Chevron Painted Rug from IKEA Tutorial

It all started with this little table :)

I have had TONS of questions about this "leggy lady."

But most of all, readers want to know exactly what color she is.

I wasn't totally sure, but I did my best to find the closest match.  And I think it's safe to say that it's this...

Crystal Aqua, from Valspar

Well just like a lot of you, I also LOVE this color, and wanted to incorporate it somewhere else in our home. It just screams SPRING to me!

Enter in... IKEA.

Yup, an inexpensive IKEA flat woven rug, with skid free backing.

Perfect for my newest Spring project

:)

Here's how I transformed my rug from boring, to

SPRING-TACULAR!

First I taped off the fabric edges, like so, because I wanted to leave those their natural color.

Then I started paintin' away, with some plain ol' Olympic Semi-gloss latex paint.

This process took me a while.

Like about an hour and a half!

The texture of the carpet was a BUGGER to get through, with the paint.  And even required a second coat, to get the coverage that I was looking for.

The reason I went with this rug, was because of it's durability and texture.  I love how beachy it looked.

second coat down... cheezit and ice water break...

GAH!  What THE.....!?

I said I want a beachy LOOK, not for my rug to ACTUALLY look like it has waves IN IT!

:(

phew... problem solved.

:)

Okay, really.  If you attempt this, your rug will probably start to curl up funny, due to the amount of wet paint.

I just let it dry overnight with cans and bottles on it, to keep it flat.

No biggie.

.  .  .

Now for the FUN part!

BRING ON THE CHEVRON!

Yes.  It's trendy.

Yes.  Everyone is doing it.

Yes.... So am I

 :)

For maximum "chevron achievement" ... I recruited the best gal I could think of.

Miss Jen!

check out her many adorable chevron inspired projects!

I knew I was in good hands.

After printing out a chevron pattern from vinyl, that fit our rug...

I was off to work.

We used these two "vinyl stencils" as a guide, to make sure that our pattern stayed consistent.  They didn't necessarily stick to the rug... it just worked well enough to give us a cleaner guideline, as to where we should put the paint, without having to tape everything off.

Once those were in place... on went our color!

We found that a "tapping method" worked the best.  So we just loaded up our foam brushes, and went to town.

Being careful NOT to drag the foam brush, especially too much over the vinyl, because then it would lift up, and you would loose that crisp line.

Stick to the tapping and rocking movements, and you'll be fine. :)

Once we finished with one line, we just moved the other vinyl piece up, measured out our 2.5 inches between each chevron, and then painted away!

After we finished my rug, we started in on Jen's.

She picked a really pretty greenish, grayish blue, that matches her kitchen perfectly :)

Once I got the rug home, I couldn't get over the fact that something was missing.

It almost looked TOO good.

Too........ painted???

LOL LOL.

I know.  It sounds weird, but it just needed a little "weathering up", so I took my orbital sander to it, and smoothed out all the roughness, and distressed the paint, just a bit.

This caused the original rug color to come through, which actually gave the rug MORE texture!

I LOVED it!

It kinda looks like goosebumps, close up... hee hee 

Here's what it looks like in our kitchen, now!

***swoooon***

I love it.  It' so fun to have for Spring!

The colors kind of make me think of an Easter Egg. ha!

I'm SO glad I tried this technique.

It was actually pretty rewarding and fun, to paint something that normally you wouldn't.  And it's definitely an awesome way to add a custom pop of color to any space.

Oh!  And speaking of color ...

Pretty dang close, eh!?

Ooo!!! And check back in a few days to see what else I have created with this fabulous turquoisey-aqua color :) ... It's ADORABLE!

 I just can't get enough of my new favorite blue!!!