DIY Project: Painted Rug - Part 1

I created an outdoor room in my backyard last summer, something that I had wanted to do for quite a while, but I never had the time. Well, early last summer, I made the time.

What started with a cheap Ikea canopy and some matching outdoor furniture, a dozen cheer curtains, and some pillows, eventually turned into this:

My personal oasis. I spent much of summer sitting right there, reading, writing, listening to music, sunning, and relaxing with the Husband. We had lots of parties, and spend many late nights with friends under that canopy. I got so many comments on this project all summer long. Everyone who saw it, loved it! I was really happy with it as well. It ended up looking very close to the "vision" that I had in my head when I came up with this idea. I LOVE when that happens. It's such a satisfying feeling.

Of course, I had to put it away when the crappy (as in non-summer) weather began, and I've been missing my outdoor room all winter. And then, the other day, I could not wait any longer, so I decided I would bring it out from it's winter storage. I put up the canopy, hung the curtains, and rolled out the rug... only to see this:

Ewww. I had completely forgotten about that stain. As it turns out, another negative of buying furniture at IKEA, besides the aneurism-inducing assembly, is that if any moisture comes in contact of said furniture, it will shed color like a red sock in a load of whites. And you'll end up looking like a pink marshmallow. Or, as if you rolled up a couple of dead bodies in that rug. Damn. Now what?

When in doubt -- Pinterest.

Trusty Pinterest, what would I do without you? In a few minutes, I had found a pin detailing "How to paint a rug". Perfect.

A couple of trips to my local big box home improvement store, and a few Amazon orders later, I began painting my dead-body-stained rug. Since the rug was natural fiber, with lots of texture, I had to really slather the rug in paint to cover it. Halfway into my first layer I ran out of paint.

Sigh.

After yet another visits to Home Depot, 3 more layers of paint (that dead-body stain was ridiculously stubborn), and A LOT of time spent impatiently watching paint dry, I had finally created a blank canvas.

Now it was time to tape my pattern. Oh, joy. The taping... I went through 3 different types of painter's tape, before I even found one that could actually stick to the rug. Who knew painter's tape was such a fickle little bitch?

Anyways... after sever hours of back-breaking taping, crawling around on all fours, I got this ridiculously crooked-looking pattern. I didn't use a tape measure, can you tell? The rug was a bit warped, so I figure it would just waste time to be super meticulous, as it would not be straight in the end anyways. I just used my eye to start, and then I followed the previous line to create the next. It worked fairly well, except that annoying box at one end that doesn't look anything like the rest. Oh, well.

I think hope it will still look ok when all is said and done. Besides, the furniture will cover large parts of it anyways. Cross your fingers.