DIY Painted Rug

After moving into our apartment the DIY projects began almost immediately. Obviously I had pinned over 100 different ideas that all claim they are $10 DIY "quick" projects and we both quickly learned that most projects are at least double the cost and usually a few hours longer than expected. In all reality the projects that we've done so far have all been relatively painless and turned out pretty great! The first thing we did was find a rug for the living room.

Our apartment is obviously small...but we wanted to put a rug in the living room to separate the space. We had also just gotten a book shelf and coffee table that were pretty dark, so we also wanted the rug to lighten up the room. I had seen on a few blogs and pins the idea of a painted rug and decided to try it.

We went to IKEA and bought the ERSLEV rug, it comes in two sizes and is a plain white flat-woven rug.  I definitely recommend this rug, it is easy to paint, light weight - yet stays put on the floor, and also reversible in case you mess up. I bought the 5'11 x 8' 2 rug and it is a really great size for our apartment.

So, first order of business after purchasing the rug. Invite my mom over.  The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hey Mom, what are you up to after church today?"
Mom: "Oh not much, you know the ravens are on at 1:00pm so we will probably be watching that at home and making some lunch."
Me: "Great, well how about you guys just come over and you can see the new chair we got and watch the game with us."
Mom: "Ok that sounds like a great idea, we'll head over right after service."
Me: "Cool, I'll just order some pizzas and what not."
Mom: "Ok love you!"
Me: "Love you too, mind bringing over some extra grey paint from one our bedrooms and maybe some painter's tape and maybe a brush and some sheets to cover the floor with? Great, see you tomorrow."
Mom: ...Ok.

So, at 1:00pm we were in the apartment watching the Raven's. Ok, well Andrew,  my dad and my sister were watching the Ravens and my mom and I were taping stripes on the rug to be painted right in front of them.

Exhibit 1:

This is me, painting the rug while Andrew is watching the game. You can't see my Dad in this picture, but I am sitting directly in his line of sight as he is getting very feisty about the Ravens not using their time-outs and challenges appropriately. I just hummed quietly to myself. Also - side note: if you are painting stripes, you might want to consider what size your rear-end is because if you make the stripes as wide as you are it is much easier to sit in between and paint. I did not follow this rule, there are some pictures out there (that live in the cell phone of my Mom) of me in all kinds of weird straddling positions trying to get the paint on this rug! Keep in mind, it wasn't even half time or anything...we were nearing the beginning of the fourth quarter at this time...

So anyway, this project is actually crazy easy. We took painters tape and marked out stripes on the rug. My mom taught me that you need to make the center stripe first and work out from there. I didn't use any precise measure for the stripes, I just used a book I had laying around and thought looked like the appropriate width.  The taping takes the longest amount of time. Make sure the tape comes down over the edges and underneath the rug and spend a few minutes pressing the tape down into the rug.

Also important to consider, the width of the tape will be included in the white stripe, so make sure that when measuring and placing the tape that in order to make all of them the same size, every other stripe will look thinner because this is the white stripe with the tape included in its size.

After laying the tape down we used some old latex paint from my sister's room. It was flat, but I could imagine that a semi gloss or gloss paint would work fine. I painted two coats on the rug and could have painted more if the end of the Raven's game wasn't quickly approaching.  I also failed to mention that my house guests (my Dad and sister) and my husband were trapped on the couch and couldn't necessarily get up because the rug was taking up the entire floor. See below.

 

 

They look thrilled. I took this picture on my phone (hence the not so great quality) and sent it out to all of my friends...the text replies I got back were "wow...everyone looks THRILLED about your rug." But now you can see how much space my craft was taking up on Football Sunday.

Everyone loved how it turned out (although you cannot see that in the picture above.) It was such a quick room transformation. The rug from Ikea is pretty good quality, is thick enough to stay still on the floor and the paint doesn't feel weird under your feet when you walk on it. I was supposed to spray it with Scotch Guard Fabric Protector...but I went to Target and couldn't find it so I just didn't do it. It's been two weeks and it still looks great - ask me in a year, though. I recommend using the fabric protector, I will buy some when I see it and use it. (Following through is not one of my top 3 strengths I list when interviewing...)

 

Last comment, please do not judge the coffee table, that is one of the next Pinterest DIY crafts that we are going to attempt this weekend or next!!  It will be fabulous.