Kim’s Makeover: Adding a stencil to a rug

Looky looky, I stenciled a rug!

Here was the situation I found myself in literally days before the big reveal for Kim’s makeover.  I reeeeallly thought the room could use a rug, but I only had $40 left in our budget.  So what’s a girl do?

A.  Spend hours on this website trying to find the perfect rug for, ahem…40 bones.  (Even with their 75% off sale…the cheapest I could find was $120)

B.  Try to figure out a way to get a rug (even if it meant going over budget) without Sam Sam the budget man finding out.  (chances are slim on that one)

C.  Make something work…as Tim Gunn would say

D.  Do all of the above

If you guessed A…nice try and I am glad that you know Rugs USA has quite the deals.  However, as great as they are, chances are, you will not be able to find a 5×7 rug on there for $40.

If you guessed B…you are close.  I did thoroughly consider doing this.  I was out of options…I had literally thought of everything.  I even schemed up a way to sew multiple rugs together to make my own rug, but even that had me going over budget.   Why oh why can their not be an IKEA anywhere close to me???  And it may have been on the thirtieth trip to Lowe’s in a matter of a few days that I contemplated walking in the house with one of their rugs going, “look honey, I went $75 over budget…but it’s worth it” or “$75?  That’s a dinner out…we could sacrifice a dinner out for this rug.”

If you guessed C…you know that I am one stubborn gal and will not back down easily from a challenge.  (Or you just put two and two together seeing as how I told you in the first line of this post that I stenciled a rug. ;)) But, this rug really had me at a loss.  Right as I was about to grab an expensive rug and throw in the towel,  I saw this bin labeled residential carpet remnants…and I saw this wonderful sign.

$24.98!?!?!?  I saw the solid navy and I swear I heard angels singing.  I had a moment where I am sure that I looked like a cartoon character rubbing their eyes in disbelief as I glanced back and forth between the label on the rolled carpet and the bright yellow label on the bin.  Did you guys know that they have this at Lowe’s???  How had I not known about this???  All of the carpets in the bin were great basic rugs in a variety of colors, all for $24.98!?!?

So, for all of you who guessed D…way to go.  For those of you who didn’t pick it…fyi always pick all of the above if you are unsure.

Now, I might add that I really wanted to find a rug with a pattern on it…I know, I know, talk about high maintenance.  I had seen many stenciled rugs out there in blog land, but many of those had been sisal rugs or indoor/outdoor rugs.  Could you even paint a low pile rug?  Standing in the stencil aisle at Hobby Lobby, the doubt started creeping in.  What if the paint makes the carpet stiff and scratchy?  What if I screw this carpet up…the one I’ve been searching for…the one that actually fits in my budget?  I mean it’s not terrible to just have a solid navy rug?  

Going out on a limb, I grabbed the stencil, some white acrylic paint, and foam roller brush, presented my 40% off coupon and was out the door.  And let me give away the ending…I L-O-V-E it!  Couldn’t be happier.

For those of you with questions…the stencil is so easy to do.  There are little triangular marks that you can mark with chalk to line up the pattern and therefore, keep it even.

If you look closely, you can see the chalk marks in the picture below.

I also had some temporary spray adhesive on hand that I sprayed on the back of my stencil because it was so intricate to ensure no bleed through.

But, my main concern was whether or not the painted stenciled part would be soft.   I’m telling you, it was still soft. The texture of the paint was no where near scratchy, but it was slightly rougher in feel than the carpet itself.  However, I would still define it as soft and it still had some give to it.  Would I do this again?  You betcha.  You cannot beat that rug for around $35.

 

 

Now, to address the big elephant in the room.  I am sure that many of you are probably noticing the big ole bright stenciled spot in the middle of the rug.  Can we say “Dale” moment?  Again, if you are just joining me I tend to have these moments that my mom and I lovingly call our Dale moments.  You know the lil red nosed chipmunk…you know how he tends to be, well…well, he just is not the brightest little guy.  So, if we mess something up or make a mistake, we just say, “oh I just had a Dale moment”.

I was so excited when I got home that I immediately jumped into stenciling & my “brian” (what I call my brain when he’s on vacation) failed me.  I quickly realized that the rug soaked up a lot more paint than I thought and seeing as how I had no time to run back up to the store for more paint, I took the bottle and added water to it to thin it out a bit…and kept right on stenciling.  And that’s my Dale moment…staring me smack dab square in the face.  So, learn from my moment.   I highly recommend thinning out your paint.  Not only will you get better application, but a little will go a long way…just make sure you do this before you do one “excited” application of the stencil!  All I can say is thank goodness that Kim’s coffee table was going over my Dale spot.  Problem averted.  Happy Ending.

If you are new to Scout & Nimble and would like to see all of Kim’s makeover, click here to check it out!