DIY Stenciled Rug

A few weeks ago, I got it in my head that I needed to try and stencil a rug. My miserable failure at my last stenciling attempt was still fresh in my mind but I convinced myself that trying it on a rug, free from any window frames or outlet covers to worry about was bound to be easier. As this was more experimental than anything else, I was determined to keep costs as low as possible.

I armed myself with an IKEA Erslev rug, a stencil from Cutting Edge stencils and some leftover paint from Knox's changing table makeover project that I combined with fabric paint medium to reduce the stiffness factor and make the whole thing washable.

I was all set to embark on some crazy math equations to determine where on the stencil I should begin my design when Mr. H+F chimed in with a perfectly sensible solution - "find the center of the rug and the center of the stencil and start there, then work your way out". BRILLIANT! See....he adds real value to my wacky ideas!

In the photo below, the blue painter's tape is marking the center of the rug. By starting there, I was able to {pretty much} insure that the design cut off in the same spot on the right, left, top and bottom. I throw in the pretty much because the loose nature of the Erslev makes the edges pretty uneven.

I also decided to tape off the top and bottom rug bindings to get a nice, crisp white line on the finished product.

I definitely had that moment of total, sheer panic when I finished the first pass with the stencil. What if it was totally crooked when I pulled it off? What if the paint had bled past the edges and looked like complete poop? It's not like a wall where you can just paint over your screw up and start over y'know?

I surprised even myself when I pulled it off and saw that it didn't look terrible. Dare I say, it actually looked kinda cool. But I was still too afraid at this point to declare it as a success. I only had to not screw up about 15 more times and then I'd be out of the woods.

So I kept going...and going...and going. And I had to relocate my whole project to the garage because my dog was determined to put her own mark (literally...as in yellow paws) all over the rug in the kitchen.

After several days worth of Knox's naps, I had this. I have to say, I'm pretty content with how it turned out overall. And I'm very happy I decided to tape off the bindings. I love the clean edge I got when I peeled off that tape.

You remember my quest to de-brownify my family room? Well this was definitely helping in that mission!

But sadly, we have wall to wall carpet in there and Mr. H+F has declared he is firmly opposed to rugs over carpet. :( So now my little experiment has no home. I'm thinking I'll hang on to it until I create a proper playroom for Knox. A colorful, cheap rug that he can grind Play Doh into without me crying might be just what I need!