Steps to create a faux marble desk chair mat for your office chairs to easily roll on when it’s not in the budget for hardwood floors

Okay, y’all. File this under the most genius idea Enneagram-7-the-dreamer-Jordan has ever had. It should also be noted that I was very much against this idea at first. I just really didn’t see how it could work or why it was even necessary. Why can’t these chairs just roll around on this carpet? It’ll be slightly annoying, but I’ll survive.
But then I tried it. And it was mega super annoying. Enter my genius husband and his brain child of creating a “rug” that was a hard surface so the chairs would roll easily. He found these peel and stick vinyl tiles (affiliate) at Home Depot for super cheap and it started the wheels a turnin’.
Previous One Room Challenge Posts:


This idea really is so unique that I’m going to do my very best to do an actual DIY which means I’ll give you a supply list and tell you step by step how to do this. Maybe. Kinda.
Supplies needed to create your own DIY Faux Marble Floor
- 11/32″ plywood for your surface area (We had to use two sheets of this because we made ours roughly 9 feet by 5 feet)
- Gold carpet gripper (We had to buy 3 of these to fit all the way around the 3 sided perimeter of our surface area
- Peel and stick marble tiles
- Tile floor primer
Steps:
Since plywood only comes in 8×4 sheets and we needed 9×5 (go figure) we bought 2 pieces and cut both pieces 4×5 and then cut 10 inch strip to go in the middle. You may not need to do this, depending on your surface area. You know, if you’re lucky enough to only need one 8×4 sheet. We just aren’t that lucky. With any project like this.


Go ahead and lay your gold carpet stripping stuff underneath your plywood so that when you go to screw this into the floor, you will just screw that down right along with it.

Then screw, baby, screw!

After you’ve screwed in all your pieces of plywood and it feels secure, it’s a about to get fun. Apply your self stick


That will take between 30 and 90 minutes to dry according to the package and I can only think what determines the wait time is how big of a surface area you have. We waited about 45 minutes. Split the difference or whatever. Then comes the not-so-fun math part of this and laying your marble tiles in a herringbone pattern.
You’re supposed to use like an actual floor presser downer thingie, but the guy at Home Depot told us to use a heavy rolling pin. We have a granite one that we never use because let’s face it – I ain’t entering into the baking biz anytime soon and so this thing had dust on it pretty much but was perfect for this project because it was heavy.

Last, you will want to trim off any parts that may hang over the gold stripping that aren’t straight along the edges like you can see in the photo below. These photographs were taken before we did that because seriously I was just too excited! If you aren’t doing a herringbone pattern like we did, you may be okay without having to do this step.


After just a little bit of cussing and a whole lotta cutting, you will be left with your own faux marble desk chair mat!




Seriously, it’s perfect. It is not at all what I had planned and in no way would I have ever thought to do this myself but I’m not a dreamer or visionary. This faux marble chair mat is the perfect solution for us because we didn’t want to fork out thousands just yet reflooring the entire upstairs since it was very much not in our budget.
What do you think?! Is he a genius or WHAT?! Also, how did I do with this DIY post? I’m trying, y’all!
You absolutely will want to pin this later for inspiration so click the image below to do so:

Daniel
Tuesday 7th of June 2022
That looks great! Now that you've used it for two years, have you found any issues with the floor? Even though i'm not very handy, I am willing to give it a try but I just want to know it works for more than a couple of years.
Carmen Smith
Friday 10th of June 2022
We just had those floors replaced upstairs, but when I tell you the thing was in PRISTINE condition, it absolutely was. I was actually really sad to see it go. But it held up amazing. We actually have those exact marble look LVT in our primary bathroom and it's also held up amazing. Hope that's helpful!
Jean
Tuesday 2nd of February 2021
Looks great! Where did you get the cabinets?
Carmen
Saturday 13th of February 2021
Thanks! They're from Ikea!
Diane
Tuesday 4th of August 2020
Hello can you tell me where the desk chairs are from??
Carmen
Wednesday 16th of September 2020
Yes! $20 from Ikea!! Here's the post where I hacked them: https://www.livingletterhome.com/easiest-ikea-chair-hack-ever/
Laurie
Monday 3rd of August 2020
Great idea! Do you know about how much you didn't on this?
Carmen
Wednesday 16th of September 2020
I'm sorry, how much I what? I don't understand the question, but I'll be happy to answer haha
RockfordMel
Sunday 24th of May 2020
Fan-flippin-tastic!!! Wow this is genius. It looks beautiful ????????????
Carmen
Sunday 24th of May 2020
Thank you so much!!