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. 

I think that the color is perfect in the room and it is a great contrast to our dark floors!

Summary of Cost: 

~ Erslev Rug from Ikea $69.99

~ 2 x Half Gallon of Behr Paint in Gem Turquoise $17.50ea

~ 2 x Delta Creamcoat Textile Medium $10ea

~ Painters Tape

Total Cost ~ $124.99

Mrs. E

2012 Great White North Triathlon

As some of you may know, David has been training very hard to prepare for Ironman Mont Tremblant on August 19.

Generally, when you are training for a large race, you fit in a few shorter distance races to gauge your fitness level. David informed me last minute that he had registered for the Great White North Half Ironman as a training race. I will admit that I was a little bit frustrated to learn about the race so late but I was very excited to have Sydney watch her dad do something that he loves. 

It was such a cold rainy day when we arrived at the race site. I knew that I would be exhausted by the end of the day. Carting around a toddler in the rain is a tough job and all Sydney wanted to do was get out and run around. It was a bad situation.

We watched the swim and made our way into town where we hid out in the car for two hours watching Elmo and eating Tim Hortons. We then made our way over to the transition zone to cheer David on. When Sydney saw him she screamed out "Daddy!" and clapped like crazy. It was so sweet to see her getting excited for him. 

While he was out on the run, Sydney had a nice long nap in her Chariot while I hung out and caught up with old friends while trying to stay dry. David had a great run and Sydney was there to give him hugs at the finish line. 

All in all it was a fantastic day and we were so proud of David's accomplishment. 

PS.... Sydney's shirt says:

See Daddy Swim

See Daddy Bike

See Daddy Run

Go Daddy Go

Mrs. E

Fire Girl Sydney

Just another silly day and another silly afternoon with a fun hat. 

Syd and I had a great time playing around and enjoying some time together. To be honest, I am surprised that this hat even still exists! We brought it all the way back from South Dakota and it is just a cheap piece of thin plastic.... but she loves it!

Mrs. E

Our House ~ Reflecting on the Past

We have been in our new home for over a month now and we have been so busy with new home projects that we haven't really had time to reflect on our time in the condo. 

We loved that home. It was our first piece of real estate and our first home as a couple. We got married while we lived there, returned home to that place after long trips, we had Sydney there..... We had so many great moments in that place. Looking back at some of my favorite moments in that condo, some of them really stand out in my mind. 

~ Hosting our first dinner on our second night in the condo

~ Inviting friends over for our annual Eliuks and friends Christmas Dinner and gift exchange

~ Putting together all of the pieces for our wedding

~ Coming home as a married couple for the first time

~ Finding out we were pregnant with Sydney

~ Crazy birthday celebrations with friends (special mention to my joint parties with Scott and the Poker Chicks surprise party)

~ My surprise baby shower

~ Building the nursery

~ Going into labor

~ Bringing Sydney home....

There are so many more but we would be here all day if I kept going. All in all it was an incredible space in which to live out three and a half years of our lives. I loved it and I will look back on that time with fond memories. 

Before we handed over the keys to the new owner we stopped by for one last good bye. It was great to get some closure and I think it helped Sydney with the transition into our new house. 

Here's to looking forward to fun and wonderful memories in our new home. 

Mrs. E

Lately....

Lately we have been having some crazy weather in Edmonton. 

We are in the midst of some pretty intense summer storms and it is starting to get a little out of hand. The past three weeks we have seen weather warning after weather warning. We had tornado watches the other night that came with some pretty terrifying thunderstorms. I got off of the LRT after work and ran to my car. By the time I was in the car I was so wet that you could have sworn that I just jumped into the pool. Two weeks ago during an intense middle of the night storm, our new house was pelted with large hail. We ran around frantically closing windows, pulling both cars into the garage and moving artwork away from the large windows. We woke up the next morning to flooding all over the south side of the city and piles of hail that looked like snow drifts. 

The only positive side to all of these storms are all of the incredible sunsets that we are being treated to. Here are a couple I managed to capture from our back door.... Amazing. 

Mrs. E

Our House ~ Personalizing Our Home

So, lately I have been attempting to make our house into a home.


We lived in our condo for three and a half years, and although it felt like our home, it was still very modern and clean. I am really trying to infuse some of our personal style into our new home. I want it to feel warm and reflect who we are as a family. One of the ways I want to do this, is by incorporating fun nic nacs and items from our travels or pieces that we really love. Here are a few items that I would love to have around our home:

Vase, Frame, Whale, Pitcher and Water Jugs via Anthropologie ~ Vintage Tea Cup via 100 Layer Cake ~ Triathlon Sculpture via Bicycle Gift Hub ~ Map via Map Studio ~ Arrow Wine Cork via BHLDN

Mrs. E

Living Room Love

Many exciting things have been happening in our new house lately. We finished laying all of our new flooring last night (more on that later) and almost the entire house is painted. 

Now that all of the hard work is done, we get to do the fun part.... decorating! I have put together a few ideas for our front room. I want to create a space that is comfortable, artsy and eclectic so I am taking inspiration from the artwork that will be placed on the walls in that room. 

Pillows, throw and rug via Joss and Main ~ Couch and Chair via Urban Outfitters ~ Toti Tour de France Prints via Toti

For many years we hummed and hawed over three incredible Tour de France prints by Toti. David and I are major cycling fans and we fell in love with the prints but we were not sure if we could afford them. After a couple years of saving, we took the plunge and bought them. They then sat in the gallery for another year while we saved up to frame them. We finally got them framed and brought them home.... but we had no wall space to put them up. So after years of waiting we finally have room for them!

Jake, our framer, is coming to put them up on Thursday for us (they are huge, each one is almost 3 x 5 feet!) and then the decorating begins. We kept our walls neutral grey and our floors nice and dark so we have the perfect pallet to start with. I want to introduce mid-century modern pieces like a couple of great chairs and a fantastic couch. I will then bring the whole thing together by adding a hand painted patterned rug and homemade statement throw pillows. It will be a lot of work but it is completely worth it. 

For now I am on a mission to find furniture that fits the bill and some great patterned fabric to work with. 

Mrs. E