How to Paint a Bamboo Rug

5 Materials
I wanted an area rug for my living room, but rugs acted like a magnet for my cat’s shedding fur. I have a bare laminate floor that just needed something, though. My friend, Cindy, has used painted canvas floor cloths and I’ve always liked them, so I started searching for ways to make them, but found it too messy and time consuming to make my own and already bound and primed ones were way too expensive. Then I started thinking, maybe I could paint a bamboo slat rug with chalk paint…..yep! I could. I decided to get creative and make a Subway Art type rug about….you guessed it! Grandchildren – and use my Silhouette Portrait Machine to cut describing word stencils out of contact paper. I was thrilled to find out they worked perfectly! I estimate it was about 16 hours total. Most time consuming was deciding what words to use and making the stencils and transferring them. I estimate the cost of the final rug to be around $80.00. I bought the rug at World Market for $50.00. I also estimated the amount of Annie Sloan paint and Annie Sloan Lacquer to be around $30.00. Note I did not include the price of a good massage, but I feel I needed one after a marathon session of working on this over a two day period.



This is such a detailed tutorial, I am referring you to my blog for step by step instructions. I made this rug in 2015 when we only had this little cutie grandchild who still loves strawberries. We have since added 3 more and they play on this rug all the time. Better yet, this one can now read all the words on it. https://sharsumpaint.com/2015/10/25/how-to-paint-a-bamboo-rug-with-annie-sloan-chalk-paint/




It has been two years since I finished this rug. It had been on my living room floor every day since. I am very impressed how well it has held up.


Suggested materials:
  • Bamboo rug   (World Market)
  • Annie Sloan chalk paint   (Retailer)
  • Annie Sloan Lacquer   (Retailer)
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