What Can I Put Under Furniture To Protect my Carpet?

A carpet is a beautiful addition to any home. It adds a sense of warmth and comfort, but it can easily be damaged or worn out by furniture being moved, shaken, or otherwise.

Once damaged, a carpet can ruin the overall appearance of your home or office like no other. Even a kingly abode can seemingly be turned into a pauper’s den regardless of your best efforts.

Luckily, we have many ways to protect your carpet from furniture damage and keep it looking fresh for a long time. It all comes down to one thing – prevention. Examples include placing a mat or a rug underneath your furniture to soften its legs or redistribute its weight.

This article will give you ideas on what you can put under your furniture to protect your carpet. We also look at how you can resuscitate your carpet by fixing the indentations left by furniture. And finally, we address how you can improve your furniture’s stability on carpets.

Let’s begin.

What Can I Put Under Furniture to Protect My Carpet?

Most of the furniture damage on carpets is due to three major reasons:

1. The furniture is too heavy or its weight distribution is poor. This is usually because the size and area of the furniture’s legs are too small or not proportional to its weight. The level of damage can be reduced to a tolerable level with either some modifications or additions.
2. The furniture is not stable. It either shakes or slips which causes unnecessary damage to your carpet. This type of damage can be completely avoided if the right steps are taken.
3. The furniture has stayed in one place for too long. As a result, the fibers of the carpet are squashed beyond their point of elasticity due to the lengthy period or amount of weight. This damage can be alleviated or eliminated by periodically shifting your furniture to give stressed carpet fibers time to recover.

As such, most of the measures in this article aim to counter the above three sources of damage. So without further ado, here are four things you can place under your furniture to protect your carpet from damage.

1. Furniture Coasters

Furniture coasters are small, hard, and inflexible pieces of material that you can place under your furniture. Their main purposes are to give your furniture a solid place to stand on and act as a buffer between the furniture and the rug.

To use coasters, place them on the corners of tables and chairs, or place them on the floor in front of your sofa and other types of furniture. The coaster will act as a buffer, which will help reduce any visible wear patterns caused by contact with the furniture legs.

They also help to prevent scratches and dents on your carpet from your furniture or its legs.

2. Spiked Caster Cups

Spiked caster cups are gadgets designed to be placed under your furniture, specifically under the legs.

They have two sides. One side has room for your furniture’s leg. The other has spikes that can poke through your carpet to reach the hard surface underneath.

Spiked caster cups help prevent the common scenario of squashed carpet fibers as they have as little contact with your carpet as possible. As a result, even if you place heavy furniture with caster cups on your carpet, the damage will be minimal and can easily be restored after a round of vacuuming.

3. Carpet Scraps

You can find these in a hardware store.  You might even have some lying around your house from a previous carpet installation.

Carpet scraps are exactly what they sound like, small pieces of carpet that you can place under your furniture. In a way, they are a carpet for your carpet that can take the beating in place of your bigger and more expensive carpet.

This is a low-cost solution to prevent your furniture, denting, or wearing out your nice carpet. However, make sure the carpet scrap is thick enough to absorb all the damage and weight. If it’s not, try double layering or folding.

4. Mats for Furniture

Movable furniture like office chairs and moving heavy furniture are high up on the list of sources that cause carpet damage.

Luckily, these days, manufacturers are selling custom mats designed for specific types of furniture. For example, you can easily buy a chair mat made of the material of your choice.

Of course, you can also use general-purpose mats, provided they are thick and strong enough.

A major advantage of using mats under your furniture is that they can take the punishment instead of your carpet. Mats can also catch spills before they spoil your carpet.

Another advantage is that custom mats, like chair mats, are easier, more comfortable to use, and often cheaper than the cost of replacing your carpet.

You can also use mats under large pieces of furniture that don’t have legs.

Keep in mind that while mats are great, they are a temporary solution as they will eventually wear out and need to be replaced.

So that’s it! We just looked at four methods you can use to protect your carpet from damage. But what do you do if your carpet is already damaged by furniture indentations?

In the next section, we look at how to erase indentations left by furniture on your carpet.

What is the Best Way to Get Furniture Indentations Out of Carpet?

If you have a nice carpet, the feeling of moving furniture only to realize that there are some dents left behind is devastating. I wouldn’t be surprised if you thought it was all over and cried when this happened.

Luckily, it’s not too late. Use the methods outlined below to get rid of any indentation on your carpet.

1. Use Ice Cubes

This one will definitely surprise you, if you take ice cubes and let them melt over the dented areas, you can remove the dents on those stressed areas. This is one of the easiest ways to melt away indentations from your carpet.

Here is the step-by-step procedure:

1. Freeze a tray of ice cubes.
2. Place the ice cubes directly on the carpet.
3. Let the ice melt for a few hours.
4. Absorb the excess water using a sponge.
5. Use a coin or spoon to lift the downtrodden carpet fibers.
6. If the results are not great. Repeat the process until you are satisfied with the results.

2. Use a Blow Dryer and Spray Bottle

Another surprising method you can use involves using a blow dryer, something you might have around the house. Just like how a blow dryer can help your hair, it can also be used to restore your carpet’s volume.

Here’s the step-by-step blow dryer procedure:

1. Fill a spray bottle with water.
2. Spray water on damaged areas until the carpet threads are soaked with water.
3. Use your blow dryer on low heat to blow-dry the damp area. Maintain a distance of around five inches between the carpet and the blow dryer.
4. Fluff up the carpet fibers with your fingers as it dries out.

3. Use a Towel and Iron

Another easy way to restore your carpet and remove dents also involves items that are nearly in every home – a towel and an iron.

Here’s the towel and iron procedure:

1. Place a damp towel on the area with a dent.
2. Run a hot iron on medium heat over the damp towel in circular motions for a few minutes. Keep the iron moving and don’t press it down.
3. Fluff up the fibers to restore the uniformity of your carpet’s surface.

4. Use a Vacuum Cleaner

Using a vacuum cleaner can be another way to eliminate dents in your carpet and let your carpet get a new life.

Here’s how you can use a vacuum cleaner to remove dents:

1. Fluff or loosen the fibers using your hands or a comb.
2. Press your vacuum cleaner’s hose against the affected areas.
3. Let the powerful suction from the cleaner’s hose do the rest of the heavy lifting.
4. Fluff the suctioned areas to correct them. If it doesn’t work repeat the process or use another method.

5. Have the Carpet Professionally Cleaned

If the above options have not worked out to your satisfaction, it’s probably time to call the big guns in.

You can hire specialist carpet cleaners to clean and restore your carpet. A quick search on Google can find you loads of people who offer these services.

How Do I Make Furniture More Stable on Carpet?

Carpets are great for increasing comfort and warmth but they are not great for your furniture’s stability. The thicker the carpet, the more unstable and prone to tipping your furniture will be.

So does your furniture shake and look like it’s going to fall?

Here are some tips you can use to remedy the situation:

1. Carpet Shims

Carpet shims are solid triangular wedges you can push under your furniture to prevent wobbling, uneven footing, or risky standing angles.

Carpet shims are a great long-term solution to making furniture stable as they are more durable than the majority of options like cardboard, rubber coasters, etc.

For the best results, place your shims in a way that won’t cause you to trip over them when walking by. Once you find the right shim placement and angle, you might want to glue the shims to prevent future problems.

2. Furniture Coasters

Furniture coasters are usually hard, inflexible, and flat items you can place under your furniture or under its feet to help increase surface area and weight distribution.

Their installation is easy as all you have to do is lift one side and place a coaster underneath it. Repeat the process for all four corners. You can also use coasters to balance an uneven side with others.

3. Installing Adjustable Feet

Sometimes because of the plushy carpet or uneven feet, heavy furniture like bookshelves or vanities, are prone to falling over.

It’s often the case that after setting down your furniture on the carpet, you’ll find that there are two sides that wobble back and forth. To solve this problem you can install adjustable feet on the feet of your furniture.

After installing, you can find the right height and setting for your feet through measurements or trial and error.

Conclusion

That’s all we have for you. The solutions we included using caster cups, furniture coasters, and mats.

Hopefully, you found something that works for your situation.

Suppose you didn’t and are still looking for a quick fix that’s inexpensive. In that case, consider using easily found items like folded cardboard, carpet scraps, books, wooden blocks, and other items to solve the stability problem. Of course, it may not look the best but it will solve the problem.