Customize a Rug with Chalk Paint

Last spring I bought a giant rug on sale at Target. It was the perfect size, but pretty boring, so I spent the better part of a day customizing it with BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder and the Nagoya stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. The rug spent the entire summer on my back patio, and it held up amazingly! Mind you, my back patio is in Las Vegas, which means 100+ temps and pool water daily!

I love the “custom” rug so much, I’ve taken it to trade shows where everyone is blown away by the fact that it was done with Chalk Paint. Since my daughter wanted the exact same rug for her house, we teamed up and made another one. Now, you are the beneficiaries of the lessons we learned to make the process much faster…

You will need:

• 1 qt. flat latex paint in any color (we used about 3/4 of the quart for this giant rug)
• 1 jar BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder
• Medium or Large Wax Brush (Don’t worry, you won’t use it for waxing. Even if you only use the brush for this one project, it’s worth it in the time it saves over a smaller stencil brush–TRUST ME!)
• Large Stencil (I love Cutting Edge Stencils for size and durability)
• Any plain rug (any rug that isn’t too plush will work)

Step One:
Lay rug out flat

Step Two:
Mix paint into chalk paint. I always use BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder because it is far more affordable than premixed paint, and I can pick any color I want.  We ended up using about 3/4 quart of paint for this giant rug. Click here for quick and easy mixing instructions.

Step Three:
Using a measuring tape, find the center of the short edge of your rug, and place the middle of the stencil on it.

Step Four:
Secure edges of stencil with painters tape to keep stencil in place.

Step Five:
Pour paint onto a plastic plate or foam tray, and dip your stencil brush into it. Most stencil brushes are fairly small, so for this big project, we replaced the stencil brush with a BB Frösch Wax brush—same shape, waaaaay bigger. Then paint like this:

…until all the “holes” in your stencil are filled in like this:

Step Six:

When the whole pattern has been painted, lift the stencil and move it down the same row, lining up the first row of the stencil with the last painted row of the previous section. Repeat this step, until you have one complete row down the center of your rug.

Step Seven:
Once you have completed a row, shift your stencil to the left, and overlap the right edge with the last painted row of the previous section.

Step Eight:
Continue to move your stencil down this row, each time overlapping the stencil with both the right edge and the lower edge of the the previously painted sections.

You will notice the stencil doesn’t overlap perfectly (it is a rug, after all.)

That’s okay! I PROMISE you won’t notice this! This is why you want to overlap the stencil—so each section is only a tiny bit off. If you don’t overlap each row as you go, you will get more and more off track, and the pattern will be WAY off by the time you get to the end of the row.

Step Nine:
Once your second row is complete, move stencil to your left again, until you are at the edge of the rug. Even if the pattern doesn’t end up perfectly at the left edge, it will look just right, because the right edge will match. Trust me!

 

Step Ten:
With the left half of your rug complete, follow the above steps for the right half.

Step Eleven:
Once the whole rug is stencilled, it’s time to fill in the gaps around the edges. First, if you haven’t already, put painters tape around the rug border, so you don’t accidentally paint on it.

Lay the border stencil that comes with your stencil over the already painted pattern, and paint the gaps.

Now, for all the steps rolled into one quick video…

 

The BEST parts of this project:

Kacey and I completed the entire rug project during Blaire’s nap time.

You do NOT need to wax your painted rug!

Yay for no waxing and for projects you can complete during nap time!

Close up…

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