A natural fiber rug can look beautiful in a country-style bedroom, in a children's playroom, under a dining table, or outdoors on a patio or deck. Painting your own rug will save you money and ensure you get exactly the color you want.
Create your workspace. Cover the surface of a flat, level, well-ventilated outdoor area with craft paper. Roll out the indoor-outdoor area rug across the protected area. Use a tape measure to decide the width of the stripes, making sure they are in proportion to the shape, scale, and size of the rug. Stripes 8 to 12 inches wide work best with most sizes of rugs. When the proper size is determined, mark the location of the fringe with a magic marker.
After the marks have been made, place painter's tape along the outside edges of each mark. This will help denote the difference between the stripes to be painted and the stripes to be left natural. NOTE:The narrower, cropped stripes are the ones that will be left unpainted, while the wider areas will be painted.
Use brown paper or craft paper to completely cover the stripes that will not be painted. Make sure you don't leave any sections exposed; Spray paint has a way of getting to places you don't want it.
Rugs with contrasting, decorative binding edges should use binding to frame the stripes. To protect the binding from spray paint, cover it with painter's tape.
Once you have placed the tape for all the stripes, firmly press the edges of the tape to the carpet. This will help prevent any possible bleeding when the paint is applied.
Hold the paint can about 8 inches from the carpet surface, and apply two even coats of paint in an even, controlled manner with bouts. Allow at least two hours of drying time between each coat of paint to ensure proper curing on the carpet surface. Adding a second coat too quickly can cause the paint to bubble. Once both coats of spray paint are dry to the touch, seal the painted streaks with a matte finish acrylic sealer spray.
Carefully remove painter's tape from all covered surfaces, making sure the tape does not break through layers of spray paint. It's best to do this slowly, otherwise any additional force can pull the paint out of the carpet.
We used our new rug to anchor an outdoor dining area. It gives the most formal setting and is easier on bare feet.
