DIY Painted Rug

In the beginning stages of planning my room, I would have never thought that I’d end up with a softer color pallet because I normally side with reds, teals, deep purples, and anything bold. However, as I began planning it all out I realized that every project I had in my head was either a baby blue or light pink. The final decision came when I went home for a visit last school year and decided on a whim that I was going to stencil paint a rug. I went to Lowes and picked out a plain beige rug from their discount bin. The idea I had in my head was of this beige rug with baby blue, almost periwinkle, designs. That ended up not working out too well, as stenciling a rug is harder than I had imagined. I did some research and read blogs about how to stencil a rug, and finally went out to purchase my products.

The Process:

1. Like I said, I started with a rug from Lowes, but I also grabbed some baby blue acrylic paint from Michael’s, and a stencil from Hobby Lobby.

2. The next step was to vacuum the rug just to make sure all the dust and dirt particles were off.

3. Then, I lined up my stencil and used blue painter’s tape to tape it down. This is where things got tricky. I began dabbing paint onto the open part of the stencil so that there was enough paint to cover the surface of the rug, but not enough so that it seeped and leaked into the design. Once it dried and I picked up my stencil this is what it looked like:

As you can see, there’s only a faint outline of a design. I’m not sure if I should have painted it a different method, or if the rug was too thick for a stencil, or even if the stencil was too intricate, but whatever the case, I was not a fan. This is where my stencil rug turned into a striped rug.

4. Once I decided on stripes for my rug, I had to measure out even stripes that would allow for the first stripe to completely cover my failed attempt at stenciling, while also allowing for two more stripes equidistant away from one another. 

5. Once the measuring was all finished and I was satisfied with my stripe sizes, I taped to the edge of where my colored stripes would be painted and went to town.

6. I was naïve enough to think that this project could be done with two small bottles of acrylic paint. Needless to say, an additional trip to Michael’s was required. After about five hours and two coats each stripe, I finally got my stripes covered. I made a small chair barrier around it to deter my cats from walking on it and tracking blue paint all over my house, and let the paint dry over night. 

7. The final step was simply to take the painter’s tape off once the paint was dry. 

This is how it turned out:

Also, this third picture is an accurate portrayal of the colors.