d.i.why not? groovy modern lemon yellow geometric starburst rug

so, today's the day! my big reveal! know what that is above? yep, you guessed it, another fab rug diy! as you may imagine, a lot of my friends loved my pink geometric rug so much that they asked me to create one just for them....

one friend in particular had recently asked for my help applying a really cool temporary wallpaper by tempaper to her office walls.  she works in corporate america and as with most offices, the walls were pretty boring and nondescript...  really, the WHOLE office was boring and nondescript.  and she is so NOT that.  so, she picked out this really cool grey and white wallpaper (below) as step one in bringing her personality into her office...

and once I helped apply it to her walls (it was fairly easy to do once you got the hang of it!), we decided that she needed a big pop of color to offset it along with the reds she had already chosen for some of her accessories.  that's how we came to the idea for a yellow- lemon tart by behr to be exact (don't you just love the name????) - patterned rug... starting with a plain white ikea erslev rug.  i don't know about you all but i have been obsessed with the grey and yellow color combo for a while now... for fashion and home! and i am so glad i had the perfect project to highlight how fab they look together!

materials needed:

• 1 1/2 quarts of paint (i used lemon tart in flat by behr)  note: when you go to the paint store it may be less expensive to buy a gallon rather than 2 quarts.
• fabric medium (i mixed two 118 ml bottles into one quart of paint... i used a total of 5 bottles of fabric medium).  note: this time i used golden fabric medium because they were out of the liquitex but i didn't like it as much as the liquitex i used for my last rug diy so i am linking to the old one here....
• 1 paint roller (i used a 3" roller)
• 1 roll of scotch brand green masking tape (this tape will rock your world and is key in making the project a success! it sticks way better than the blue. i bought mine at home depot for around 3 bucks a roll)
• 1 flat woven rug (i used the white erslev rug from ikea in the 4'7" x 6'7" size)
• x-acto knife
• measuring tape
• calculator (there's some math involved)

here's how i did it:

1- i was inspired by a pattern created by madeline weinrib (i LOVE all of her designs!) and sketched it on a piece of paper

2 - i taped out a border within the rug that seemed straight (as we all know, 4 x 6 in a woven rug does not have straight right angles and i needed to start with as close to a straight border as i could)

3- after i taped the border i measured the inside space that i was going to work with and had my calculator handy to figure out the equal distance between the lines...

4. i then taped the straight horizontal and vertical lines of the design out first using long pieces of tape to ensure all of my rectangles and center lines would be as symmetrical as possible.

5. i then taped the long diagonal lines of the design traveling from both the left and the right sides

6. i then used my x-acto to lightly cut the design out of the tape without damaging the rug and then i also added the extra shorter triangles to the design so that it looked like this (as with the pink geometric rug, the process of taping out the design took the longest!)

7. i then pressed the tape down throughout the rug in order to be sure it was sticking to it really well
8. i mixed the fabric medium into the paint really well (this part is key)
9. i rolled the paint onto the rug and was careful to cover every white spot that was showing.
10. after several hours of drying i peeled the tape off the rug. 

and here's how the new rug looks in what once was a boring corporate office (and no, this was not staged for the photo, as evidenced by the desk in the background.  it is a real working office)...

and i used some of the leftover paint for the frames holding quirky wall art...

as well as a lemon yellow sunburst...  you all know from past projects how much i love making sunbursts for wall art...

oh, and you may recognize the fab yellow printed pillow on the sofa.... i used extra fabric left over from my dwell for target tablecloth used in my own office makeover to make it. now it looks more like a fun living room than a bland office. note: all of the furniture in the below pic is standard corporate issue and came with her office with the exception of the lamps and ottoman (that also functions as a coffee table with the thick round glass top)... and she needs lots of seating for meetings!

so, for those of you just tuning in and wanting to know more about me you can by going here... and if you didn't already know... i created a facebook page... check it out and "like" it! and follow me on twitter!

until next time...

the (formerly almost) 40 year old intern