Floor mats are one of the more mundane parts of a car. Most of us are getting around with the stock factory items, or maybe a rugged rubbery set to deal with the winter muck. If you dare to dream though, you could have floor mats that are so much more… special. Otherworldly, even.
Meet Ember Winter, a passionate car enthusiast and the north-east regional co-leader of the Drive Deviant car club. Beyond that, though, Ember is a proud owner of a Honda Fit with a flair for outer space.
“I got bored of all of the floor mats I was seeing online,” Ember says. “They were too dull, even for dull little me.” The solution, then, was obvious. “I bought a 90s roller rink-esque area rug and made my own.” With stellar results, at that!
Yes. You can just make rad floor mats, if you want to. That’s the headline here. All you need is the materials and the will to do so. “The rug is from Amazon,” Ember explains. The process started out simple—tracing the original Honda Fit floor mats on the spacey rug, and cutting out the shapes. With the rough blanks cut out, the real work began.
“I hand-sewed the edging on, it’s 1-inch black nylon webbing,” says Ember. Try to imagine the challenge of punching a needle through a rug and thick nylon thousands of times, and you get the idea of what went into making these.
“I didn’t have the right tools,” Ember laughs. “I didn’t have a carpet knife or a sewing machine that could get through the plastic backing of the carpet, so my hands were covered in blisters from cutting it up with dull craft scissors, and hand sewing the edging with an upholstery needle.” If it sounds brutal, that’s because it was. “I also have really bad carpal tunnel, so it took me ages to finish them,” Ember chuckles. “I was really determined!”
Despite the challenges, there was no skimping on the details. “I cut holes for the tabs on the driver’s side so it won’t slide under the pedals,” they explain. The bottoms of the mats were also covered in Flex Seal to add some grip and keep them from sliding around the cabin.
The mats themselves look impressive just laying on the floor. They’re even more magical when installed in Ember’s Honda Fit, lovingly named Nexus1.
The retro arcade carpet pattern perfectly suits the mods to the rest of the car, including the wonderfully spray-painted planets on the hood and the crescent moon hanging from the front bumper. It adds a whole lot to the interior aesthetic, and the look is boosted by the lighting mods Ember installed. “All of my interior lights have been replaced with LEDs,” Ember explains.
It doesn’t hurt one bit that the carpet is blacklight reactive, either. It’s like being transported straight back to a retro arcade, just without that sticky feeling underfoot.
Given the amazing visuals here, it’s no wonder these mats went crazy on Facebook. At the time of writing, they racked up over 23,000 likes on one post alone. Ember has no plans for going into the floormat business, but if you dig them, there’s nothing stopping you from going the DIY route yourself.
Sometimes, all it takes to make a car more wonderful is a great idea and the will to follow through. Touches like this are what truly make a car your own. We could all learn a lot from Ember’s wonderful example.
Image credits: All images Ember Winter (supplied)
These are gorgeous!! I love all the interior customizations.
To cut things like this, get some scissors like these. They are hands-down the best heavy-duty scissors I have ever used. I used them for cutting flooring, paper, cardboard, vinyl, and much more. Comfortable to use with the offset, and serrated edges to get a good bite.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SWHFD2M?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1
Any time I have done something similar to this, I want a knife not scissors for it. I am not dextrous enough to use scissors well for cutting intricate patterns in anything thicker than paper, whereas I can do it with a knife easily. I have been debating about doing something like this but for the whole carpet in my Roadster with a car mat type carpet. Something similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Kids-Carpet-Playmat-Great-Playing/dp/B072883CSF
For not having the appropriate tools for the job, these look really well-done. Actually, these look really well-done period!
If I had the time would make some Pink Floyd Darkside of the Moon mats.
Been wanting to do that forever, like 50+years.
I totally want to do this with one of the city roadmap rugs that kids play on.
Yep! But I want it for my actual carpets, not just the floormats haha.
I had an extremely beat BMW e34 as a daily driver. I cut up a crappy oriental rug for new floor mats. I didn’t even hem the edges, just threw them in there.
Been doing this trick forever also.
That carpet makes me miss the wacky carpets at arcades. Who’s old enough to remember arcades?
Some bowling alleys and roller rinks still have these.
Every time I see a sign for an arcade, my heart beats a little faster, until it is inevitably followed by FISH GAME and JACKPOT and SKILL GAMES. Sigh.
Walking to the arcade with a roll of quarters in the pocket of my tube socks. I remember.
-Gen X kid.
We have a Barcade in my city. It has about 20 pinball machines, from the 1960s onward. It also has a bunch of side-by-side racing cabinets and light gun cabinets. They also have a ton of 80s/90s era classic arcades and cocktail table cabinets.
I love going there on their free play days. $12 at the door and all games are unlimited. They sell beer and hand-made pierogies that are made to order.
Mmm pierogies.
A highlight of trips back to NY.
my sister-in-law makes the best pierogies, but the ones from my Barcade are a close second.
It reminds me of a roller skating rink I go to, and it’s great.
Pro tip – If you have the tracing and cutting done, reach out to a local carpet supply (the kind you install) they usually will have an edge binding machine for things like hallway runners and if it’s just the edge binding it’s usually pretty cheap to just get them to do it
Duuuuude, with that revelation, I’m gonna start making more custom mats.
We have bought carpet remnants and had the shop make bindings. We’ve also bought remnants for carpet for RV, vans, etc. and just used a heat gun for any really loose ends on edges.
Finally! Floor mats to match my SPACE PANTS.
This is exactly the content I come here for. I’d love to do this once I get a daily I actually care about again.
Haha I think it would be even more entertaining in a crappy, terrible car.
I hate my Sorento with the burning fury of a thousand suns. I’d sooner slam my nuts in the car door than willingly put this much effort into anything for that horrid machine.
Vivid description, thanks for that… Having said that, I think the whimsy given by something like this would help me loads when it comes to hating a car less. I get it for sure though and I have yet to do anything about wanting to do it in any of my last 3 cars despite loving all of them.
This reminds of the time Toyota actually made a bunch of DIY floor mats for their mass-market cars. Some people died, but we don’t like to talk about that because it would force us to confront why our cars sometimes do that jerky throttle lockout thing with the brakes because nobody bothers to train drivers how to put cars in neutral in a throttle emergency.
In conclusion, awesome mats and I’m inspired!
Believe it or not, most of those accidents were attributed to people who were not smart enough to install floor mats. Some may even consider it Darwinian.
For all the coverage it got, I didn’t follow the conclusion closely. Was it really that the drivers were not installing factory mats correctly?
The biggest blunder I read about, was people stacking both their winter and summer mats on top of each other.
I know my Scion has plastic hooks to secure the mats. It does not work.
Another thing is a lot of folks flip the mats over when the car is new to appear to save wear and tear…The problem is carpet slips easily, and the rubber back of the mats just allowed it to be enhanced.
Now into the rabbit hole of the final solution I go…