Painted Bamboo Rug Project

I finished my first big craft project today — a painted bamboo rug — while Hubby was watching football. Sundays are good for that kind of thing!

Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to find a nice, big bamboo rug at Goodwill. It was a little bit worn and dirty, but only $5.99. I had been pricing them for a craft project from the Big Ass Book of Crafts — a painted bamboo rug. The bamboo rug is (and now is located) in the dining room, by the sliding door that leads to the back yard. It gets really dirty there because there is nothing to wipe your feet on!

I had an idea for the bamboo rug before I bought the actual rug. My inspiration was from an awesome tablecloth that was on a catering table at the Alachua County Medical Society dinner at our new hospital. The tablecloth was a pearl cream color with embroidered “swirls” in gold, orange and bronze. It was so gorgeous and I really wanted to steal it from their table for my own. I thought about replicating the pattern with similar colors of paint because we already had these colors from our living and dining room paint projects (so no extra cost for paint).

Clean it up

My first job today was scrubbing — and did I EVER scrub! Again, the bamboo rug was really worn, but not dirty in a disgusting, this-will-never-be-good-enough-for-my-home kind of way. Basically, nothing a little elbow grease, 409 and Magic Eraser won’t spruce up!

Paint it up

Next step was hand painting little swirls in different areas of the bamboo rug. The only paintbrush I had was sort of wide, but it actually turned out for the best because there was a lot of space on the bamboo rug! I made swirls in orange and brown. My original idea was cream swirls but because the others turned out so large, I just painted cream colored dots.

OK, also I have to mention that, while my brain does notice and appreciate patterns, I’m not the type of person who has to have patterns perfectly symmetrical. Thus, my painted bamboo rug swirls are just “eyeballed” and approximately the same size. And I know that one of the cream colored dots is completely off but I can live with it!

Seal it up

Last step was to spray paint the painted bamboo rug with a clear acrylic paint and ta-da! I think it turned out really great and I’m proud of what I did. The book I bought has lots of ideas for handmade, inexpensive but high style gifts. I’m really loving it and have plans to use lots of other ideas for our home.

Below is my store with some of the books and products I used for this painted bamboo rug project, if you’d like to recreate it! I highly recommend all the “big ass” books. Wonderful shabby chic projects that ANYONE can do.

Have you tried this type of project before? How did it turn out?