bird.i.y.: the easiest rug you will ever make

i have been in a redecorating sort of mood lately. this is nothing new for me, as i really love decorating and redecorating (and re-redecorating) our house. i always do it on the cheap (craigslist, thrift stores, etc.), so it's a obsession hobby that i can easily have fun with. for some reason, i had the desire to rid our first floor of all the current rugs. i get in these moods...i don't know why, but they had to go. i replaced the large one in our living room (after hours of internet searches and massive amounts of emails to my sisters and chris..."how about this one?" "how about that one?") and then i knew i needed to get rid of the one in our sunroom.

you see, the sunroom is one of my favorite rooms in the house. it's so cozy, and is the perfect place to lay down and read a book or watch tv. we can fit the whole family on the daybed and we will often have family movie night in the sunroom. but it just didn't feel right to me. the large braided run was just too much. i actually got to a point where i despised the rug.

before

(yes, i left crap on the daybed and the vacuum in the corner. you have to make "before" pictures as ugly as possible.)

what i really wanted was a faux sheepskin or bearskin rug. i didn't want a real one...i'm not about to kill an animal just to redecorate my sunroom on a whim. and i didn't even want to spend a ton of money on a new one. cause i'm frugal...yes, i am. i then remembered that i had bought a large piece of faux fur fabric (say that three times fast) at a thrift store a while back. i don't know why i bought it, i just did. don't judge...sometimes (all the time) i buy things just because i think i will be able to do something with it at a later date. (this is why i have 5 10 20 embroidery loops in my basement.)

no teddy bears were harmed in the making of this rug

so i set about to make my own rug. yeah, that's right, i made a rug.

i pulled out a white eyeliner pencil – because i'm prepared like that – and drew half of what i wanted the rug to look like. i free-handed it because i didn't want it to be perfect.

i then folded it in half and cut.

at this point, there was faux fur everywhere. i didn't account for the fact that the material wouldn't hold up to cutting. seriously, fur everywhere. it was like i got into a fight with the stuffed animal section at target and won. so i had to quick come up with a solution...i couldn't have faux fur regenerating itself and filling my house!

so i grabbed the spray adhesive. i could have sewed it....nah, who am i kidding? i couldn't have. (maybe if i ever learn how to thread my bobbin.) luckily i have a dresser full of craft supplies (see above about how you never know when you might need/use something) and there was a handy bottle of spray adhesive. so i took the bear rug (his name is peaches) outside and sprayed away. i applied two rounds of spray on the whole edging of the "rug".

i then attached some carpet tape to the bottom of the rug.

i flipped it over, stuck it where i wanted it and voila...hand-made rug! (i just googled 'rug maker' to see if there was a special name for someone who makes rugs. apparently there isn't. that's too bad, i wanted to have a cool title to add to my resume.)

the finished product

the daybed is my favorite place to lay (before i made the rug, at least...i might just want to lay on peaches when i read from now on).

and one more look at peaches for good measure!

aerial shot!

and now i am singing "you're a rug maker, dream maker, love taker don't you mess around with me". (to the tune of pat benetar's 'heartbreaker'.) (yes, that ages me.) (are you singing it now, too?) (i hope so!)

anyhow, i can assure you that i will probably never post a diy on this blog that isn't something that you can't do yourself. what i lack for in diy patience and talent, i make up for in creativity!

have a great day!

xo,

megan bird