DIY Carpet Binding

When we were ripping out our old carpet in anticipation of the new laminate flooring, we saved the carpet from what was formerly our living room aka kids' hang out room.  That carpet was in decent shape unlike the family room's carpet...



Carpet from Family Room

Nastiness that was under Family Room carpet

See why I wanted to rip the carpet out??

I knew that the carpet's raw edges would need to be finished.  We have 4 sets of busy hands that like to pick at things like raw carpet edges and make a mess.  I did find an interesting product called Instabind in my online searches.  But since we were reusing our 10 year old carpet to make rugs, I didn't want to invest more than $20 in this project.  Instead, I went with this tutorial involving burlap and a hot glue gun.

 

A few notes:
I used a 2 temp hot glue gun that I bought from Wal-mart on the hot setting and multi-temp glue sticks.  I purchased my burlap from Joann Fabrics.  The burlap retails for $3.99/yard. 

I took pictures along the way to share as the original tutorial only shows the finished project.


This is what I started with...

I cut my strips of burlap 8 inches wide and the length of the carpet's raw edges.  I then made them into double fold binding (press the strips in half lengthwise, then fold the raw edges to the center fold line and press, fold the burlap on the original press line and press again). 

You're going to open up your binding and slide half of it underneath the edge of your carpet. 

Apply hot glue to the edge of the carpet and press the binding into it. 

Be aware that hot glue is indeed HOT.

I discovered along the way that if you run your hand down the edge, you can smooth out where it's gets a little wavy or bumpy.

When you're done with a side, roll the carpet over a little so you can repeat the process on the wrong side.

Here's what a completed side looks like:

As you can tell, our house is still in a state of disorder!

And here's what the finished carpet looks like.  The side on the bottom of the picture is a little wavy as I didn't have the hand smoothing light bulb moment until after I had finished that side.  I also was very lazy in how the corners were finished....I overlapped them.  

The process is relatively easy though it's hard on your back!  Or perhaps I was still sore from helping reinstall the kitchen flooring.  Anyhow, it's an inexpensive option and has held up to the kids and dog just fine for the last 2 weeks. :)