2.14.2026
Imagine a house built in 1974 with shag carpeting upstairs. The wear and tear the carpets have seen, the dirt that must be trapped in them – ICK! That’s my house and the reason I’m slowly making my way through the bedrooms upstairs, redoing the flooring. Myself. Yup! This is one of the DIY projects I tackled during the summer of 2025.
I initially wanted to get new carpet installed, but with our dog it’s a huge hassle to put him down in the basement for hours on end while workers are upstairs getting things done. I’ve never laid carpet and I’m pretty sure that’s not something I can’t DIY on my own (the hubs is SOO not into that stuff), so that idea was out the window. Instead, I opted to go for something that’s easy for me to install and looks decent – linoleum plank tiles with a wood-like look. I picked a color that specifically looks like the laminate we have on the first floor of the house.
I know some of you are gasping as the horror – laminate flooring and linoleum – nasty! Maybe, but we have a dog, and I like the look of very dark wood. I’ve seen houses with dark wood and pets, and the floors don’t hold up. They get scratched quickly and look terrible in two years. Linoleum has come a long way in recent years and, honestly, the only reason I go upstairs is to make sure the spare bedroom is in good order for guests and to make cards in my craft room.
I have already changed the flooring in our spare bedroom upstairs, so this is part 2 of the project. Part 3 will be the stairs (removing Berber carpeting), and part 4 will eventually happen after my eldest moves the rest of his stuff out his bedroom. The tools needed for the project:
- Hammer – to remove and replace the baseboards
- Chisel – to remove the tack strip (I had to look that up!)
- Rug cutting knife – to cut the rug and underlay into pieces that I could tear out
- Pliers – to pull out hundreds of staples in the floor
- Measuring tape – to measure areas where I needed to cut
- Vacuum – to clean up the debris before laying the linoleum
- Linoleum cutter – to cut some pieces with precision and speed
- Paintbrushes, roller, and paint – to repaint the walls and trim, and to fill in some small gaps around the doorframes that I cut less than perfectly.
You’d think after giving it go and ending up with something that looks like a DIY-er did it, I’d be ready to swear off DIY forever. But honestly, there’s something incredibly satisfying about standing back and seeing a room transformed by my own-two hands, even if it’s less than perfect! One more bedroom to go! Until then, I’ll be admiring my handiwork and giving my knees a well-deserved break.