DIY Zebra Painted Rug

My sister, Jessica (sister #3), had her eye on the West Elm Safari Rug for some time.  She wanted it for a small nook in her dining room.  We went to the store a couple of weeks ago to pick it up, but the size that she needed was only available for delivery.  Bringing the cost of the rug to about $130.00.

Which I guess ended up being a good thing, because she fell in love with this Capiz Chandelier.  She figured her husband would not be thrilled with both purchases being made in one day. 

We considered keeping my younger sister's old West Elm rug for the space, but the brown was not working with her new grey chandelier.  Here's a picture of the brown one.

We sent each other about 20 texts that night and the idea of painting a rug came up.  I found a bunch of links, including this one by Tatertots and Jello and sent them to her.  She was sold.  We spent a couple of days trying to find a cheap enough rug, the right size, that would work.  She found the perfect one at Ross for $8.99, yup that's right.

This is what happens when you try taking a picture of a rug with a three year old in the house. The Batman crawl.

We used painters tape to block out the small edging the rug had. It really didn't stick that well, so we pressed down pretty hard.

We used wax paper to trace out the pattern in the original brown zebra rug pictured above.  The idea was genius and can really be done with any pattern. It would work great with florals and other graphics.  Here you can see the traced lines if you look closely enough.

We used a can of Martha Steward latex paint in a grey color.  We cut out the pattern from the wax paper. Basically, it was our stencil.  We placed the rug on her dining room table, to make it easier on our backs.

We found the best technique was to dab the paint on.  For a few reasons, you can see above the brush, where we actually brushed the paint on, it changes the texture of the rug.  We realized this after a few rows of painting.  Also, dabbing allowed for the paint to get into the actual rug piles/loops (whatever that's called).  Having the wax paper was key.  We just held it down and it actually allowed for sharper lines. When we tried to free hand a line, it looked blotchy.  

Here it is.  It took the two of us about two to three hours to get it done.  Thank goodness for my mom who was doing crafts with my niece and nephew.  Without her help, I think it would've taken like three days.

We were actually quite shocked at how incredible it looks.  There are no texture issues and the rug looks amazing. I think we stared at it for about an hour after we were done.  Actually, that whole night my sister would randomly text me pictures of it.

Here's a shot with the fabric memo board.  She is going to have the space painted and add a desk or console to the area

What do you think?  What a way to save about $110.00.  We can't remember what the can of paint cost, but figure about $20.00 for the whole project.  It's not a high traffic area, so we think the durability will be fine.  My sister's philosophy right now is, if it lasts a year, she'll get the real one then, but at least she got her chandelier and her rug.  I would have to agree.

I'll be linking up to these parties

New Living Room Rug

Summer had to start with a trip to Ikea.  We loaded up my sister's kids and headed about 40 minutes north yesterday morning.  I had one and only one thing in mind, a rug for my living room.  I had been eyeing the Ikea Flokati Rug and had seen some beautiful inspiration pictures with this type of rug.  The price was just right at $79 for a 5 x 7.  I would've loved it to be a bit bigger, so that it would reach my chairs, but beggars can't be choosers.  Here it is with my new to me coffee table. 

I asked my nephew to help me pick a rug (3 hours in Ikea can be rough on a 3 year old).  When I found the Flokati, he automatically laid on it and told me it was soft.  He then tried to lift it and place it in the cart, sold!  It was kind of cute to watch. 

The sales guy warned me that this rug would shed like crazy.  I was willing to take the risk. I hope I don't regret it later when I'm vacuuming all the time.  It's not really a high traffic area, so I hope that helps. Have you had any experiences with Flokati rugs? 

Our Kitchen

When we bought the house, our now dining room, was the kitchen.  This space below was termed a "den".  I say, it's where the previous owner's cats spent most of their time.  You see those black/brown stains on the linoleum, yea, when we lifted that, there was mold from cat pee.  I can't even think about it without getting sick.  There was a closet to the right, an off centered window, and a crazy bookshelf to the left. 

The door to the left is an entrance to a guest bathroom and the door to the right is the entrance to the hallway leading to our office.

This is the view of the kitchen or our now dining room.  The entrance was the width of a door.

And here is our kitchen now.  We widened the entrance quite a bit.  Got rid of the closet and centered the window.  We also moved the entrance to the guest bathroom to the hallway. These are Ikea Abstrakt doors and Akurum bases.  We built these all ourselves.  I actually did the initial build, and my husband tightened and installed them with his dad.

To the right is the bookshelf wall that we tore down from the first picture above.  That is our family room.

Here is the view from our family room of the kitchen.  Here you can see the hallway to our office and the entrance to our guest bathroom.  I finally ordered my rug.  I LOVE it! It goes great with our black speckled granite counter tops.

Here's the sink area.  The sun is beaming in.  It's a West facing window, so we get tons of light in the afternoons.

This Nespresso machine is what I gave my husband for Christmas. He loves it.

This is another angle where you can see my living room.  Our house is completely open.  We really love having this open concept feel through out the main living areas of our house.  We knocked down walls and opened things up as much as possible. It makes the house feel much bigger than it actually is.

Here you can see our dining room to the left and our family room to the right.

A view of the ceilings, which is probably the main reason we originally bought this hideous house.

We spent our first year of marriage without a kitchen. I am not kidding. We ate lots of pizza, take out, and in-laws cooking.  I think I gained like 10 pounds that year.  We had a foldout table with a microwave, toaster oven, and a refrigerator. We ran out of money after all the work to the house so it took us a while to get the kitchen together.  At the time, there was no Ikea in the area, so we actually had to have it shipped.  The cost of the kitchen wasn't bad, but the shipping alone was something like $1,000.  Oh, and we changed our mind about the layout when we started installing.  We had the refrigerator and wine refrigerator swapped, but it SO did not work.  I'm so glad we were willing to reorder some cabinets.  Have you done a major kitchen remodel?