Area Rugs

• If you've got beautiful hardwood floors, and you want to anchor a living room furniture arrangement or keep your floor from getting scuffed under the dining room table, create an area rug from carpet tiles. Buy as many or as few as you need to fill the available space. You won't need to trim carpet tiles when creating an area rug.
  
  

Borders

• If you want a large area rug or a wall-to-wall look, consider adding a contrasting border. Just buy carpet tiles of one color for the center, and a different color to lay around the edge. A carpet tile calculator available online (see References) can help you determine how many tiles you need.
  
  

Patterns

• Carpet tiles come in many colors and patterns. One popular brand of carpet tiles, Flor, offers stripes, wood tones, animal prints, florals and more. However, carpet tiles give you the power to make your own patterns. If you buy tiles in two contrasting colors, you can lay them in a checkerboard pattern. Like more colors? Lay them in stripes. You can even take striped carpet tiles and lay them in a parquet pattern to spice up a space.
  
  

Textures

• Although carpet tiles are very durable, they're generally not as plush as regular carpeting. Some tiles do come in plush or shag textures, and you can create a texture pattern rather than a color pattern. Try this if your room features dramatic furniture or art, and you don't want busy flooring to distract from it. Buy plush and shag tiles in the same neutral color, and lay them out in a checkerboard fashion. You'll have nice textures underfoot, and just enough visual interest to complement your furnishings, not take away from them.