DIY Painted Rug - Plowing Ahead in the $100 Room Challenge
Here we are in week 3 of the $100 Room Challenge! The end is in sight, and things are really coming together. This week was the biggest project so far, and is making a big impact in the entryway for sure.
After finally getting those frames sprayed and put up, the next order of business was to try to breath some life into our very utilitarian rug. To be honest, this is not the biggest project of the $100 Room Challenge , but it was definitely the project that I was most apprehensive about.
There were just so many unknowns. Would the pattern work, and look good? Would I ruin a perfectly good rug? How much time and effort would this take? In a way this was where the rubber met the road for this project.
I started by looking at lots and lots of pictures of patterned rugs. I knew I wanted a pattern, but didn't really know what. It had to be something that I could recreate fairly easily with tape, since that was how I was going to make my stencil. That meant that anything too intricate was out. And I knew that I didn't want anything too basic or geometrical, either, like just circles or squares. I was drawn to a few different Greek key style patterns, but ended up falling for a diamond-chain pattern. I played around with a few variations based on the inspiration pattern, and came up with this. I figured it was simple enough to recreate without being too simple.
I'm too tactile to use fancy programs. I still like playing around with pencil and paper.
Next step was to pull out the rug, and try out the pattern with some tape. Being so excited to get started, it didn't even cross my mind to get a 'before' picture of the bare rug. You'll just have to closely examine the little bit you can see of it from my introduction post here. I did not have any scientific approach to laying the tape - if fact, I even forgot to measure to find center, and had to rip up my first attempt. Oh well. I just eyeballed all the angles to try to get it the way I wanted, and though not perfect, it has just enough bohemian whimsy, and just enough structure to suit me.
Now that the pattern was laid down, the next step was to cover the rest of the rug with painter's tape. The part that I covered in blue was where I wanted the gold paint to go. Very tedious, but this is what it looked like when almost done.
After all that, it was time to do the actual painting prep. Off went the blue tape, down went the drop cloth, and all the seems were checked to make sure they were all secure - didn't want any gold getting where it shouldn't.
I used the same spray paint from the frames I refinished here. I had just enough left to cover the pattern on the rug... but with one teeny, tiny problem .... you couldn't actually see the gold on the rug. *sigh* Don't know if it's because this paint wasn't specifically for fabric, if the rug was too dark, or if it was just the colour of the paint itself, but it just didn't work out.
I wasn't ready to give up just yet, and after a little research, I found an indoor/outdoor paint that was made for fabric (among other things) that I figured should work. I still had a little bit of money left to play with, thank goodness, so it was back to the store, and back to painting.
The new paint was working out really well, but after one coat, I felt that the colour wasn't as vibrant as I wanted, and it could do with a second coat. Then halfway through the second coat, I ran out of paint. *sigh* Back to the store again to finish off the painting. Since I had banked on using just the leftover spray paint, this specialty paint was cutting deep into my budget. *Sigh, again*
Finally, this is what I was left with.
And there it is in its home.
So to sum up, after all my fears, overall, I was very happy with how it all worked out. It took way more paint (and money!) than I was hoping, and once the paint was dry, it was a little crusty underfoot (which will probably soften up a tiny bit over time). I love the way it looks, however, and I would do it again, though I would probably try to do a few things differently. Looking forward to seeing how it all works together once the room is complete! Stay tuned!
Here's the summary of the projects and approximate cost (rounded up or down) so far:
frames: $0 (already had them but originally found them at a second hand store for 50cents each)
spray paint: $10 (ish)
wood shelf: $0
hooks: $0 (already had them but originally purchased for about $4)
painters' tape: $10(ish)
new paint: $20ishx2=$40ish (and that was with a coupon both times)
total so far: $60
And that's where we are at so far. Tune in next week for our biggest project so far - which I realize wouldn't be hard, but, still, very exciting stuff!
Cheryl
Here's what everyone else has been up to this week.
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