DIY Painted Chevron Patterned Rug

A few days before we moved, I decided to tackle a huge project. Probably the biggest one I've accomplished since starting my blog. And that project was to paint my dining room rug. You see, we were fortunate enough to inherit a decent rug from my in laws for the dining room. But the rug was, well, shall we say: boring. Just plain off white berber.


I stumbled upon this tutorial  one day on pinterest and decided this was exactly what I needed for my dining room, so I gathered up my supplies and got to work!


What you will need (besides a boring rug, as seen below):

Supplies::

1 rug (mat, runner, area rug, whatever!)

measuring tape

frog tape ( I am not a fan of painter's tape)

any indoor pain: my project required a little over a pint for a 4.5' x 11' area rug

parchment paper

straight pins

Step One: Using frog tape, tape off finished corners of rug. Once pulled off after the painting is complete, it will give the rug a more 'finished' look.

Step Two: Create a graph on parchment paper. For example: my rug was 55 inches wide, so I divided it by 11 and created a 5 inch by 5 inch graph. This can be accomplished with a measuring tape and pencil. Trust me, if this girl can do it, you can too!


Once your graph is complete (and is as long as your rug is wide) connect the top corner to a bottom opposite corner, diagonally, as seen below. This will create your 'chevron' pattern that is super hot right now! Cut your pattern out

Step Three: Once your pattern is complete, copy it exactly onto another piece of parchment paper. I made the mistake of running out of paper and using one stencil, measuring, then moving it down the rug. This is extremely tedious and makes for many errors. So do yourself a favor and cut out at least two stencils.

Now take your stencil and pin it to one end, using straight pins, as seen below:

Step Four: Begin painting. I found that using foam brushes are the easiest and using a 'dabbing' technique versus brushing is key.

Step Five: Continue to paint between stencils. Each time you must move your stencil, measure between each painted area to make sure you are maintaining even spacing. Also, when moving your stencils down, make sure no wet paint is around the edges, this may cause some to come off and stain areas of the carpet that are not meant to be painted. In this case, keep a bottle of carpet cleaner nearby! I used mine on several occasions!

Step Six: Continue painting until entire rug is covered!

Step Seven: Let dry. This takes at least an entire day. You will find out that a lot of the paint gets absorbed into the carpet and you will find areas of rug sticking out through your paint. I actually found I really liked the look of this. It made it look somewhat worn, so I left it just like it was. If you don't want this look, you will need to add another layer of paint.

Step Eight: put in your home to enjoy!

I love our rug. It gave a whole new look to it! Now that the house is one big room, it also goes better with our red and black living room and more modern look.

A lot of people think you are only supposed to paint hard surfaces, but that is just not the case! Just the thought of painting your carpet makes some people cringe. But I love ours and am so happy  I did it! I hope this tutorial has made someone less nervous to give it a try! A fresh new coat of paint can change an entire room!

Thanks for reading everyone!

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