With our decision to go with just the
concrete floors, it was understood that we would use rugs to cover the floors. Well,
nice rugs, especially of the size which would be required in our dining room would
be way too expensive for us right now... particularly right after spending all of
the money fixing the room up and also ordering new dining room furniture (which should
be here in late December - early January). So, we were considering buying some sort
of cheaper option, like a mat, or crummier, less expensive rugs. We even had bought
two cheaper ($200 each) rug/mats from a rug store some time ago, but returned them
after unrolling them and finding some lines across them caused by sunfading. Fortunately,
they took them back despite their 'no returns' policy.
Then Diane saw this
idea in a store at the Biltmore Fashion Park, and we decided to make our own...
Here's the basis for our rug... A canvas painter's dropcloth from Harbor Freight Tools!
Then the paint goes on. This is just regular interior latex paint. The first coat
is
a kind of pale green that we picked up in the returned paint section of Home
Depot
for $5. We didn't really care about the color since it would be all covered
anyway.
Then Diane put a second coat of Navajo White as you see here.
Two whole
gallons were used just for the basis.
We decided on a pattern, and I measured and drew some basic guidelines in pencil.
After taping the drawn lines, we started with the first couple of colors..
The
red in the center is the same paint as on the lower part of the walls.
We matched the center portion of the rug to the stippled part of the walls. We
still had all of the materials, so that particular
portion didn't cost us anything.
You can see the checkerboard pattern appearing on the yellow border section.
Incidentally,
the walls surrounding the wood is masked in preparation of applying the final topcoat
on the wood trim.
The yellow and blue checkerboard is done now, and on to the last major portion.
A base of dark green was put
down, then stippled with a complementing color in
the same faux leather manner as the red.
We made a stencil using some plastic film of a pattern that we liked from
one
of Diane's "Stampin' Up" catalogs. Then the distribution was carefully
measured
on the canvas and rolled onto the rug. The color used is the same as
the glaze used
for the stippling.
Here is the resulting pattern... Diane then went over and added highlights to
each of the stenciled patterns.
She spent about three hours on this..
Also,
you can see the 1½" white strips are now being painted with a deep red/brown
color.
The red-brown borders were finished up, along with the edge, and here is essentially
the finished product!
All of the color has been put on, and all of the tape removed.
The only thing left now is
to put a clear sealant over the whole thing.
Nine
different colors of paint went into this project! Anybody need any paint?
There's just one more chapter to the story...