How to Paint a Canvas Area Rug
The first thing you have to do is to buy the canvas to paint. Most people might not really know right away where to buy canvas, but there are actually quite a lot of sources out there. Arts and crafts stores, hardware stores, art supplies stores, and fabric shops will all have canvas that is perfect for painting and making into an area rug. For larger pieces of canvas definitely visit the hardware or art supply store first. You can create a painted area canvas rug at any size, so go big if you want to.
Now that you have your canvas lay it out on a big open space. Tape the rough canvas edges underneath using a heavy-duty tape like duct tape. This creates smooth finished edges on the canvas rug. Next, paint a coat of primer or gesso on with a paint roller. You can paint your canvas with a brush if it is smaller. For smoother surfaces though, use a roller. Allow the primer to dry over night.
Once the primer has dried completely you are ready to paint your base coat on the canvas. Dark painted canvas rugs will show less dirt. Patterns always hide dirt well too. I recommend putting a base coat of paint on your rug so that when you paint your designs on the canvas none of the white primer shows through.
Once the base coat has dried you are ready to paint your canvas rug designs. One of the simplest ways to start is to tape off a border. Paint this border on the canvas rug an accent color. Now you can deal with what designs to paint on the middle of your canvas floor rug. Always use other rugs as inspiration. You can go art deco, traditional, contemporary, minimal, and retro. It is your choice and your painted rug!
I have seen successful painted canvas rugs that used a solid color for the base coat and then taped off varying sizes of circles and painted them different colors. This is great for a family room or child’s room. You could even paint off roads and towns to create an interactive painted canvas rugs for your child’s bedroom. Exterior paint in semi gloss is great paint for this step in the process. Milk paint also works well. One of the cutest painted canvas floor rugs I ever saw had a realistic painting of the owner’s pet sleeping on the rug. Shadowing was used and it really looked like a little dog sleeping there!
If you aren’t too artsy use tools to cheat while you are painting designs on your canvas floor rug! Stencils are a great help. For perfect circles trace metal can, flower pots, and cups. Blue painter’s tape makes great straight lines.
Let everything dry over night and give your canvas floor rug at least three coats of varnish. Allow each layer to dry before painting on the next. For a truly long lasting painted canvas floor rug put about ten coats of varnish. To clean I recommend spot cleaning with a damp cotton rag and Windex. Don’t mop you canvas painted floor rug! Also, hold your painted canvas area rug in place with a rug pad. They can be very slick.
