Remodeling your home can have many benefits. Besides improving your overall quality of life, remodeling can increase the value of your home and reduce maintenance and utility costs. You may be thinking about adding a new room or simply sprucing up an existing room. Regardless of the size, undergoing any kind of home improvement project can be stressful. It is important to consider all of your options and consult with professionals before tackling any task.

Many people are starting to embark on projects to make their home more eco-friendly. Choosing “green” projects can help reduce your carbon “footrprint”, or impact on the Earth. When deciding on new “green” features for your home, it is important to choose products or projects that will:

• Save Water
• Increase energy efficiency
• Reduce CO2 emissions

Many people are also “going green” when it comes to purchasing flooring. First and foremost, you should always choose a floor covering that fits your needs and your budget. After you’ve decided on your perfect flooring, there are a few simple steps you can take to remain eco-friendly:

• Buy locally! This reduces the amount of emissions from shipping and delivery vehicles.
• Choose flooring with minimal VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions which can contribute to long-term health risks.
• Choose flooring that takes little energy to produce or manufacture and is made from renewable resources.

Shop online at www.buddyallencarpetonenashville.com and look for the “Green” tag on products that meet earth-friendly standards.

At Buddy Allen Carpet One, we love to share our flooring knowledge and know-how. That’s why throughout the month of May we will be sharing all of our great home improvement tips with our most valued friends- you!

Other blogs of interest:  Choosing Flooring for Your Home, Hardwood Shopping Guide, Carpet Buying Guide, Buying Green

One of the most important steps in how to clean carpet s simply to vacuum regularly. When vacuuming wall-to-wall carpet you should divide the floor into sections and focus on one area at a time. If you have plush carpet, you will need to devote more time to each section. Make two to three passes with the cleaner moving slowly in order to remove deep dirt.

Areas that experience high foot traffic need to be vacuumed more frequently. Move your cleaner in a crisscross pattern across these areas. Every carpet owner should have a crevice tool. Use this tool, and a little elbow grease, monthly to remove dirty buildup around baseboards and doorways. Have pet odors? No worries. Adding a little baking soda to your vacuum cleaner’s bag can help remove those pesky odors.

Spills and spots happen. The best way to prevent those spills and spots from turning into stains is to clean them immediately. Do not rub the carpet. Blot up as much of the spills as you can before using any spot cleaners. Any spot cleaners that you plan to use should be tested on a small swatch of carpet to make certain that the cleaner will not discolor your flooring. After cleaning, use a bath towel to pat the area dry.

At Buddy Allen Carpet One, we believe that your flooring should outlast all of life’s messes. Call us today or stop in our showroom and let our experts share more of our flooring tips with you.

*Stay tuned for our Fashion Floorward Saving Event featuring huge saving on our Resista® SoftStyle Carpet! Shop Resista Carpet Early, Click HERE!

Buddy Allen Carpet One is a local flooring store – family-owned and operated since 1963. Nearly 50 years of serving Nashville’s flooring needs have truly made us experts! Even our employees have been with us for years. Unlike big box stores, we personally know and trust all of our employees, and our customers have that same opportunity. We would never think of sending unknown contracted installers into the homes of our customers.

We won’t try to sell you plumbing, light fixtures, paint, or anything else you find at those home stores. We only sell top-of-the-line, quality flooring. As a member of the Carpet One co-op, we have strong buying power and relationships with the most durable brands, mills and manufacturers in the country. This helps us drive cost down without sacrificing the integrity and lifetime of the flooring products you buy. With many exclusive brands, we guarantee that you will find the best flooring around!

Speaking of guarantees, we back up every product you purchase. We offer a Lifetime Installation Guarantee and The Beautiful Guarantee because we want you to love the flooring you buy.

At Buddy Allen Carpet One, we want to give you the very best flooring and service at the very best price. Want to hear the best part? Purchasing your flooring with us will help stimulate our local economy instead of going into the pockets of big business owners – and we could all use a little boost right now. What are you waiting for? Give us a call or come into our Buddy Allen Carpet One showroom today!

Hardwood leftovers:

• Planter stand with wheels: If you’re hardwood reminants are already squared, then you simply need to pop in at your local hardware store and pick with the wheels and screw – these typically come in sets or their staff can help you on which size to select for your planter. Just make sure that you have 4 wheels for each corner. : ) Here is a link to tell you how to add the wheels to your your new mobile planter stand!

• Decoupage: this is where you use pieces of paper and a decoupage medium like Mod Podge to decorate the wood! You’ll use 6 to 12 coats of varnish to the final masterpieces to make it water resistant. You can use this technique to create wall hangings, ornaments, coasters and other keepsakes!

• Here is a forum with loads of ideas from other people who have used leftover hardwood remnants for crafts!

Tile:

• Painted Tiled Decor:in most metro cities you can find pottery store that has a kilm and ceramic paint. With leftover tile you can use their ceramic paint to create a neat coaster, heating pad or artwork to hand on your wall or display.Pop into the pottery store, decorate your tile and ask them to fire it for you! These also make great gifts.

•  Dry Erase menu board: We found this CUTE craft at the Serenity Now blog. You’ll need tile,4 wooden nobs where one side is flat, Velcro, a dry erase marker, Rub-ons from the craft store, E-6000 glue and white spray paint!

Laminate:

• Magnets: Small pieces of laminate flooring make good magnets. Kids can help with this one, too! Cut the pieces into 2 and 3 inch pieces. Use epoxy glue to adhere the magnets to the laminate. A paint brush works great to apply the glue. Decorate with photos and paint! Let set for 24 hours.

• Eco-Coasters: Cute your laminate into square pieces then hot glue cork pieces to the bottom and you’re set!

• See more cool laminate crafts at this link.

Vinyl:

• Around the house: vinyl is great for catching drips, put them in your bathroom and kitchen cabinets!

• Uber Trendy Floorcloth: If you have a large enough piece, flip them over, paint them and make a really nice floor cloth, or decorative door mat. Use a stencil and be sure to seal it off with polyurethane. The image to the left is from Riddle Interiors – they also have a great step-by-step!

• Grow Away Weeds: If you have a fence that grows weeds, cute the vinyl into strips and place them under the fence to prevent any more weeds from growing there.

Carpet Remnants

• Area Rug: leftover carpet make great. Simply cut the pieces to size and use twill tape or canvas to finish the edges, or stop by and we’ll surge them for you! You can create odd shaped pieces to fit round floor lamps, potted plants, or coffee tables.

• Pets: use leftover carpet to give your pup a nice area to lay in his dog house or dog bed. Meanwhile, a cat condo can get extra padding with a layer of soft carpet inside. Securely nail a piece of rough carpet to the wall for the cat to use as a scratching post

• Sound proofing: place carpet under a noisy refrigerator, washing machine or other household appliance to help muffle out the annoying humming sounds. Use carpet to line the walls of a home theater to soundproof the room. Or put a piece of carpet under the dining room table and chairs so the chairs don’t scrape across the floor.

Find us on pinterest for more fun DIY projects for your home!

Spring Cleaning is truly a labor of love. It is an opportunity to de-clutter, reorganize and freshen up your home before your busy summer season. The idea of spring cleaning can be overwhelming so we decided to put together a few tips to help you get started. We also found this great spring cleaning checklist from Martha Stewart that will give you tips on cleaning each room of your home even more.

Closets

Have you ever counted how many pairs of jeans you own; how many t-shirts you’ve amassed over the years; or how many old pairs of shoes you keep around “just in case”? The idea of counting each of these items in your home is daunting. The rule is: if you haven’t worn a piece in a year (that is 365 days!) then it is time to bag it up and donate it. In Nashville, you can give to any of these reputable non-profits:

• Dress for Success – this non-profit accepts women’s professional / business-style clothing and accessories to help low-income women improve their economic situation.
• Operation Stand Down – this organization accepts clothing and personal care items to aid honorably discharged veterans in rejoining the Middle Tennessee community (as of 2009, 30% of the homeless population in Davidson County was made up of our U.S. Veterans).
• Nurses for Newborns – from diapers and baby food to sleepers and strollers, this organization will accept most anything for babies. This non-profit works with at-risk families to decrease infant mortality, child abuse and neglect.
• Safe Haven – donate most anything that can be used by a family to this organization that helps families out of homelessness in Middle Tennessee (families with children make up 32% of the homeless population).

Furniture

You wouldn’t realize it, but dust and dirt can settle into your furniture cushions! To get a good bit of it out, pull the cushions from your furniture, take them outside and gently beat them to remove dust – this even works to remove pesky pet hair. Use a vacuum hose clean under the cushions. These great non-profits will accept any furniture that doesn’t fit your spring decor:

• The Mary Parrish Center – donations of clothing, furniture and household items in good condition are used by survivors of domestic violence during their transition out of abusive environments.
• Habitat for Humanity HomeStore – this non-profit accepts furniture, decorative items, building materials and even the kitchen sink to raise money to build homes for the needy through Habitat for Humanity.

Decor

Everything collects dust, so it is important that at least one day out of the year you give each decorative piece in your home a good rub down.  Take everything off the shelves, dust your shelves and use a dry soft cloth on most of your knickknacks. For the tight spots, use your vacuum hose attachment. Donate unwanted decorative pieces to:

• Goodwill - this organization will accept any items from your home or closet, then resells them to provide job training and employment to the disabled or to individuals who have trouble finding meaningful employment.
• Salvation Army -  donate items from your home and closet to this non-profit which works to meet the needs of the local community. They have worked locally to build an adult alcohol and rehab center for men, offer night child care center for the homeless, and create programs to helping individuals develop skills and find jobs.

Floors

We can’t write a blog post without paying some attention to flooring. : ) For the best floor cleaning products, come by and pick up a free floor cleaning kit…we’ll REALLY give it to you for free and even tell you how to use it. Also, mark your calendar for March 31st for our Open House. We’ve partnered with Pro-Care of Nashville to teach you how to clean carpet and hardwoods properly, serve you FREE lunch and giveaway a professional carpet cleaning valued at $516! For professionally cleaned carpets and hard floor surfaces, call our friends at Pro-Care today.

Click here for details about our Open House on March 31st.

This sale runs through April 15, so hurry in today.

This Buy One Get One Free Carpet Sale is one you don’t want to miss! Come into Buddy Allen Carpet One today to get a Tigressá tale of your own!

Carpet Sale Nashville, Discount Floor

We thought you said Carpet Sale, Nashville…so here you go!

To earn a Green Select label, the product must currently be recyclable, contain a minimum of recycled material and/or be made from a natural, sustainable, quickly renewable resource. A key example is our Montado Cork flooring (see image below). Beautiful and durable, MontadoTM is 100% natural cork flooring made from a naturally sustainable resource, so it’s good for the environment.

Green Select products include reclaimed hardwood flooring, 100% wool carpet flooring, engineered hardwood floors, 100% wool area rugs, and flooring with recycled content.

To be considered green:

• The manufacturer must be socially responsible and makes use of processes that are not detrimental to the environment.

• The distribution methods and transport, including the packaging, must meet standards for environmental friendliness.

• For a building material or flooring product to be truly green, its source must be renewable, the material itself must be recyclable, and must not contain toxic materials.

Look for other exclusive Green Select flooring at Buddy Allen Carpet One like these great products below.

We hope that when you next shop for flooring, you’ll at least consider your Nashville Green Flooring options with us. Join us in our efforts to protect our environment. Working together, we can make a difference.

p.s. stay tuned for our Tigressá carpet  event is coming soon!

Don’t forget to check out our Hardwood Floor Shopping Guide if you’re unsure of the “hardwood jargon.” Too, it will help you find flooring what you’re looking for when you’re ready to buy.

Fort Worth

Berkeley

Bayou

Color: Crushed Wheat
Size: 5″
Warranty: Gold
Installation: Floating, Glue, Nail
Appearance: Smooth
Species: Red Oak
Gloss Level: Medium

Napa Valley

Central Coast

Hot Springs

Oglethorpe

Puritan

Color: Gaucho Brown

Size: 4″

Callout: Green

Warranty: Platinum

Installation: Floating

Appearance: Scraped

Species: Hickory

Colorado

Color: Cobble Brown

Size: 4-1/2″

Warranty: Titanium

Installation: Floating, Glue, Nail

Appearance: Scraped

Species: Birch

Gloss Level: Low

 

 

 

If you ever have questions on how to find flooring in Nashville, please connect with us – we’re happy to help in any way!

Functionality
The functional aspect should always be the first consideration and this can in fact help to narrow your choices. Think about what you will be placing on this floor and how long of a lifetime you want out of your flooring. What kind of foot traffic do you expect? Answering these questions will help you decide on what type of flooring is best: hardwood, carpet, tile, vinyl or laminate.

Flooring for an area of high traffic may not benefit from being too pale in color, as this would show up stains and dirt easily (especially on carpet). Similarly, a polished, dark shade of hard flooring will show up dust and damage more easily and should not be considered if you will not be able to devote time to regular cleaning and maintenance. For heavy foot traffic areas and where pets may track in dirt, consider a medium-toned floor that will not show dirt or pet hair.

If you’re placing flooring in a rental property, you will want to consider something durable and nearly stain proof in material and as for color, go neutral!

Color

Once you have idea about the material  you want, you can better decide on color. An easy way to narrow down color options to reflect your personal style would be to look around at the colors you have already chosen for your home and even your wardrobe. You’ll probably notice you naturally gravitate towards a particular palette. Keep these colors in mind, and consider limiting your choices to your existing palette.

Going with a neutral color scheme makes it easier for you to redecorate or change the look of your home, simply by highlighting different furnishings and accessories. This can be an advantage when considering putting a house on the market, either for sale or rent, as it is more likely to appeal to a larger portion of the population and makes it easier for new residents to integrate personal design preferences.

Too, consider the fixed design elements in the room. The floor color and style should complement adjacent flooring, counter tops and cabinets. Decide whether you want your flooring to blend with your furniture, or make it stand out. Bear in mind that lighter colors will make a room look larger, and darker ones will make the room look smaller.

Finally, consider the entire house when choosing flooring colors in different rooms and remember that a good décor flows seamlessly from room to room. The most expensive materials will be wasted if colors are not considered, resulting sadly in flooring which looks like a clashing patchwork quilt across the entire household.

These are from our Lee’s Line.

Get Exactly What You Want
In order to accurately choose the color of flooring for your room, request small samples and bring them home to compare to paint swatches and fabric samples for the proposed room. You can get those free by filling out this form.

Remember to take advantage of our flooring experts’ knowledge when shopping for flooring for your home. You can shop for flooring online (by color, warranty, sale, price, material, brand and style!), you can shop at our showroom located at 2517 Lebanon Pike Nashville, TN 37214 or call us, and we’ll send a flooring expert to your home to help you find your perfect floors!

Who doesn’t love hardwood? It is durable, beautiful and easy to clean! Since we’ve already written a post about how to select hardwoods, we thought it would be fun to show you some of our best hardwood products and how some homeowners have decorated their living space around their hardwood floors!

This is the first post in our series of five all about hardwood floors. All of these products are from the  Rustic Rivers Collection. To shop for hardwood flooring in Nashville and see pricing, CLICK HERE.

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