One Room Challenge Week 2: How to Install Outdoor Deck Tiles

It is week two of the One Room Challenge, and I will be talking about my first DIY project to makeover my apartment balcony: installing outdoor deck tiles.

It is week two of the One Room Challenge, and I will be talking about my first DIY project to makeover my apartment balcony: installing outdoor deck tiles. If you didn’t catch week one where I went over the vision for my patio, you can check that out here.

Because I cannot make any permanent changes to my apartment, I needed to find a flooring solution that I could easily remove once we eventually move out. After some research, I decided to use Runnen outdoor floor tiles from IKEA, but you can also find similar tiles at other home improvement stores.

Our apartment balcony has a pretty bare wood plank floor so I wanted to pick something that would be a little more polished and that would brighten up the space because the walls, etc. have a lot of darker tones. Because of that, I chose the Beige Runnen IKEA tiles but they also have dark gray, wood, artificial grass, etc.

Benefits of temporary floor deck tiles

  • Easy to install – the pieces just snap together
  • Weather and stain resistant
  • Easy to take apart if you move or want to clean underneath
  • You can mix and match colors if you want

How many deck tiles do you need?

To figure out how many deck tiles you will need for your patio, take down measurements of the space. The Runnen IKEA deck tiles are a about 1 square foot so you will need as many tiles as the length times the width of your space. These IKEA tiles come with 9 per pack so divide your number by 9 to figure out how many packs you need.

Do you need any additional tools to install these tiles?

If your space is an even number of square feet and you don’t have any corners or poles you need to work around then you do not need any tools to install the tiles. However, the tiles can be cut if you need to go around something or only need half a foot for example.

Because I live in an apartment and do not have access to large tools, I used a hacksaw to cut the tiles as needed. The hacksaw definitely worked, but if you want to be as precise as possible or speed up the process, larger tools would probably do the job even better.

How to install temporary outdoor floor tiles

Once you have your supplies, it’s time to start installing them!

1. Prep the space

Before setting down your tiles, move any furniture or other items out of the space so you can easily set down the tiles. Then I also recommend sweeping up the area so you have a clean slate to work with.

2. Map out the tiles

Before putting the outdoor flooring together, I recommend laying out at least some of the tiles and figuring out if you will need to cut any tiles.

If so, you can outline how they need to be cut with a pencil and go from there using a hacksaw or other tools you have on hand.

For example, I have a railing on my balcony and in the middle I had to adjust for the post so I used the saw to work around that.

If you want to avoid having to cut any of the tiles, you can also fill in the gaps around your tiles with plants, stones, etc.

3. Snap the tiles together

Now all you have to do is snap the tiles together! Lay down the first tile and go from there. As long as you have them lined up correctly, you just need to apply some pressure to the corners and the tiles will connect together.

Before and after

Here is a visual of the before and after for installing these outdoor tiles.

Stay tuned for next week of the One Room Challenge for more DIY balcony decor tips.