Now that my husband and I are (for the most part) in the decorating stages of our fixer-upper, I’ve found that my rugs don’t compliment my new color schemes.
[insert sad face here]
Thankfully, I am frugal and frugality leads to creativity! Therefore, I have decided to paint the plainest of my now-ugly rug collection.
Like most of my project endeavors, this will be a first attempt, but Curbly has an inspiring, step-by-step tutorial. Now all I have to do is decide which pattern and colors to use! Here are some fun ideas I am considering:
Once the rug is done, I will loving place it in my sweet white-and-yellow-striped room:
In the meantime, I’ve decided to get said rug cleaned.
Translation: I cleaned that rug my darn self. Because I am frugal.
Here is how I saved money cleaning my rug myself…
Leilani’s Backyard Rug Cleaning Experience
What I needed:
-A dirty rug (duh)
-A flat, clean surface (I used my deck)
-Large scrubby brush
-Laundry detergent and stain remover
-Hose with spray head attachment
-Nosy cats (for encouragement)
-A breezy, sunny day
Step #1: I liberally sprayed the entire surface of the rug with water.
Step #2: I drizzled the surface of the wet rug with detergent and used stain remover on all icky spots.
Step #3: I got on my hands and knees, and scrubbed to my heart’s content.
Step #4: Thankfully, I had a stray kitty cheerleader. Unfortunately, the cheerleader kept trying to walk on my clean rug with her dirty paws.
Step #5: My indoor cats wished with all their might to regulate this outdoor cheerleader/imposter.
Step #6: I sprayed all the soap away in a methodical top-to-bottom pattern. (This is the most efficient method because it pushes the soap suds in one direction and finally over the edge of the rug.)
Step #7: I brushed as much excess water off of the rug as I could with my scrubby brush.
Step #8: Since I was home alone, I had to lift the wet, heavy, cumbersome, #$%@ rug up onto a makeshift drying apparatus by myself. (Note to self: Patio furniture is very unstable!)
Step #9: I allowed the rug to dry in the sunshine and breeze. Total drying time was only about 5 hours.
Here’s hoping that the rug-painting process goes as smoothly as the rug-cleaning process!
*********************
If you can’t get enough of home improvement projects, visit Jules over at Pancakes and French Fries. Her William Morris project is helping me stay inspired to keep moving forward!
I vote for the green with yellow dots pattern. The black and white patterns are migraine-inducing! haha
I, too, was quite taken with the polka dots. The chevron pattern makes me a little dizzy.
I love that you cleaned your own rugs! You know, we’ve been led to believe that some things can and should only be done by professionals. When I went to Turkey and saw the Turkish ladies in front of their houses washing their Turkish kilims with water hoses and dish soap, I decided I wouldn’t pay anyone to clean my cheap target rugs.
P.S. Good thing you didn’t pick a day like today to do it or your neighbor down the street might’ve ended up with your rug!
Cool story! Good point about the wind.:)
I’m going to try the scrub brush routine when the weather improves! Last summer I used the power washer on a couple of rugs, which if fine if you don’t turn it up too much…
The scrubbing was very therapeutic! And my rug came out smelling like fresh laundry.:)
Man, that looks like WORK! Good job, and love that you want to paint your rug…can’t wait to see the results.
How fun! I am excited to see how it turns out! {I have a couple rugs that could use this treatment, thanks for sharing how you did it!}
Nicely done! I love DIY discoveries like that – especially when they save you a ton of $. I also vote for the trellis pattern for your rug…… but it might be a real pain to tape off.
Way to go! I’ve cleaned small rugs before, but I’ve never tackled 5×7 or larger rugs. That’s something I’m going to have to remember!