How To Paint a Rug on a Hardwood Floor
Remember about a year ago when I posted about my kitchen and mudroom floor getting refinished? Since then I have been wanting to paint an area rug on the floor in the mudroom where I had the floor refinishing contractor leave an unfinished spot.
It is a wide room where a rug is needed to add visual interest, but since the room gets high traffic I found that a rug became a tripping hazard.
When we first moved into the house I found this out the hard way and ended up painting a rug on the floor using a stencil and craft paint instead. It held up beautifully for 20 years. You can see the post I wrote about it here, How To Paint a Rug on a Floor.
I kept putting off painting a new rug because I could not decide between making a “rug” inspired by a…
… a Dash & Albert rug or a…
…this FLOR Parallel Reality rug. I love them both!
Anyway, I finally made my decision, after I heard myself say, “Why not do a little of both?”
That is what I did…

I have to admit, this was labor intensive. I lost 4 pounds simply because I had to move up and down and all around the rug so much to create every stripe a different color. I guess I can view that as a good thing, right? :-)
A quick overview of how to paint a rug on the floor. Full tutorial follows:
I chose to use the FLOR rug design since it made the painting process doable and use the colors from the Dash & Albert rugs I love so much for the color choices. FLOR rugs are made by putting squares of carpet together to get a custom look and size rug.
After I primed the floor and it was dry, I created a grid of squares on the primed floor. This made it easier to create lots of short stripes. If I had made the rug like the Dash & Albert, it would have been a nightmare trying to get each long stripe straight. Working in the grid plan made it doable.
I made two stencils to use to paint the stripes. On the first stencil, I created cutouts for odd number stripes. When those were dried, I laid the second stencil over it that had even number stripes. These stripes butt right against the odd number in each square, so when I removed it the square was filled with stripes. I repeated this process for each square on the grid.

If you have stenciled before, you now that you can have bleed through of paint under the stencil if you use too much paint. I knew this would happen, but I planned for it. After all the stripes were done, I fixed the bleed through in a super simple way that became part of the rug design. I used the best invention ever that hides a multitude of sins…A Krylon paint pen! I have photos below showing the details.
I really love how the rug turned out, but with our plans to move, I won’t be able to enjoy it for long. :-(
How to Paint a Rug On the Floor
supplies needed from your local True Value:
- Primer
- Painter’s Tape
- Paint Roller
- Measuring Tape
- Pencil
- Cardboard or Foam Board
- Craft Knife
- Acetate Sheets – office supply store
- Clear tape
- Black marking pen
- T-Square or ruler
- Craft paint in assorted colors – One bottle of each, not glossy finish
- Small paper plates to use as single color paint palettes while you work
- Sea Sponges and/or Paint Brushes
- Krylon Paint Pen in Gloss White – 2
- Minwax Polyurethane in Satin
- Varnish Brush
Preparing The Floor
My floor was sanded to the bare wood. I cleaned it well with detergent and a damp rag, then rinsed and dried it off with a towel. I let it dry overnight.
1. Mask out area you want to paint with Painter’s Tape. Use a paint roller to apply a paint primer. I used 2 coats, letting the first one dry before applying the second.
2. Remove tape before second coat of primer dries. If you let the primer dry first, you run the risk of pulling some of the primer off with it.
Designing the Rug Pattern
1. Measure rug area to figure out how big to make your squares. My rug is 53-1/2″ x 65″. With a few calculations with the calculator on my cellphone I figured the squares should be 13″ x 13.18″. I cut a square of foam core to this size. (If your square is not completely square like mine was, make sure to mark the side that is longer. It will be important later to know this.)
2. I randomly drew lines on the cut-out square using a ruler and pencil to create various widths of stripes. I made 9 stripes in the square. In order they approx. each measure: 1-3/4″, 1-1/2″, 3/4″, 1-5/8″, 3/4″, 1-1/4″, 2″, 3/4″, 3″
3. Use the cut-out square to create a grid pattern of squares on your primed rug area. Simply place the square in the bottom left corner and line it up with the primed edges. Use a pencil to lightly draw a line around the square. Move the square to the right, line it up and trace around it. Keep moving the square across the floor and then above the first row of squares tracing the square until you have the area covered in a grid pattern.
4. I used acetate sheets that I bought at my office supply store to make my stencil, but you can find acetate sheets to make stencils at the craft store. You need to make sure the acetate is larger all around than your square so you have excess all around. This will help you position the stencil over each square and keep paint off other squares as you paint.
5. I used clear tape to attach the acetate sheets to create two large sheets.
6. I laid the first sheet over the foam core with the drawn lines and traced the lines to the acetate with a marker. I repeated the process on the second sheet.

7. I marked every other stripe on the first sheet with a #1. I did the same on the second sheet, but marked it with #2. You can see when they are laid on top of each other how the stripes will line up.
8. Use a marker to mark the top and bottom of the stencils so you know you are placing it correctly on the floor each time you start to paint.
9. Use a craft knife to cut out all the number #1’s on the first sheet and #2’s on the second sheet.
How to Paint The Rug on the Floor


1. I tried different methods to paint the stripes and found using a small firm sea sponge or foam pouncer was better than a stencil brush or paint brush.
2. Line up the first stencil in a square in the center of the rug and work to the outer edges. (This will be easier than having to stretch over the outside to get to the inside squares to paint.) Use the marker lines on the acetate to line up with the square grid lines you drew on the floor.
3. Paint each stripe a different color. When finished, remove stencil and the square will look like the photo on the right above. Let this dry and move to another square away from this one as you don’t want to smudge the wet paint in the square you just painted.
I used 15 different colors over the entire rug. There was no method of where I placed a color other than visually seeing that each color was represented evenly throughout the rug.
You will need to work on random squares that are not next to each other so you don’t smudge the paint as it dries. When a square is dry, you can paint the square next to it.
I folded a large beach towel in half to help me slide across the floor to easily paint the outer squares, but for the center ones, I stood over the rug and reached down to apply the paint.

I kept a wet rag nearby to clean up smudges.
It took 2 days, about 5 hours each day to get the stripes painted on. If the stencil was still wet and I wanted to use another color to start painting another square, I had to let it dry first. This is what made the process take longer. If I had only used a few colors of paint or created more stencil sheets the painting would have gone much faster.

After the first day, I laid the stencils on a piece of foam core to keep them flat until I could work on the floor again.
Once all the paint was dry, I used a Krylon Paint Pen in Gloss White to create a thin white stripe between each color. It hides all the imperfections in the outer lines of the colored stripes.

I let these lines dry overnight and then used Minwax Polyurethane to seal the rug.
Tips For Applying Polyurethane Over a Painted Rug:
- I used 3 coats, letting each one dry before applying the next.
- When applying the poly make sure you use a high quality brush made for polyurethane that will not shed bristles. You don’t want these getting embedded in the dried polyurethane.
- Do not shake the can, stir the poly gently so you don’t create air bubbles.
- Apply the poly at night when the house is still, have a second person check over it to make sure no dirt, bugs, or hair has stuck in it before it starts to dry. If a bug gets embedded like happened to mine, use a piece of 220 sandpaper over it to remove it, then clean off and dab with a little bit of poly. Let dry.
- Let the polyurethane cure for a few days before walking over the rug.
I plan to paint all the walls a creamy white to keep the focus on the floor. With our plans to move, I have changed what I am doing in the room. I will be sharing them with you soon.
Other DIY projects in the room:
City Signs above the 3 clocks on the wall
No Sew Relaxed Roman Window Shades
Map Covered Storage Boxes
This post is sponsored by True Value Hardware; thank you so much for supporting the sponsors that make In My Own Style possible. All content and opinions are my own.