Hola Ruga! (Spanish, for Rug)

Well. Thanks for all of your super encouraging comments yesterday, in response to one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. You guys really know how to make a girl feel better about herself.

Today I am so excited to show you one of the most satisfying projects I have done to date. Yup. I said. it.

Once upon a time, Burley and I went to Ikea in search of a rug. Do you know how expensive those things area??! Freakin' expensive. Anyways, we decided, since our living room has a lot of beautiful but dark wood, we would get a white rug. Yes, we have a boxer. Yes, white was a horrible decision after about 7.5 hours of being in the house.

Eventually the white turned to off-white, and then to pretty gross, and then NASTY. And then we stopped caring. We would get sad every time we vacuumed it and realized, it was hopeless.

Until I was wasting hours and hours being a really important contribution to society, on Pinterest. I saw some projects that people like Jennifer and Hayley were doing... And I was inspired. Painting a rug?! GENIUS!!

I also had a sincere calling a really awesome, enthusiastic, and largely convincing sister wanting me to start watching Downton Abbey. Perfect combo. Painting a rug and a new tv series? Throw in a coffee and a pickle and I am a HAPPY LADY!

So I started with this piece o' crap. I am embarrassed to even show this wreck of a rug to you. But without further ado...

Then I scrounged together some supplies. That diamond looking contraption is a chalk line, which I ended up not using at all. I stuck with the classic ol' pencil trick (drawing). The Frog tape was almost 2in wide.

So, I first measured the length of the rug. Come to find, it was 99in.  I decided to have 11, 9in thick chevron stripes.

Good work, detective.

So I penciled in a marker every 9 inches.

Done.

I then measured out 4 equal sections of the width, marking notches on both sides of the rug (this means my chevron peaks will be wider and larger. If you want a smaller chevron pattern, then you will want to have a greater amount of sections of a smaller width).

Then I took a 2x4 to draw a long straight line from one of the sides of the rug to the other, outlining the 4 equal sections.

Then I got to taping! Basically, connect the dots.

The pattern starts to look like some stripes are smaller than others. In actuality, those smaller sections are just the "white" sections, so the tape goes on the INSIDE of those sections, and on the OUTSIDE of the sections you will actually be painting.

Just a side note. On the side. Note....

And once you finish taping, you get to do the fun part. PAINT! I decided to not do a PERFECT paint job, in order to get the look I was going for. I figured the rug will eventually wear down anyways, so I might as well just make it look purposeful. So I went the "vintage" route, by doing a type of dry brush technique. AKA I just brushed on the paint and didn't worry about it making it so thick that you couldn't see the white rug showing through.

Gosh. Doesn't that just look so satisfying?

Then. YOU GET TO RIP THE TAPE OFF! I love doing projects using tape, because it is so amazing getting to rip the tape off. #NerdAlert.

And then you get somethingAWESOME. This saweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet vintage mexican style chevron patterned area rug.

Macey is in love with it. Can't you tell?

Yes. She likes to chew on straw like any southern lady.

AND THAT'S IT!!!! I stinkin' loved this project because I seriously hated that rug. Every time I walked into the living room I felt a grave sadness. That is extreme, but you know what I'm saying.

And now... I walk into the living room and I think BAM. GAH THAT LOOKS GREAT! And it only took the amount of time that it took me to watch two episodes of Downton Abbey.

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DONT FORGET THIS WEEK'S GIVEAWAY!!!! Bekuh over at Secondhand Sundays is offering the most AMAZING fall accessory that you all need. Go enter the giveaway before it's too late to look super cute this fall.

TTFN,