It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything about Chase’s nursery design. I have had so little time to post anything but have been doing so much to it. The nursery is basically complete with the exception of a few pieces of art. I’ll do a big reveal once I have all of the artwork up, but for now I thought I would share my rug project with you.
First off let me get 2 disclaimers out of the way…
#1 – DO NOT ATTEMPT PAINTING A RUG AT 8 and 3/4 MONTHS PREGNANT LIKE I DID. I THINK IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH EASIER TO DO AS NON-PREGO PERSON.
#2 – THIS PROJECT REQUIRES MUCH PATIENCE. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE PATIENCE THEN DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS PROJECT.
Okay, so back to the rug story. The rug I originally wanted was this dhurrie rug from West Elm.
It is a beauty but after we moved to our new home I realized it was slightly out of our budget. I started thinking about the awesome painted Ikea rugs that I had seen around the blog world lately.
I thought I could do something at least in the same colors and make it have the same feel as the West Elm rug. So off to Ikea I went.
Once I got home with the flat-woven $40 ERSLEV rug, I laid it out on the floor and measured it to determine how big my pattern should be.
I also talked to one of my friends, a faux painter, and asked her what material I should use to make the stencil. She gave me a great tip. She said to use clear contact paper, like the kind you line your shelf with. It was 5 bucks a roll at Wal-Mart. Fortunately for me, it worked out that the contact paper could be placed exactly 4 times across. [Please excuse the mess on the left side of the picture.]
Once I determined the size that my stencil should be I made my stencil pattern out of an extra large sheet of graph paper. Then I traced it onto my contact paper and cut it out.
Once I had my patterns cut, I peeled the backing off of the contact paper and stuck it on the rug. This is where I about lost it. The contact paper was pretty flimsy and kept wanting to curl up on itself. Couple that along with bending down with an oversized tummy and you have one worn out pregnant lady. When it was finally down and straight I gained my composure back and continued on.
With my sponge roller and latex paint I painted a light coat over each of the openings in my stencil. I wanted the color to be somewhat transparent so I didn’t do a heavy coat at all. The paint did end up being quite darker than I had originally planned so I ended up using a second coat of a lighter orange.
I don’t have a picture of the next step, but once my paint dried I peeled up my contact paper and moved it over to the next two sections. It went down much easier the second time around. The contact paper seemed more stiff.
After two more coats of paint on the 3rd and 4th rows I was done. It took a little longer than I had expected it to take, but I was so happy with the end result that I didn’t mind the time it had taken.
It is absolutely perfect in Chase’s nursery and really helps complete the space. I can’t wait until I get pictures of the whole room to show you.
If any of you end up tackling this DIY rug project I’d love to hear about it. Please send me pics too!
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