Leather Belts Recycled Into Flooring

By John Farrier in Art, Home & Garden on Dec 22, 2009 at 3:24 pm

The design blog Dornob has a post describing flooring made from recycled leather belts, including rugs and floor tiles. They’re pricey, at about $70 per square foot. So Dornob suggests that you could make your own:

If you are looking for a cheaper alternative approach, however, local vintage clothing stores may sell a belt for a few dollars. After finding a few choice samples, it is just a matter of figuring out the best way to put them together. For the do-it-yourself craft-oriented individual, part of the fun lies in the creative process – choosing the right hues of faded black, brown, red and orange like in the first (wonderfully muted-but-colorful) example.

Link via DudeCraft

Tags: flooring, leather

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hedwig
Dec 22nd, 2009 at 3:56 pm
now all I need is a house…
Minnesotastan
Dec 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I’ll bet the person who created this flooring has never tried to clean up cat hairballs on the floor.
AntDude
Dec 22nd, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Looks ugly though.
ted
Dec 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Ugliness is beside the point.
SparkS
Dec 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 am
Interesting idea, should last for a long time.
How long does a horse last? The thing is, there
don’t seem to be any hints on just how one would go about making one themselves. Here or at the linked site.
blorpy
Dec 23rd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Yeah, this looks practical!

-What would you clean it with? Leather cleaner would be expensive for a whole floor.
-Can’t spill anything on it or get it wet, it would absorb into the leather.
-Can’t easily get the dust and dirt out of the notch holes and grooves.
-Starts rotting after about 5 years.
-Images of hundreds of men not washing their hands after using the bathroom = stinky used leather belts that are in surplus because the whole idea of a used belt is gross.

$70 a sq ft? Sign me up! lol. The “rug” seems a slightly better idea than the flooring tiles.
Jen Hunter
Dec 23rd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Blorpy: Very good points! I wonder if secondhand belts could be used for some other kind of covering – maybe walls or furniture.
blorpy
Dec 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Jen Hunter : Yes, maybe as a seat cover on a nice chair or under a glass table top? Leather on the walls could be cool, too… The floor just doesn’t make sense to me, I can also imagine it getting scuffed up and ratty looking, shredding in high traffic areas.

It does look amazing, though!
nefertiti
Jan 8th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Interesting idea, should last for a long time
Micah
Jun 19th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Wow, that actually looks pretty nice. It looks pretty much like painted hardwood. I bet it’s nice and soft as well.
Leather Directory
Oct 12th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
wowee these floors look amazing…gotta admit using old belts like that would never ever come to mind…but now that I’ve seen it ..well it looks amazingly pretty…I’ll have to give it a try …but considering it’s $70 per sq. foot..I think I’m gonna go the do-it-yourself way

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