Transform a Bedroom from Carpet to Cork Flooring

If you have been following my blog post for a while, you know we added cork flooring to our daughter's bedroom. If you want to see the transformation, visit it here (Cork Flooring Bedroom Project). We hoped to do the same thing in my son's room, which is adjacent to hers. And finally, I have completed this project. YAY! Follow along and see how we transformed my son's bedroom from carpet to cork flooring.

Below are the before pictures of the bedroom and the walk-in closet we are about to transform.

As you can see, it really needed to be removed. The padding was completely flat, and the color was faded. It was over 25 years old, so it was expected.

First, we had to remove everything from the room and walk-in closet.

His room was a tad larger, and his closet was a larger walk-in closet than the small closet in my daughter's room.

If you have custom closet organizers or shelving (Affiliate Link) on the floor, be sure to remove them as well. It is easier to remove the entire thing than to work around it.

Then, we cleaned the floor by vacuuming it and inspected it.

We had to screw some of the boards back down because they were squeaking. But, all in all, the floor looked pretty good. The house was not that old, so we did not expect many tasks to prepare the floor for the cork. We repaired some areas on the floor by screwing screws into the floorboards.

It was time to add the underlayment to the floor and the closet.

We started with the closet and ran the strips of underlayment in there first. Then, we worked on the farthest wall and toward the entrance of the room. We sealed the underlayment together. The double-stick tape helped attach them together.

Below is the photo after the underlayment was completed.

Then, we cut the bottom of the door frames.

At this point, we used a saw (Affiliate Link) and cut the bottom of the door frames so the cork would slide under the door jam when we were installing it. This gave it a more professional look. Below are some door jam saws I found on Amazon that would help with this task. If you click through and buy one of these on Amazon, I will receive a referral fee at no additional cost to you. Check the reviews before buying. I have not used these products before. Ours is older and was not available on Amazon.

Now, it was time to start laying the floor.

We started laying the floor from the farthest wall then moved toward the door. Making several unique cuts because there was an air vent in our first row. We used a jigsaw and a table saw (Affiliate Link) to make these cuts. Lucky for us, we had to cut out a portion of two boards because of the placement of the air vent.

At this point, we were able to get a good amount done in a few hours. It went quickly until we were near the entrance of the room. Because we had to do several angled cuts, this took some time, and the last bit was only 6 inches wide to finish up the floor. It worked though, and we did it!

Note: Be sure to check that the door has enough room to swing. Place the board under the door and test it out. If the door rubs on the cork flooring plank, be sure to cut a little off the bottom of the door.

Add corner round molding around the edges to cover the ends of the cork.

After we finished the flooring, we then, went on and cut and added the corner round molding to cover up the edges of the cork. This gave it a finished look and then we caulked it. Then, we painted it to give the molding a fresh look.

Add urethane if you want.

If you want to protect it, you can add urethane to it. We did not do it for this project. It may be something we do in the future. Some articles recommended doing this, but it wasn't everyone.

Below are the after images; you can see how the room was transformed. What do you think? We love it!

This image is the bedroom after it was finished.

We repaired a few areas like removed some items off the wall and purchased a new bookshelf (Affiliate Link) that fit better in the room. It looks great for a young adult.

Now, it's your turn! Would you do this task for your bedroom? Please share your thoughts and questions below.

Below are some additional posts I found online with tips on how to install cork flooring. Feel free to check them out.

How to Lay a Cork Floor From This Old House

How to Install Cork Tile Flooring from Family Handyman magazine