Make This: Geometric DIY Coasters Made from Free Floor Samples

I was at Home Depot recently, picking up some birch wood for a backdrop, and I started wandering through the aisles. As I normally do. After about 30 minutes, I found these sample linoleum tiles for flooring.

So, I grabbed a few of my favorite finishes (the samples are free) and took them home to play around with them. Pretty quickly, I realized they would be perfect for coasters. So, I started tracing and cutting and eventually came up with these…

Materials: linoleum flooring samples in various textures, heavy duty scissors or a box cutter, pencil, and ruler

How To: Draw a geometric shape onto the linoleum sample, with a pencil and a ruler. Cut out and enjoy. How’s that for easy.

But the best part? This project is completely free (I’m going to assume you already have a pencil, ruler, and scissors on hand).

Some of the floor samples are really thick, so you may need a box cutter for those thicker floor samples. I was able to cut through most of the samples with my mondo heavy scissors, but for the super thick ones my fabric scissors actually worked the best, surprisingly.

As far as the shapes go…I ended up cutting mostly triangles and octagons, but I think diamonds and pentagons would be fun too (and just as easy).

I contemplated making heart shaped coasters with the tiles as well, but I ran out of samples. So, I might have to go back and do a second round of these. Are there any other shapes you can think of that would work for these?

P.S. Save the leftover scraps and you can make these DIY woodgrain gift tags.

Photography by Sarah Eddy // Concept and styling by Brittni Mehlhoff