Painted Rug on a Wood Floor

Today I’m sharing all the details behind our painted rug on a wood floor.

We would love to refinish our wood floors.  They’re over 15 years old and have been well-loved.  Unfortunately refinishing the wood floors is pretty far down on our to-do list, and the floors in the kitchen are in the worst shape of all. And if you know me or have been following me for a while, you won’t be surprised that I decided to paint a rug on the floor…

I had a large rug in the kitchen, but it ended up being more of a hassle than what it was worth.  Food and drinks were spilled on it constantly.  It was so much maintenance and it was just plain gross.

So, I decided to try painting a rug.  Food and spill could easily be wiped away (and milk wouldn’t have anything to soak into and linger).  Down the road, we can remove the paint when we decide to refinish our floors.

I gave the floor a good cleaning with Murphey Oil Soap.  I didn’t worry about sanding since most of my finish was already gone from the floor.

I used a ruler level, painter’s tape and a sharpie to layout the perimeter of the rug.

I measured out the same distance from the cabinets and taped down my rug border.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk paint and watered it down: one part water to one part paint.  (The white is Old White and the Gray is French Linen.) I painted the outside because this is where my pattern was going to be.  I eventually would paint the entire rug in gray, but I need to paint it white for my (Greek Key) design.

After I had painted the inside with white, I went through and taped a line around the perimeter again.  I wanted a white border on my rug. Then I added squares to the four corners.  I measured squares and made sure they were all the same distance from the corners.

Next, I connect the squares as you can see above.

And to finish my greek key design, I connected all four squares with lines.

Once my pattern taping was done, I painted the entire rug in French Linen.

Again, I did one part water to one part paint.

It took close to four coats of paint.

I removed the paint and my greek key pattern was revealed!  When I pulled back the tape, bits of the paint came up.  It wasn’t bad, since I knew I was going to be sanding it down anyway.  I assume this is because I rushed through the steps and didn’t allow the paint to completely dry before I started taping.

Once all the tape was pulled away, I got to work sanding.

I first tried hand-sanding the rug with fine sandpaper, but that didn’t do much.

But then I decided to just go for it and pulled out my electric sander and really went after it. Once the sanding was done, I swept away all the dust.  Then I put 2-3 coats of Polycrylic (this is water-based, like the paint) on the top to protect it. The great thing about Polycrylic is that it dries REALLY fast. You can find it on Amazon:

I now have an easy-to-care-for rug!

Now I can live with the wood floors until we refinish them.

It’s only been a few weeks since I painted them, but so far I love the rug.  It’s fun and low maintenance – just what I envisioned!

Go create something!

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                   *This post contains affiliate links and/or is a sponsored post. I may receive compensation in the form of monetary compensation or product compensation in exchange for my review. I take pride in reviewing only products that fit my brand and will be beneficial to my readers. And while this post is sponsored or contains affiliate links, all the opinions are my own.