Little Victorian

Modern Homemaking

DIY Rug from a drop cloth

DIY, Outside, The Victorian

Rugs are so expensive.  Especially outdoor rugs.  They make such a big difference in a space, but still, spending over $150 on one that is going to get worn and faded in no time (personal experience!) is not something we want to do right now.

I’d heard about people making curtains from drop cloths, so I used a drop cloth to make a rug for our front porch.  It was a really easy project; here’s how I did it:

First, lay it on the floor to iron the folds out.  By the time you get back with the iron, you will also know whether or not the dog approves of the future rug.  This is very important. Apparently.

Excuse the dog and iron the creases out.

Since this drop cloth was thinner than the typical one (don’t try to save like me by buying it for $8 at Big Lots instead of splurging $11 at Home Depot, it’s not worth it for this project), I decided to give it more weight by sewing both sides together.

So if you have a nice heavy drop cloth, you can probably get away with using just one, so go ahead and skip ALL of these steps except the last one. 🙂 However, I do recommend, even if you did get a thicker drop cloth, to double it and sew two together, it will be sturdier and heavier so that it lays flat and doesn’t get tossed around with the breezes.

You’ll need:

How to make a cheap DIY outdoor rug from a drop cloth:

Time needed: 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Here are the steps to turn a drop cloth into a rug

  1. Sew your two drop cloths together

    Don’t worry, this is really easy, just put the right sides (top) pieces of the drop cloth together, and sew straight lines up about a half-inch from the edges. Your rug will be inside-out for now. Don’t forget to leave a section open (not sewn together) about 6 inches so you can turn the rug right-side in. Two pieces of drop cloth being sewn together on a sewing machine

  2. Sew a top stitch along the outside

    Using the hole you left when sewing, turn the rug right-side-out.
    Reach inside and poke the corners out so they look good.
    Then back at your sewing machine, stitch along the outside again, anywhere around 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch from the edge. This is your top stitch, which will give the rug more structure to help keep it from twisting and bunching.

  3. Paint your new rug

    I didn’t use fabric paint, just leftover wall paint we had laying around. Fabric paint would hold up to being washed better, but even our wall paint did just fine for two years.

I just doodled on it with paint. Not terribly excited about the pattern, it turned out way girlier than I was hoping, the green is hard to see, and it’s still pretty bare looking. So I plan on either adding to it or flipping it over and starting the painting from scratch on the other side. Maybe taping off sections and painting stripes?

For today anyway, here is our new, $8 drop cloth rug.

Next will be refinishing the bistro set, repainting the urns and planting flowers, and adding accessories. And power washing if the sun ever decides to come out again.

Update: The rug has since been updated (still not finished, but much prettier than this version), you can see it here.

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  1. Oh wow marvellous! I did not know drop cloth was that heavy. You in the States seem to use that fabric for all sorts, I’ve never seen it sold in Finland… or maybe it’s called so differently here that I haven’t known what I should be looking for.

    Reply

    • Thank you Leena! It’s actually the canvas that you use to protect the floor when you’re painting. It’s sold here in the paint department of the home improvement store. It’s far cheaper to buy than any fabric at the fabric store.

  2. Such a great idea Christina!! And easy too by the looks!

    You know, you could paint a border around the edge of the rug and even outline the blue flowers in black or something to make them stand out more?
    I haven’t yet used drop cloths, but i can see the advantages!!

    great job!!

    Reply

    • Thank you Courtney, the black borders are an excellent idea! That should really balance it out. I am going to get right on that. 🙂

    • Thanks Deborah. I am considering spraying a clear coat over it, but I’m not sure if it would be worth it or not since it’s not a heavily used area. If it were an indoor rug, I definitely would try to protect it.

  4. Super cool! I am sorta working on an outdoor space, and I have an idea to stain the concrete w/stripes to make a rug. Right now I have chairs and am looking for a table so I am nowhere near ‘making’ the rug yet. Way to go on getting your projects done 🙂

    Reply

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