Meet the Eliuks: DIY ~ A Painted Rug

I have a small obsession with Pinterest.

I have been scouring Pinterest lately for easy DIY projects for the house. It is part of my whole plan to make our house feel more like a home. While searching some boards for ideas, I came across THIS tutorial on painting a rug. I knew that we needed a great rug for our front room and this seemed like the perfect cost saving solution.

I picked up the Erslev rug from Ikea which is a flat weave rug that is approximately 6 x 8 feet. Using green painters tape, I taped out my pattern. I created six columns of boxes that were 8.5" in height and width (including the tape). Next, split all dividing sections in half again using the tape. Here is a diagram of what my tape looked like:

... And here is what it looked like in person:

Once the entire rug was taped off with the grid pattern, I used an exacto knife to cut out the final pattern. Be careful not to damage the fibers of the rug in the process. You want to end up with a series of squares that are attached by small connector lines. It is hard to explain but it should end up looking like the photos below.

Once the pattern was cut, I went over the entire rug and pressed down the tape as much as possible. This is important to avoid any bleeding of color under the tape.

Yay! All of the hard work is done! ...Or at least I thought it was. I mixed a half gallon of latex paint (in the turquoise blue color that I had chosen) with one bottle of textile medium to make the paint an appropriate consistency for fabric. I ensured that I placed good tarps under the rug to protect my new floors (more on that soon) and went to town.

The rug just SUCKED up the paint. I barely finished going over the entire rug one time when I ran out. Not only that.... but it was so physically demanding! I really had to press hard to get the paint onto the rug and into as many cracks as possible. Here is what it looked like after one coat (these photos were taken at night so they are not the best representation of what it looked like):

The next day, David went out and bought me another half gallon of paint and another bottle of textile medium. I mixed them together and hoped for the best! Rolling out the second coat was substantially easier and used way less paint. It took a little bit of effort to ensure that it coated the rug evenly but the color was so much better!

I let the entire thing dry for a few hours before I carefully removed the tape. I was so impressed with how well the tape worked! I had a few spots where the color bled under a bit... but I honestly think it adds to the whole feel of the project.

I let the rug dry overnight and it is now living in it's new home! I hate the coffee table that we have in this room at the moment but that is something that will be updated soon.