Add Pizzaz to Your Porch with a Painted Rug

by Lisa on June 11, 2012

The following post is from Lisa of The Pennington Point:

front porch rug

source: Lisa Pennington

Sometimes a porch space just needs a little boost to take it from so-so to so fabulous!

My favorite way to do that without breaking the bank is with paint.  I recently re-painted my front porch floor.  After painting it gray, it looked nice and clean but kind of dull and lifeless.  So I decided to paint a rug on the floor.  Yep, right onto the floor.  In less than 3 hours I had transformed my porch and it cost me nearly nothing.  And best of all, I got the size and colors I wanted without searching for months for the perfect rug.

Tape off an area for the rug.

I started by using painter’s tape to mark the area I wanted the rug to fill.  Using paint leftover from trim on the house I rolled it right on the floor with a roller. You can use any kind of paint for the rug as long as the first layer (in my case the gray) is porch/floor paint.

front porch rug

source: Lisa Pennington

Create a pattern.

To do a chevron pattern like I did, use chalk (which I snuck from my kids’ craft supplies) to make a grid then connect the lines at an angle.  It’s easy math, which is what I need.

marking lines

source: Lisa Pennington

Paint the edges of the lines.

Of course, the ideal, easy way to mark the zig zag lines is to tape them off with painter’s tape.  But we can’t do things the easy way at our house. Oh no.  We discovered that the first tape was pulling up the paint underneath.  So I just drew the lines with chalk and went over them carefully with black paint using an angled brush.  Again, I used leftover house paint, but I have also done this with craft paint and it works great!

straight lines

source: Lisa Pennington

Fill in between the lines.

I got some help from the kids.  Cute helpers always make a job more enjoyable.  While they filled in, I touched up the places I didn’t paint exactly straight.  This part of the project only took about 15 minutes.

children helping

source: Lisa Pennington

Finish the ends.

A real rug has binding on the ends, so we added it to our faux rug.  It just needed black stripes on the ends. And since I like to add a bit more whimsy, I painted one corner flipped up.  Just for fun.

front porch rug

source: Lisa Pennington

Step back and enjoy a job well done.

Look how great the rug looks!  And the best part is that I can change it anytime.  Next summer when I feel like adding a new color or a trendy pattern I can just paint right over it.

front porch rug

source: Lisa Pennington

I think maybe I’ll go paint one on the back deck.  That was fun!

Do you have a good spot to paint a rug?

Lisa winds through her little Texas farm house every night, tucking in her nine homeschooled children and turning off lights. Then she scans the rooms & makes a mental list of what she wants to rearrange, restore or paint. Her husband of 25 years hangs on for the ride while she blogs about it over at The Pennington Point.

  • beckybarnfather

    Oh, this is so cute! I love the porch rug!!

    Becky B.
    http://www.organizingmadefun.com
    Organizing Made Fun

    • Lisa Pennington

       Thanks Becky!  :)

  • Vickie

    Awesome! Our front porch needs a major overall, including new boards. This would be just the thing to complete the look. Thanks for sharing!!!

    • http://www.facebook.com/penningtonpoint Lisa Southworth Pennington

      Vickie, we had to replace a lot of the boards on our porch before we gave it a fresh coat of paint.  It looks so much better!  I am glad that part is at the beginning so the fun stuff is at the end.  :)   Lisa~

  • http://twitter.com/steet Stacy of KSW

    I’ve seen this porch in person and the photos, while great … don’t even begin to do it justice. If you like her porch, you should see the rest of the house!!

  • Heather

    Very cute – and you make it look so easy!  I wanted to paint ‘faux brick’ on our cement porch … but I like your chevron much better!

    • Lisa~

       Heather, I painted a faux brick floor in my husband’s office.  It was easy!  Maybe I’ll do a post about that.  :)   Lisa~

  • JanelPiersma

    Lisa – that looks so awesome! We’re renting at the moment and don’t have a porch…but I just might put this on my “one day” list. Thanks for sharing

    • Lisa Pennington

       Janel, you could do it on a drop cloth!  It doesn’t have to be right onto the floor.  :)   Lisa~

  • http://www.athankfullheart.blogspot.com/ Miranda @ A ThankFULL Heart

    This is such a great idea! With mis-tints it could be really cheap too.

    • Lisa Pennington

       Miranda…yes!  I love using the mis-tints around the house.  You can’t beat the price of it.  Great idea!  Lisa~

  • Peggy

    What a great idea!  And it does look like a regular rug!  Our back porch is constructed of that fake wood stuff which lasts about forever.  However the deck around the pool has been stained… do you think porch paint would work on a wood surface that has been stained?  

    • Lisa Pennington

       Peggy, I think it would work on the deck.  I am going to do it on mine.  But keep in mind that weather and rubber soled little feet will wear it away eventually. I don’t really care because I am happy to spend an afternoon every year or so painting another one!  Lisa~

  • Fourdaughters4

    Wish we had more of a picture showing how to draw the lines!

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