DIY zebra print rug

This mommy is in the process of re-doing her living room.  We decided that we wanted black and white accents for the room, and what better accent then a great rug?!  Black and white of course!  The daddy and I looked everywhere for a rug and this mommy fell in love with a zebra print rug, it would be perfect, but looking at the price tag this mommy sadly had to walk away.  Looking everywhere for a rug that would be great this mommy couldn't get that zebra rug out of her head!  I could just see it fitting perfectly in the room and everytime this mommy walked into that room she pictured it in her head sitting there happily on the floor....... Sigh.  This mommy was about to give up when a trip to wal-mart brought this mommy to a plain low pile black rug, pretty boring but the $20 price tag was a perfect price, so this mommy decided to take it home and rework it to make it into that perfect zebra print rug! 
Almost frolicking back home this mommy had a plan!  The daddy helped lay it out flat for a while so that I had a nice flat work space, and guess what?  It was a perfect fit in the floor space we wanted to cover!  After this mommy let the rug flatten out from its rolled up state for a couple hours she was ready to get started! 
This mommy started with some masking tape and a picture from the internet (gotta love searches!).  Taping around the edge of the rug to form a border for the print and then taping a straight line down the center of the rug for guidance this mommy got to work!  Looking at the picture this mommy taped off some stripes on the rug, making sure to work both sides to make it somewhat symmetrical (not perfect but all zebra stripes are different so its ok!).  After about an hour of taping, this is what this mommy had........

Curving the stripes with masking tape ended up being harder than this mommy had anticipated, but after a while you get the hang of it!






This mommy was tired at this point, an hour of taping and only half way taped!  Time for a soda and cookie break!.......
After the much needed break this mommy came back and went back to work!  And about another hour later this is what she had......

Ah the finished taped project!  Oh if only masking tape were permanent, then this mommy could have been done!  But alas, this mommy continued.....






Going to the storage closet this mommy pulled out some leftover white house paint that she had left from another project, poured some in a pan and got her paint roller out and got to work!  This mommy is telling you though that those carpet fibers sure soak up the paint! (plus I'm sure that painting white on black was the harder choice than painting black on white but the black rug was cheaper!)  This mommy slowly rolled on the paint in each section making sure not to catch and pull up the masking tape.  Once the first coat was done this mommy started again with the second coat...... and the third....... it took 4 coats to get it as bright as I wanted it to be but it finally got there (you could stop after a couple coats if you wanted it to look a little more faded and not as bold but that's not the look this mommy was going for).  4 coats of paint done!  Now was the hardest part for this mommy, waiting for it to dry!  This is what I saw for several hours while I waited........

Oh, the torture! 







Finally it was time!  The paint was dry!  This mommy giggled with anticipation!  Excitedly this mommy grabbed at the tape!  The daddy helped pull off all the tape, and as we pulled the finished look started appearing and this mommy was so happy that the paint didn't bleed through at all! We kept pulling and pulling and pulling (my couple hours of taping gone in just a few minutes!)  This mommy smiled from ear to ear!  It was perfect!!  We put it in a different room for the night to make sure it was completely set before we had it where we would be walking all the time!  And this is the finished look........

Perfect zebra stripes!  It was just as pretty as any of the expensive ones in the store!  This mommy was so excited!







Well that's how this mommy made her own zebra print rug!  Feel free to try it yourself!  Its really rewarding when you get to the finished product!  This may be the start of an addicting hobby for this mommy...... hmmm..... well here's what it looks like in our half-done living room (complete with the princess playing around on it! Don't mind the mismatched pillows, the power wheels in the back, and the random stuff sitting on the chairs, like I said the room is only half done and those things will be fixed before its all done!)........

Can't complain one bit!  :)  For $20, some paint and some time you can have a one-of-a-kind rug!  This mommy loves it!