GEOMETRIC PAINTED RUG

This project should have been finished forever ago. I don't even remember where I first saw the idea of painting rugs, but I'm pretty sure I went straight to Amazon to buy the needed supplies. I already had a cheap flatwoven rug that was perfect for the job, and it only took a few days before I had everything I needed. And then it all sat there for a very long time while I decided on whether I wanted a chevron print or triangles. After going back and forth on this, I eventually decided triangles were the way forward and got the rug out. Of course, Bo was convinced I had rolled the rug out for her so she could stretch and play on it, and went and got her new favourite toy.

The process got even further delayed as I managed to underestimate how much I'd need of my supplies. First I messed up on my pattern and realized I had to redo all my taping, and subsequently ran out of tape. Emergency trip to B&Q! Then it turned out that 118  ml of fabric medium was not enough for a 1.44 square metre rug, and I had to make another emergency trip to buy more. Then there was that day in between, where Graeme and I decided to take the dog to Loch Long for a bit of fishing. Not much rug painting was done that day either. What? It's not like I was on a deadline.

You don't need a whole lot of supplies for this project. The rug I used was a plain flatwoven rug from IKEA in a neutral colour. The rug can be whatever colour you like, though it won't really work unless it's a low pile or flatwoven rug. You will also need a scalpel and frog tape to make your pattern, and a ruler would probably be helpful too to make sure it's as straight as it can be. Finally, you'll need fabric medium to mix in with the acrylic paint to make it suitable for painting on fabric.

The process is simple enough, though in retrospect I probably should have paid more attention to calculating out the pattern so that I wouldn't have had to do it all twice and run out of frog tape. Alternatively, I obviously also could have picked a simpler pattern. Stripes for example, or a more abstract pattern. These are things I cursed under my breath while holding my scalpel. Once the pattern is ready, all that's left is painting in the stencil. Let it dry for several hours before you remove the tape. Enjoy!