Asked on Aug 19, 2019

How can I bleach an area rug?

Laura Caragher
by Laura Caragher

I have a mid-gray woven cotton area rug. I'd like to make it a beige or white. Living in Tucson, the sun will lighten it when wet - but I was thinking of "painting" or spraying with bleach, then rinsing. Also considering dying it with coffee after rinsing with a hose. Far too big for washing machine.

  3 answers
  • Bushra Bushra on Aug 19, 2019

    Don't do it , It will ruin it for you. WE sorta did my little girls and it was awfully bad. Just wash it with dawn soap and water. Will do great. Good luck and hope it helps!

    Bushra

  • Lynn Sorrell Lynn Sorrell on Aug 19, 2019

    I live in Phoenix area and did a huge/heavy all cotton rug that was green. I put out on my clean patio/pavement got it soaking wet with hose then in huge plastic tub/rubber maid container mixed bleach water put it beside wet rug and tipped container over so it dumped onto rug soaking it all at same time so it bleached it evenly let it sit about 5 minutes not too long then rinsed really well. After you are done dying, you need to stop the process of the chlorine or it will wreck fibers of cotton making it weak. You can use professional-grade bleach stoppers, but the most common household solution is hydrogen peroxide. It usually sells for under a buck at your local pharmacy. Soak your project in 2 parts hydrogen peroxide to 10 parts water. Soak for at least 10 minutes,then rinsed the heck out of it( It was really heavy) turning it over and over til soap was gone then put up onto long table I have so it was up off ground(scorpions) and it took several days to dry. Kept flipping it over so sun finished bleaching it. it turned out sage green. Another big cotton rug I did during Monsoon so I took that one to laundry and used 5xloader wash machine don't put on reg. wash use delicate because spin cycle is too strong for cotton rug it will pull it apart. and poured hydrogen peroxide in rinse cup during rinse cycle. I wash mine regularly at laundromat in the big washers. Grays can bleach out to tan color because of orange/red base in black dye used to make the gray so see what color you end up with you might get the biege you want or you can then put coffee rinse on it but you'll probably end up with Taupe not light beige and you'll never get it white.

  • Leticia Leticia on Aug 19, 2019

    Yes I did bleached my rug