Sunday, January 31, 2010

DIY project #1 of 2010---Painted Rug



Before

One of my biggest personal goals for 2010 was to actually do all of those DIY projects that I've always wanted to do. The original goal was to do at least a couple of things done each month but, thanks to my full-of-energy little munchkin (who is so trying to start walking!) January came and went without one real project completed...oh well! I did get one project started though that I'm pretty excited about...IF it works! We have wood floors in the living room and I really needed a rug, but since we have 3 super cute, albeit not so super well-behaved chi
huahua-doxi
es, a nice luxurious wool or 'spot-dry only" rugs was definitely out of the question. So, when I was out trying to help the Hubs clean out th
e garage, I spotted this simple, super-plain white Ikea rug that I totally had forgotten that I had. When I brought it out, I remembered why it was in the garage! It was very plain, white, almost like a piece of canvas or a drop cloth. But, I did see that it had some potential. It had some nice texture to it and was pretty well made. But, the best part about it is that it is 100% cotton and has no rubber backing or anything so I can actually just throw it in the washing machine any time my dogs, or munchkin for that matter, has any kind of accident on it. So,
right aw
ay, I had this idea to paint it. But I didn't
just want to dye it all one color, no, I was a little more ambitious than that. I actually wanted it to have some kind of a pattern to it, so I started thinking about how to do that. Now, since I'm not exactly artistically inclined and therefore wasn't brave enough to freehand any kind of design onto it, I d
ecided a stencil might be the best idea
. Since Iwanted to test out a few potential patterns before choosing "the one," I chose to trace the stencils with a washable marker. I've got
ten a couple of patterns down and they look pretty good, if I do say so myself.
I must say, I was feeling pretty good about myself and my DIY skills! BUT, I'm not quite ready to sing my victories yet. I still actually have to paint it! And this is where I am getting stuck. I've been looking online and in magazine for suggestions on what type of paints would work best and have heard different things. I'm kinda thinking that
I'm going to use dye instead of paint becauseI'm afraid that the wrong kind of paint will crack and ruin all my work! Now, I know it is going to be messy, I just hope it works!

After

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