Floor Mat Part 2

Yesterday I had all of my dark beige painted. I let it dry for several hours and now I'm painting the light beige. A couple of people wanted to know what kind of paint I use. This is the beauty of this project. I use my left over wall paint. This way the floor mat will match my walls perfectly. The dark beige is the "Hopsack" on the upper part of my wall. The light beige is "Latte" that is on my ceiling. Remember yesterday when I said to paint the first coat the same color as the square next to it? You can see in this picture I painted this square dark beige, when it drys, I'll paint the square light beige.
Here's a close up. A lot of work, but so worth it. If you have ever had to go back and touch up lines, you will not mind the extra work.
Here it is done, look how sharp my lines are. I'm even a little amazed at how crisp they turned out. Yesterday while I was painting the guy doing my hall told me another trick. If you take caulking and rub a little on the seam of the tape, it keeps the paint from bleeding underneath also.
Here it is done!!!! Well, I still have to put a couple coats of NON-YELLOWING polyurethane on it, but this is the way it will look. Like I said above, the dark beige is my wall color, the light beige is the ceiling color. I'm doing black and white pictures in my hall so I thought the black stripe and the black circles would tie in with the frames.
Here's another tip, to get your circles nice. This is an easy way to do it. Take painters tape and stick it to some paper and use a hole punch and punch out a circle. The tape has to be stuck to paper first or the punch tears it up. Then just peel the tape off and stick to your project.

If anyone decides to make a mat, please let me see pictures.

Floor Mat Part 1

Yesterday I started on my new floor mat for the hall. I found a piece of linoleum at Home Depot. Doesn't matter what the front looks like, it can be ugly, you won't see it. I try to find something with lines or squares, I use that as my guide when cutting, and this stuff cuts super easy. The piece I found was a 6' x8' piece for $21.00. The first thing I did was cut it to the size I wanted. Now prime the back of the linoleum. Next I measured out my design. I can't draw, so I have to use shapes that I can measure.
Next I use painters tape and tape around the edges I'm going to paint.
Then I start painting. And this step is very important. For my first coat of paint, I paint it the color of the square that is next to it. This way if anything bleeds under the tape, you won't know it because it is the same color. After the first coat has dried I then paint the color I want the square to be. See how sharp my lines are? This is because my first coat of paint sealed the tape.
When the painted is good and dry, move on to the rest of the squares. This takes FOREVER!
Now all of my darker beige is done. At this point I have about 4 hours in this mat. I have to stop now because I used all of my painters tape. I will let this dry a day or so before I tape the squares next to it. Now I'm off to the store to get some more painters tape, I'll try to update later.

Floor Mat

Hi Melissa, My runner is not painted onto the floor or a carpet. If you can believe it, I painted it on the back of an old piece of linoleum. It is very simple to do and looks great when finished. In the next couple of weeks I will be making a new one to go with my new hallway. Check back later and I will do a blog with the steps on making one.

As you can see in this picture, your linoleum doesn't have to be pretty. Just find an old scrap. I bought a piece at Big Lots for around $20.00, it was big enough to make several mats. I have a large 6' x 8' one in the living room. The nice thing about them is, they are indestructible. Living with boys, I need that. These things have held up to Motocross boots, football cleats and work boots. And believe me, my kids are like bulls in a china closet. When they get dirty, just take them outside, spray them down with cleaner, scrub with a magic eraser and then wash off with the garden hose. If the mats can stand up to my kids, they can stand up to anything.

I don't know why above I wrote that I would post the steps. It's really pretty simple, anyone could figure it out. First you cut it out the size you want. Next prime. Then if you are really creative and can draw, you paint whatever you want. Since I'm not creative and can't draw, I use painters tape and lay out a pattern. Last comes the polyurethane. If you want it to stay the original color, be sure to use the non-yellowing polyurethane. The one in the pic. is plain old polyurethane and over time it did yellow and got an aged look.(I like that look)