Spray Painted Door Mat

Most of my upcoming projects are going to be for our new house, and as soon as I saw this, I knew it was going to be our new welcome mat. Our current house has a tiny step, which requires a special, ugly, boring, grey mat. Our new house has a giant porch, which calls for a big, cute mat. And, here it is!

My pinspiration came from Amy of And Sew We Craft.

I originally thought I wanted to do a chevron, or a few small stripes with a red "T" for our last name - but I decided to bag that and just keep it simple. And I'm totally impatient. And don't measure perfectly. Ever.

Here's what you'll need:

• Door Mat (Mine was $10 from Ikea)
• Spray Paint (Use a full can, this half-can only did one coat. Fail.)
• Tape
• Measuring Tape/Ruler

You'll want to tape off your design first. Actually, you might want to plan ahead for your design. I couldn't decide what I wanted, so I started taping, took it off, started over, and marinated for a bit. I finally settled on stripes of random thicknesses. 

Make sure you push those edges in real well.

Shake and paint. Stand straight above your work and paint with long strokes. I tried keeping my can away from the mat about 8" or so, but it was too far and the paint didn't get in the fibers. I ended up spraying about 4-5" away. If you spray at an angle, you'll risk the paint bleeding under the tape. I had to do 2 coats to get a brighter color and even coverage, this photo is after the 1st coat.

The husbands' feet. 

After the second coat, I let it sit in the sun to dry. I totally love it!

I got a tiny bit of bleeding, I think from when my husband went crazy with the spray paint can. But I figure it'll fade with some wear once we start using it.

I have plans to make a second one for our kitchen door, probably in a different color with some more stripes, perhaps going the other direction and mixing up some more thicknesses. I also think I want to add some thin stripes on this one, just to make it a little more interesting.

Nothing like a $13 custom door mat!