming up can also be a concern in areas that are below-grade such as basements. In fact, vinyl tile may not be the best choice for such areas.

Do you want to match a pattern? Some tiles have obvious patterns like stripes. Others may have arrows indicating which side is up, but the pattern isn’t as obvious. Getting a pattern to line up can be tricky and may not look good if your room isn’t square and your striped tile emphasizes that fact.

By taking the above considerations into account, you should be able to select the best vinyl tile for your floor.

Carpet a room using carpet samples. This creative method of carpeting a room works out great for a casual family room or kids bedroom. One of the real benefits besides costs is that when an area looks worn it is easily replaced without replacing the carpet in the entire room.

Discontinued carpet samples can be purchased at retail carpet dealers for as little as .50 cents each for smaller samples and a bit more for the larger sizes.  The size of both the sample and the room you are carpeting will dictate how many samples you’ll need.  If samples are not available you can also purchase small remnants of carpet. You’ll also need to purchase staples or floor adhesive to attach the samples to the floor.

If you are doing a children’s playroom, using multi-colored carpet is perfect.  It is very colorful and if a spill stains one of the squares of carpet,
you can quickly and easily pull it back up and install a new square.  This is a great advantage to doing a playroom this way.

The only things you’ll actually need when you install carpet samples or squares in a room is a carpet knife and a staple gun.  The 5/8″ staples seem to work the best for squares and samples.

All you need to do is put the carpet piece in place and staple in two or three staples along each side.  Make sure you wiggle the head of the stapler down deep between the fibers, or between the border and the fibers, so you can hide the staples as much as possible.

If you are carpeting a concrete floor, you can use either all purpose adhesive or double sided carpet tape instead of staples.  With either case, this is best to do when padding isn’t that important.  You can use padding as well if you don’t mind the complications, although without it, its pure simplicity.

You may also choose to lay out your pieces of carpet first, then decide where each individual piece will go.  When you reach walls, heating sources, or other obstacles, you can quickly and easily cut the pieces to fit. If you happen to make a mistake, it will cost you almost nothing, instead of costing
you a fortune.  When you make a mistake, all you have to do is start over with a different sample.

Before you begin to put the carpet down, you should always measure the size of the room first so that you can determine how many samples you need to purchase. If one store does not have enough samples you can usually find more samples at another store. To save drive time you might want to call around and find out what stores have ahead of time.

Although the samples will range in size the average is about 18 X 18 inches.  Using  pieces that are the same size is perhaps the easiest way to do it. Using multiple sizes is more work but if you have an artistic flare you will find it worth your time cutting and fitting multiple sizes of carpet samples.

Keep in mind that using samples or remnants is a very unusual style and if you are preparing a house for sale this is probably not the best choice for most rooms.