Painted rug tutorial

While trying to decorate the "office", I came across some inspiration from this post over at theyellowcapecod.com.

http://www.theyellowcapecod.com/2012/03/home-office-design-planwhy-i-love.html?m=1

Loved the look of the Amy Butler rug, did not love the 800$ price tag. 

So I decided to make my own rug! I knew I wanted to keep the same color scheme and the same geometric look of the drapes.  I could have easily taped off a simple stripe or geometric look, but I wanted to keep a floral-type look for the rug since both my chair cover and drapes will be geometric.

I started with a plain flat weave 40$ Erslev rug from IKEA, and because I didn't want to spend a lot on this project, I used the Donatella Damask stencil from royaldesignstudio that I already had.

The paint color I chose was Parakeet by sherwin williams.  I purchased a quart "sample" for around

6$.  I then added to small bottles of craft smart fabric medium. My rug turned out a little "crustier" than I wanted so looking back I would have added 3 bottles of the fabric medium and around 1/2 cup of wanter to thin the paint.( Adding the water will not only give you a little more paint but  will save you time because it allows the paint to soak into the creases of the rug better. )So here is the rug BEFORE

As you can see, I taped off the border using GREEN scotch tape. Not the frog tape. The name is actually GREEN. It adheres to the fabric better and did not seem to bleed through. I choose to add a painted border along the outside, with a white inner border. This also helps to "center" the rug as they are not always square at the corners.  I then marked on the tape the halfway point and centered my stencil there.  I used Martha Stewart stencil spray on the back to allow it to adhere better to the rug.

I started with a cheap foam brush but quickly switched to a small foam roller brush.

From there I simply rolled along, being careful to stay straight and line up the registration marks on the stencil.  Be careful of any "seepage?" that ends up under the stencil by wiping as you go along. This whole process took a few hours with a few stops in between to drool at Jax on Sons of Anarchy...

moving along...

And finally I painted around the outer edge and removed the tape:

After it had completely dried, I ran the iron over it, using a flour sack inbetween, to heat set the design for future anticipated washings. I also sprayed a layer of scotch guard on to protect.

Here's a close up

So not exactly the same as my inspiration rug, but it works for me!
Stay tuned for the rest of my projects and the completed look!

My first post! Stay tuned for before and after pics of my new bar stools!