What to put under furniture instead of felt?

Furniture pads are a very important, although inconspicuous, way to save money in the household budget. Thanks to them the floor – often valuable and intended to serve for many years, much longer will be aesthetic and without significant damage. What else can we use, not having felt at hand?

Need to protect the floor from furniture feet

Protection of wood flooring or laminate flooring means not only its constant cleaning and covering with an appropriate impregnating preparation, but also prevention of mechanical damage. Such damages are often caused by moving furniture feet on the surface. It is worth adding that sometimes even the protective layer is not able to protect against quite a powerful pressure, which is the result of, for example, moving a closet or an armchair. Sometimes just placing a heavy object on panels has a devastating effect

Where do we use furniture pads?

Various types and shapes of furniture pads are used, among others, when placing chairs, chests of drawers, sofas, beds, cabinets or bookcases. The application is very wide, but not always a given type of pad will be optimal in every situation. That is why it is worth taking a better look at them.

Not only felt – what kind of furniture pads to choose?

Pads made of felt have a number of advantages; among others, they are very cheap and work relatively well with light furniture. Unfortunately, the inconvenience of their use is that they are not aesthetic – they attract dirt, dust and hair. However, we can choose from other types of pads:

• rubber ones,
• plastic,
• silicone,
• foam,
• cork.

Rubber pads

Choosing this type of furniture pads, we appreciate first of all their anti-slip effect. Thanks to it, it is practically impossible for furniture to slide on the floor. Usually made of rubber pads are also characterized by durability, which allows for long-term use. Unlike felt, it is easier to keep rubber clean and it does not tend to attract large amounts of dirt

Plastic pads

Plastic furniture pads are fixed in a specific way, by using screws. It takes a little more effort to attach this type of pad to a closet or armchair. Most often it is used for quite massive furniture which is not likely to be moved. Plastic pads could break off when sliding them on the floor

Silicone furniture pads

Silicone is a material used in many places and situations. It is not surprising that pads made of this material are used to protect furniture. What are their advantages? First of all, the possibility of their application is invariably very high. We appreciate them as a finishing touch to glass elements or as door stops. As a rule, they offer great noise dampening capabilities and are anti-slip

Foam furniture pads

They combine the advantages of high durability and the fact that they do not tend to attract much dirt. They also give stability to the cabinets, which is also something to be appreciated.

Cork furniture pads

Their advantage is the appropriate hardness, much higher than felt or silicone pads. It is difficult to damage them mechanically and they do not attract dirt, which should be appreciated. They may not be very aesthetic but they can often be cut into any shape we need.

What size and shape of furniture pads is best?

The right fit of furniture pads plays a very important role in the context of their proper placement on the floor. Too big pads will not be aesthetically pleasing and will go beyond the edge of furniture. On the other hand, pads that are too small will not allow to give them proper stability

We also have different shapes of furniture pads on the market. The protection of all corners can be obtained by using square or round pieces. On countertops, oval models are used. Most often a good choice is to buy a cutting block, which gives the possibility to cut out the shape that suits us