Canvas Rug

I got interested in canvas rugs when I learned that over a hundred years ago people would use ship sails that were being replaced by ship builders for new ones to make floor coverings. They would use various ways including gesso and paint to stiffen and decorate them to use as floor covers. Once linoleum came along and was affordable people no longer made them. Ships no longer use canvas but it is readily available in hardware stores and instead of gesso, you can use leftover paint you have sitting around in the basement. The beauty of them is even after multiple layers of paint and a bit of polycrylic, you can place them under your kitchen table instead of a rug and they are a scant 1/8 of an inch thick and can be damp mopped. I love how you can have it under a table and chairs can slide right over them and spills are easily cleaned and they add color to a room.

9x6 feet of canvas from Amazon because it guarantees no seams in the middle because I wanted to make a sizable rug. Paint of any type, I used a can of ‘oops’ paint in light blue that I bought a while back. As a top coat I used exterior paint in dark blue that I had leftover from painting the front of my house. A T square to measure an exact rectangle. Gorilla carpet tape for a hem. Stencils and various acrylic paints in my collection. Polycrylic to seal the rug. Scissors, pencil and a tool to flatten the hem seam. Iron, washing machine and dryer.

I washed the canvas then dried until slightly damp. I ironed out the wrinkles and creases and I cut the existing seams around the whole canvas.

For the top coat, - I didn’t put a third coat on the under side of the rug but you can if you like- I used the Behr exterior paint in color matched Naval by BenjyMoore. I painted three coats to insure it was even and no light blue peaked out.

I painted both sides of the canvas three coats each because the canvas will soak up lots of paint initially but after the second coat it’s almost there and the third coat finishes it well.

Initially I was going to paint a moon in the center but I scrapped that idea in favor of something different so disregard circle😆. I painted dark blue just the one side of the canvas which would be the top and left the underside light blue. I used my leftover exterior paint and painted three coats of what essentially is exterior paint by Behr color matched in ‘Naval’. Again, getting rid of paint taking up space in the basement! Three coats insured an even cover with no light blue peaking out.

I then went and used a feather stencil that I already owned and made multiple stencils, some with a bit of color some just white. I also used red and turquoise paint and also various odds and end colors on the bird I painted in the middle just because.

I used the Gorilla carpet tape to make a hem. Then I applied a few top coats of polycrylic to seal the paint and protect it and to be able to damp mop it.

The rug is only 1/8 of an inch an should last a long time.