I have considered these FLOR tiles as well- just an idea for my daughter's house for the playroom.
I saw these in someone's home a few years ago, and didn't like the pattern they had chosen, and I don't think they took the time to do the job properly, so I had decided I didn't like them, but after viewing this website, it looks like it could be a solution for a small room, as you are thinking about, or a home office.

Make sure you order the samples from Flor. I ordered a whole slew of them and was kind of disappointed - some of them were quite scratchy, and they were very firm and thin like commercial carpeting. Some of the colors were not what I expected, too. I liked Solid Ground the best of the samples I got but the beveled edges blew it for me. Maybe they've come out with some new ones that are softer and thicker since then, I don't know. I think they're best suited for contemporary decor styles.

Lowes carries - or did when I was last there a few months ago - a very few exclusive Flor products, which are a little cheaper than purchasing directly from Flor because the shipping is a bear. (I have heard a rumor that sometimes if you ask for free shipping from Flor you can get it. Worth asking, anyway.)

I ended up using Milliken Tesserae carpet squares. It's a higher-quality version of the Legato carpet sold at Home Depot and the Design Zone carpet sold at Lowes - all are made by Milliken. It has the padding attached to the back with a moisture barrier in between and was dead easy to install. DH and a friend and I did a 12x12 room with three closets in about 4 hours, but easily half an hour of that was wasted arguing with the friend about following the [bleep] directions on the [bleep] box! (He seemed to think they weren't necessary and that you could just throw them down any old way.) The closets actually took longer than the room because we used up the partial tiles and scraps there, which took a lot of fiddling. It isn't any squashier than ordinary carpeting that doesn't have an extra-thick pad underneath. As pet owners we needed something where we could get rid of stains/damage quickly and easily.

Did you check over on the Flooring forum?

I ordered some Flor to protect my new kitchen floor - I put it just inside the back door & under the barstools. I am very happy with it for my purpose & think it would be great for a small computer room. I'm planning to get more to put inside my front entryway.

I also ordered samples (6 for $5 with free shipping) and didn't like some of them. (Ironically, I was disappointed in the solid ground johnmari said she liked best because I thought it was too thin and firm.) I ended up doing a black-and-white checkerboard with "Finer Things" in Ebony and "Wide Wale" in Ivory. The ivory squares are showing a bit of dirt (I read the warning not to put light colors in high traffic areas after I ordered them), but worst case I could spend $50 to replace them with a darker color.

hoffman - I said I liked Solid Ground out of the samples I got, as in that one kind of stunk the least out of the batch. :-) I thought ALL of them were very thin and hard. I couldn't use any of the textured ones like you did, I was only looking at solids.

Here is FLOR's Tonal Quartet in Moon in our LR.
{{!gwi}}
We have had FLOR for only a few months, but have been very happy so far. It was easy to put down and does not slide around (even though it isn't attached to the floor and that piano bench is moved a couple times daily). FLOR was easy to cut to just the right size. It is dense, but very, very low pile. This makes it a snap to vaccuum, but not a good "sit on the floor" carpet. It is stain resistent and when the inevitable occurs, it is easy to remedy (We pop up the tile and run it under cold water. Instead of waiting until the tile dries, we pop in a replacement FLOR tile from the box of extras we store under the couch. Later, we put the cleaned, dry FLOR back into the box of replacements.)

In terms of colors, some FLOR colors are really nice, some are weird. You can order a box of samples pretty cheaply, though. Overall, we are quite happy. Though we probably should have chosen a darker color (our LR is used every day), FLOR lets us indulge our fondness for light carpets without big worries.

Here is another view of the carpet, along with some elements that squirrel photoshopped in. I forgot to mention one other advantage of the product, it is easily movable, rearrangable. Works very well for a renter or a college student who needs to pack up the dorm room every year.

This summer our school put Flor tiles in our teachers' lounge and band room, and they are holding up well. I asked the band director just this week if he likes them acoustically, and he is very pleased with them, they are also holding up to the hundreds of kids. They have really improved the environment of our teacher work room, which is also where we eat lunch.

Hoffman,

I not only like your black and white tiles, but could you also tell me what your wood flooring is? TIA

Glad this got bumped up. We're considering Flor to use in our home gym - seems like a perfect use for them since we really don't want high pile or a lot or padding. We want the bit of softness underfoot and some sound absorbtion. Any sugestions for which type might be best fot this application?

One high end home I visited used FLOR's "Working class" for the home gym -- and the garage!

http://www.flor.com/service/flor/shop_by_model.html?mv_arg=Working_Class_03

Here is a picture of these designers' use of the product.
http://www.nigellewisdesign.com/

For a home gym I would suggest considering glue-down carpet tiles rather than Flor which is only stuck down by a Post-It-like adhesive "dot", just for safety's sake. It does not necessarily look "industrial", depending on the particular carpet you choose, but it will be more durable than a residential product. It will also almost certainly be much cheaper than the Flor tiles. Steve_O over on the Flooring forum did his whole house (IIRC) with commercial carpet tile and says it looks fantastic and was pretty easy to install. Bounce over there and search for "carpet tile"; Steve's email link is enabled so you could email him with any further questions about his carpet.

Although we ended up going with the Milliken Tesserae in the previous house for extra "cush" since DH likes to roll around on the floor with the dog :-), I got a whole slew of free samples from a site called CarpetBargains. The pricing was very good and they answered my questions quickly and politely. There are lots of other sources, Google "carpet tiles" and "carpet squares" (different companies call them different things). Someone over on the Flooring forum was happy with iCarpetiles too. Avoid places that sell seconds, look for overruns, discontinued items, and closeouts.

If you're not worried about being able to take up a stained or damaged part, look at commercial level-loop carpeting - if your gym isn't large, local carpet stores will likely have remnants at a bargain price. (Heck, if we had the scratch to put something else down I'd invite you to NH and GIVE you the several hundred square feet that infests the upstairs of our house in exchange for the help ripping it out! It's just not appropriate for bedrooms, IMO - PO was a cheap bastiche.)

delta thanks for that link - if it's strong enough to drive on....... !

johnmarie the gym isn't large, approx. 9 x 18. It's currently carpeted with a rather nice carpet because the space has had previous incarnations. I'd leave it till it fell apart but for one large butt-ugly stain where a masseuse spilled oil. I plan to give it one more shot and use Dawn to try and clean it but if it doesn't work, it's coming out. I'd put down the rubber flooring used in commercial gyms but I don't want to live with that outgassing for the next 5 years. I'll check out your links and the flooring forum (never knew there was one) - thanks for the tips.

Deb

Re: the home gym. We didn't do a whole room, but about an 8 x 8 area under DH's workout bench. We used those puzzle-piece looking rubber floor tiles you get at Sam's club. We turned them over so the gray part faced up and the primary colors faced down. It is over carpet and so far has worked great.

Auto supply shops usually carry degreasers that can be used on carpet and automotive upholstery, since car buffs can get easily grease and oil on the interiors of their beloved vehicles. "Lift Out" is one brand.

[nitpicky peeve]"Massage therapist" or even "bodyworker", please, not "masseuse".[/peeve] (I'm married to one, although he's not working in the field at this time. We both especially hate it when people call HIM a "masseuse" because that word refers to females, "masseur" is technically correct, but still not preferable.) The word "masseuse" has a negative, somewhat sleazy connotation and in a time when the massage industry is fighting for respectability having to drag around the same name as is used at the skeevy massage parlor downtown is definitely not helping matters.

mea culpa - I know better, I really do. You're not nitpicky, it's an appropriate distinction. Thanks for the tip on the Lift Out.

Thank you! :-)

My daughter is a massage therapist, she HATES the term "masseuse"!

Sidebar: She knew what she wanted to do at an early age. It had never occurred to us (her parents)that it would not be considered a respectable occupation, by any but the most unenlightened, in this day and age.

Imagine our surprise when her seventh grade teacher tried to discourage her ambition, telling her the job had negative connotations. I was so mad at that man! I had to tell her then of the sordid history of "massage parlors", not a conversation you want to have with a twelve-year-old.

I thought I would LOVE my FLOR tiles, but after about 2 years what I am finding is that it is SO cumbersome to have to pull up all the different tiles and place them down again every single time I need to wash my rug (I am stupid and got a white-ish rug even though I live in the mountains which means it constantly needs cleaning) that I just do not want to deal with it anymore. I switched over to Ruggable because I can just pull up the whole dang thing in ONE solid piece and throw it in a washing machine. So much better than contantly having to put it all back together again like a puzzle.