“Living” building material has been known to people for more than four thousand years. Its popularity grew, then leveled, depending on fashion. Today, “living” technologies are again in trend, they are durable, self -incorporated, practically do not require care and in addition to everything, not just environmentally friendly, but improve and purify the air in the house. In order to equip a living roof or floor, you need certain skills and knowledge, so let's start with a small one and consider how to make a bathroom mat.
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What is a live rug?
“Living” is called all materials of plant origin, which are suitable for repair work. Among them:
- grass,
- moss,
- turf,
- ivy,
- flowers,
- seaweed.
Tip: Obshab's products are not alive, since they die without water and begin to decompose, a cork appears soon, and after 2-3 years the carpet completely deteriorates. The list got exclusively with a preventive purpose.
Some plants are suitable exclusively for decorative purposes, others withstand quite serious loads.
Now let's talk about a living rug. The invention of this accessory is attributed to the Swiss designer Nguyen La Chanh. She used in her composition several varieties of moss, which are combined with each other. The invention is called The Moss Carpet or a mossy carpet and immediately became in demand in Europe.
Despite the fact that the prototype appeared back in 2009, mass production has not yet been launched. This is primarily due to an exorbitantly high price, which is three hundred US dollars. The cost is due to the fact that some types of moss are growing only in the tropics, so their collection and delivery are quite expensive.
Nevertheless, the designer created a vector for an entire industry, which actively began to offer a variety of variations of the mossy carpet and made it more accessible to the general masses of the population. In Russia, the first models appeared a few years ago, but the fashion for them began only now.
This is due not only to external attractiveness, but also by other factors, including:
- reliability,
- wear resistance,
- regeneration of damaged areas,
- lack of dust and dirt,
- lack of care,
- natural air purification,
- reducing humidity.
Thus, mossy rugs are really much more useful and practical than ordinary pieces of plastic. In order to get this miracle, it is not necessary to look for rare, today, distributors. It is easy to make products on their own, especially residents of those regions where there are forests.
What can you make a rug from?
In order to answer this question, it is necessary to consider in detail the conditions in which the product will be used:
- mechanical load,
- moisture level,
- sunlight access.
The rug is needed in order to walk on it, therefore, the material should be quite durable, resistant to wiping and trampling and pleasant to the touch. Only grass and moss are suitable for these characteristics. The turf has the necessary qualities, but over time, nodes from the roots are formed in the ground, at which it will hurt without slippers, this option is only suitable for a massage rug.
Humidity in the bathroom depends on ventilation. The natural hood, like a mechanical one, cannot provide indicators necessary for grass. After a few months, the roots will begin to rot, an unpleasant odor will appear and after some time the carpet will have to be thrown away. Therefore, the grass is suitable only for baths equipped with windows overlooking the street (it is necessary to ventilate after each adoption of the shower).
The exact opposite situation with moss. This operating mode is perfect for him. Nevertheless, it has its drawbacks, the sun can kill this body in just a few hours. Therefore, the hit of direct rays is strictly prohibited. It is also true in relation to air temperature, optimal up to +20 0 celsius. Higher temperatures are suitable only for tropical mosses.
If you decorate the interior in a living style, it would be unfair to abandon flowers. With their help, a decorative mini rug is made. It is used as a stand for:
- shampoos, gels and scrubs,
- razor accessories (with the exception of an electric brood),
- toothbrushes,
- edging on the washbasin.
Another option is a coating for a toilet cover. In order not to update the coating annually, they use perennial flowers combined with evergreen herbs. In addition, it is better to choose several species blooming at different times of the year. The technology for manufacturing such a rug exactly coincides with the herbal. Consider the process in more detail.
How to make a bathroom mat from grass
It is about the grass, and not just about the lawn, since the type and family of the cultures used are not fundamental for the rug. The lawn is the simplest solution, as it is sold everywhere. At the same time, it is important to choose a variety that grows only to a certain height and does not grind. Otherwise, your rug will need to be trimmed every week.
Any varieties of meadow and field herbs are more interesting. The differences between them are cardinal. Meadows are high above sea level, therefore, herbs constantly feel the lack of oxygen. This circumstance determines their low growth. In addition, in the mountains a fairly intense sun, which does not allow the grass to rise high above the ground. Genetics have fixed these features in the biological memory of plants, therefore, even if you change their habitat, they will not begin to grow and column. Ideal for small rugs.
Field herbs, on the contrary, reach 3-10 cm in height. On the one hand, a cold February morning is pleasant to stand ankle in fresh juicy grass, on the other, it will be crushed and not very neat because of a height. It is impossible to solve this problem, so field herbs are used to create quite large rugs that visually allow you to hide trampled places. For full restoration of the grass, 4-5 hours are enough. It is quite difficult to completely bring into disrepair.
Now about the sequence of actions:
- choose and buy grass,
- soak the seeds (if the donor soil section is used, then put it in a cool place on wet matter),
- prepare the base,
- install barriers,
- fall asleep clay (chernozem),
- plant the seeds (decompose the donor soil).
There are no special questions with the purchase of grass, this is done either in the market or in specialized stores. It is much better and more practical to use the donor soil area. For these purposes, it is necessary to cut the upper layer of the Earth by 5-10 cm larger than the estimated size of the rug. Naturally, this is relevant only for those who live in regions with suitable natural conditions.
It is imperative to soak the seeds, even if there is not a word on the package about it and the seller did not give any recommendation. This is done in order to swell and softened each seed. Allows you to achieve one hundred percent seedlings.
As a base, it is better to use plastic or rubber, any wood products will begin to rot sooner or later. The boundaries for the soil are made up to 3-5 cm high. All the same flexible plastic or rubber is suitable. Fixed with soldering.
Claezem is more clay, black soil is made of peat. The first option is relevant for low grass, the second for high. If you buy a lawn, it is better to use clayzer, as it will slow down the growth of grass. The soil falls asleep without reaching 0.5 cm to the edge of the boundary bar. The bases of the bushes of grass compensate for this height and make the surface even.
In order to plant the seeds, the soil pass through with manual rakes, having loosened it well, and water it with water. After that, herbal ears are scattered by the embankment. Donor soil also fits on the watered soil. Do -it -yourself grass mat is ready.
Tip: If you make a flower carpet, then at the last stage instead of grass seeds, use flowers, combining different varieties is allowed, this will allow you to get a really bright and colorful product.
How to make a rug from moss
The technology of working with moss is somewhat different from the grass rug. Unlike everyone else, it is used not only for bathrooms, but also for other rooms, so it is appropriate to talk about how to make a moss home rug.
Moss does not have to collect in the forest at all, there are specialized stores engaged in its sale. Most often found in zotovars. If a problem arose with this, you can agree with the employees of the zoo and buy it from them (the terrarium department).
The technology looks like this:
- we prepare the base
- we cook vases,
- we attach them to the base,
- we transplant moss.
Absolutely any material is suitable as the base, even a tree, at the same time, it is important that the flowerpots are made of rubber or soft plastic. In order not to think for a long time where to get them, baking molds from heat -resistant types of rubber are suitable.
They need to be attached to the basis with glue, screws of the screws, and any other methods that suggest a violation of the integrity of the form are not allowed, since the water will flow out and dirty the ground.
Moss, as a rule, is already in the ground, therefore, it just needs to be transferred to a flowerpot. If the height does not correspond, then add the right amount of any soil.
Important: the flowerpots are installed as close as possible to each other so that visually it is not visible that the moss grows in them.
Decorative aspect - a combination of various varieties of moss. This allows you to give a rug of various colors. In addition to standard, light green and the color of the bottle from “Soviet champagne”, mosses are blue, red and brown.
The performance of these actions is not the end. The workpiece should lie down for 1-2 weeks, after which it is checked whether the moss began. If everything is fine, then all visible voids are sprinkled with a very thin layer of earth, on which moss is also placed on top. He will experience physical activity, but the design will give a finished look.
The described method allows you to create a fairly heavy stationary carpet, which will be difficult to transport. There is a solution for this problem, but the presence of a portable electric stove, a large cauldron or a pan, and several kilograms of electric cable, or rather windings from it, will require a solution.
When cooking (instead of water, a solvent is the type of material), the cable turns into a thick liquid mass, which is then poured into a pre -prepared form. Depending on the thickness of the base, one kg of the winding is enough for 0.8-1.5 square meters. m.
When performing this work, it should be noted that the couples are quite toxic, so they cook on the street, while it is desirable to use the respirator.
The process has quite a lot of technological aspects that you should get acquainted before starting work.
