Thursday, November 17, 2011

50 Basement Progress: A Painted Playroom Rug!

What did you do last Saturday night?  Hit up the clubs?  A fun filled family game night?  A night out with the best friend or romantic date with your other half?

Any guesses what I did last Saturday night?

Here is how a conversation went with my mom when she called me...

Mom:  "Hi J.P. {that's the childhood nickname my mom still calls me}  Whatcha doin'?"
Me:  "Oh, just painting a rug..."
Mom:  "What!?"
Me:  "Yeah, I ran out of walls to paint, so I decided I would paint a rug."
Mom:  "Oh my, you really have gone off the deep end haven't you?"
Me:  "Totally!"

Thanks to Pinterest and my fabulous blogging peeps, I took the rug painting plunge.  It's one of those projects that I am unsure if I would have ever come up with on my own {although, I do paint just about everything else, so it was probably inevitable that I would eventually paint a rug too}.

And for those thinking I am nuts, there is no arguing the amount of money you save by doing it.

Follow me on Pinterest?  You may have noticed I have been scouring for playroom rugs.  And they were all in the $200+ price range for the size we needed.  Seems like a theme when it comes to finding any great rug.  Expensive!

This one from Shades of Light was one of my favorites.  It seemed inexpensive, beachy and had no where for LEGOS to hide, meaning my feat should be safe from surprises.


So, thanks to some tutorials found around blog land, I replicated {here is a great tutorial and the one I followed almost to a T}

I started out with the 6x8 ERSLEV rug from IKEA, that rang in at just $60!  That's a lot of rug for the price.  Couldn't find one that size for less no matter how hard I tried.

Remember, this is how I spent my Saturday night, so the pics are a little on the bad lighting side... sorry.

We measured 10" stripes to get them to fit perfectly along the entire rug and taped them off with our beloved Frog Tape:


Then, I just rolled.  I used the rest of the quart of Glidden's Blue Lagoon that I had also used for the kid's art display project.


It seemed to be covering really well, so we decided to pull the tape immediately while the paint was still wet, just like we would if we were painting walls {seem to get the crispest lines that way}.


The rug sucked up that paint like a sponge.  I ran out of paint with a stripe left....

Lucky for me, my neighbor works at Home Depot and picked up another quart for me the following day so I could finish off that last stripe without waiting for too long.  But here is where I made my next mistake {mistake one being not having enough paint}.  I could still see some small spots with white showing through so I went back with a paint brush to try and fill in those spots.  Looked good when wet.  Was SO disappointed to see those spots didn't dry the same as the rolled stripe.  You could really notice where I touched up.  {sorry, too mad to take a photo of my goof}.

So, I re-taped and re-rolled my second coat to even it all back out.  And ran out of paint again, on my very last stripe {as I was finishing the stripe, but every last bit of paint from both quarts was used}.

Therefore, if you are going to do this project, I would recommend two coats right away, and a gallon of paint to be safe.

Then, it's time to smile BIG when it's all done and dry!!



The painted stripes don't look too painted, even up close.  It looks pretty good overall!  And I am sure as it gets vacuumed and played on, that paint will soften up a bit more...


And I love that the little bins with casters can roll around smoothly and that LEGOS won't get lost!


Rug before and after?

Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Not bad for around $80 after the rug and two quarts of paint!  That's a savings of $130 from the cheapest option I found.  I like to see numbers like that!

Anyone else been painting rugs lately?  What's the strangest thing you have painted?  Or something you have done recently that was inspired by blog land?



Pssst.... we have since switched things up a bit, check it out here.

50 comments:

  1. What do you do if the rug gets dirty? Even with shoes off in the house and food upstairs, boys are bound to get it dirty, I know my girl and boy sure manage to. You can't put it in the washing machine with paint on it, so any ideas? I love the thought of making one, but it seems it would be too hard to clean. I am hoping to be swayed though.

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  2. LOVE it Jen! The blue stripe adds the perfect pop of color in that room. I love how fearless you are when decorating!

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  3. @tones - Very valid question, however, I personally can't put any rug that size in a washing machine, painted or not. :) In fact, I rarely wash any rugs in my home, just the smaller bath mats.

    I will clean it just like any other area rug - I Google around for green stain removing ideas, there are all sorts of great ones out there depending on the type of stain that you are trying to clean up.

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  4. I love love love it! I seriously need to make a trip to IKEA soon and pick one of those bad boys up. I painted a rug for my laundry room a while back. Wanna see?

    http://domesticfordummies.com/2011/08/pinterest-challenge.html

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  5. It looks awesome! And yeah, it's so frustrating when things don't work out the right way the first time..but I love that you kept going and finished it up beautifully :)

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  6. LOVE IT! It's too bad you ran out of paint twice, but it looks so nice! Ben thought I was crazy when I painted the boys bedroom rug, but I'm happy to say it has held up wonderfully, including a few deep scrubbed areas. :)

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  7. @tones, we have a painted rug in our boys' bedroom and it has held up wonderfully. We've had a few accidents and we've scrubbed the heck out of it and it still looks good. If you have a problem on a painted area, you could always touch it up with some left over paint... Like Jen said, a rug that large can't go in a washer anyway, so it's much like any other area rug. You could get a darker rug and then paint a color on it rather than have a white and colored rug.

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  8. Ikea is opening up soon near me, can't wait! Right now our closest one is about 1 hr. 15. minutes away!

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  9. This is great. Because I've been dying to do a painted rug - like you said, you just can't save money on rugs any other way - but haven't been able to convince Ryan that it will be a good idea. How does it feel beneath your feet or hands? (Because I'm sure you spent a lot of time walking on your HANDS, not!) :) Just curious. And did you skip the "fabric medium" that others have used before painting fabric? If so, curious how you made that call.

    Sorry for all the questions! I really love how great your rug looks!

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  10. I like it and as I am redoing my daughter's bedroom I might (some day next year, because I have so many projects going on right now) paint a rug for that room. I am thinking of using a stencil and paint some motives on it, maybe little birds or an owl or something like that, because I haven't made up my mind and come up with a theme for that room yet.
    Jule

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  11. I made one of these with navy stripes for our living room, and I am going to paint a treasure map on one for my son's room this weekend!
    Please keep us posted on how yours holds up in the playroom, the LR one is starting to show some wear and I have yet to figure out a really good way to clean it. (Having a two year old means he always seems to spill on the white parts!)

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  12. Great job on that rug! Love the colors. Thanks for sharing.

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  13. I love it! I'm itching to paint a rug with a red chevron pattern for the holidays!

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  14. I love it! I've been contemplating painting an Erslev rug with black stripes. I still might, but this Urban Outfitters Zigzag printed rug is a strong contender for my needs as well:

    http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=20659470&color=004&color=004&itemdescription=true&navAction=jump&search=true&isProduct=true&parentid=SEARCH+RESULTS

    It's a bit smaller at 5 x 7, but it comes in several colors and has a fun chevron pattern for only $74, plus Urban Outfitters frequently runs free shipping and other discounts. I just thought I'd throw that out there in case any of your readers might be interested:)!

    Love your blog...you are inspiring!

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  15. You are so clever. Painted stripes. Just ingenious.

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  16. That's amazing! LOVE the cost savings!

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  17. What a FABULOUS result! I am totally going to consider this for our dining room. We are renting a home that has *LIGHT* CARPET in the dining room.(I know...what!?)

    I've been wanting a decent rug FOREVER that will cover as much area around our table as possible - that is durable and looks decent and doesn't cost a fortune.

    A hard combination to come by - this looks like the perfect solution!

    IKEA here I come (yet again...hahaha) :)

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  18. wow this really makes the room pop!
    love it!
    xoxo
    Kerri at HollyMuffin

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  19. You may have said this already, but where did you get the containers with the color labels? Those would be great for my 3 year olds room!!

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  20. Oh that rug is so awesome! I just love it, it looks great. I would have never thought to paint it but am so going to try in our laundry room!!!

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  21. The room looks like so much fun for the kids, and so incredibly BEAUTIFUL too! I always love your ideas.

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  22. I love how your rug turned out! And what a great price. =) Love it!

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  23. It looks great! I have been wanting to do this, but keep chickening out, this post makes me want to do it right now though(:

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  24. It looks amazing! Well done. Please do keep us updated on how it holds up over time. This is such a budget friendly way to get a big rug, I'd love to know whether it's a good long-term solution.

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  25. So funny! I've been wanting that exact Shades of Light rug for my home!! I just love it. Not sure if I'll take the plunge to paint my own version but it is nice seeing that it can be done. I'll be curious to see how it holds up under wear and tear.

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  26. It looks great! I've heard that adding some fabric medium to the paint could help it from being so stiff. I hope to try this soon, too!

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  27. This turned out great! I so wish that there was an IKEA closer than 4 hours away.

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  28. @Jane - never had heard of fabric medium before? Lol, probably would have been good to add, but for us it's just fine, the kid's play on it and it's not too scratchy. However, if I were to do it again in a living space, I would probably add the medium to make it a smidge softer if that is an option.

    @glittermommy, here is a link all about those bins/labels: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/10/organizing-legos-part-3-creating.html

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  29. I love this idea! :) It completely changed the room!
    I so want to paint a rug, but I'm not sure I would have enough patience.

    Sounds like you have a TON of it !

    lovelovelove
    moo.

    http://themusingsoflilmoomoo.blogspot.com/

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  30. what an excellent idea! I love it!
    I have been jonesing for a new LR rug and this would be the perfect way to afford an inexpensive one and have it customized to what I want! I saw some Martha Stewart stencils yesterday that I'm sure would work!! thanks for the idea!

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  31. Wow, that looks fantastic! Nothing beats a simple stripe in my opinion. I'd be painting stripes on every surface if I could get away with it. I've yet to paint a rug, but at that price, it's very tempting!

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  32. Did you notice that you took the first before/after at the exact same time of day, almost down to the second? Now THAT'S organized! This blog is my new favorite; and that's coming from a very creative yet very messy person. :-)

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  33. @Catherine - I was wondering if someone would notice that, too funny! Although I always try to shoot my photos in the afternoon when the kiddos are at school, the really awesome reason they were taking "at the same time" is because the battery in the clock died, lol. Must remember to change that! :)

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  34. Looks GREAT, I wonder the same thing about how it feels...but if it soaked up that much paint, I imagine there isn't really a paint 'layer' sitting on top the way I imagined there might be. @Catherine, that is so funny you noticed the clock?! I'm thinking she must stick to a routine/schedule pretty close that she works on the photos at a consistent time for the right lighting.

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  35. YUP that settles it . . . I doing this!!!
    It looks GREAT!

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  36. WOW what a difference a fun rug makes! It'd be interesting to try one of those large scale wall stencils and try for a fun pattern of some kind... a damask for instance. Mmmm dreamy.

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  37. I've seen several bloggers paint rugs, and many of them have used belt sanders to help soften the paint and give it a slightly distressed look.

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  38. @juleen - I have seen that also, my hubster wouldn't let me break out the sander. And I was a little nervous since the rug is woven and not a natural material as it seems the others are...

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  39. Oh. My. Word!!! I looooove it! It looks so good! That is a really nice shade of blue! Nice work! I would like to do something like this for my dining room!

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  40. Wow! Girl, I wish I had your energy. Nicely done!

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  41. It looks lovely! What a great way to brighten up a room.

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  42. Very pretty! It adds so much to the room!

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  43. Now that it has been a few months, how is it holding up? I have been contemplating painting a rug for our playroom but I wonder about flaking.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Katie!

      Here is an update I did awhile back: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/12/basement-progress-playroom-tweaks.html

      xoxo!
      Jen

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  44. I was SO excited to find this tonight on Pinterest. I was looking at the same rug at IKEA today wondering how paint would work on and low and behold here it is. I'll definitely be testing this one out for myself.

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  45. I love, love, love your blog! I subcribed and joined. Thank you so much for this tutorial, I am actually getting ready to start painting my own rug just like this one, and I will definitely be following your tutorial. Lets be friends, check out my blog. Your blog has inspired me, I hope my blog can one day be as successful and awesome like yours. Thank you.

    -Claudia

    deliciousspaces.blogspot.com

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  46. What kind of paint, oil based, water based, wall paint! Did you have to do a primer or such 1st?

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    Replies
    1. Just a water-based latex paint, and no primer. :)

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