vinyl painted rug | Planting Sequoias

I got this really great kitchen rug from my mother-in-law when they moved. It is one of the greatest rugs (mats?) ever.

It’s handmade (not by me) of vinyl and custom painted. The vinyl meant that it is flat and not fabric, which makes it perfect for a kitchen–it adds some color but cleans up easily.

This pic was taken in bajillion degree weather. I washed the rug outside before I tackled the paint part of this project, and I meant to do it all outside but it was WAY TOO HOT. I retreated indoors immediately after this photo.

Sidenote: Laura and I have not turned on our air conditioning or fan yet. WE ARE HARDCORE. Actually, our basement apartment stays fairly cool if we keep the shades and windows closed. Our neighbor above us also runs their a/c at every moment of every day, so I think that helps too. We like our $20 utility bill.

I love the bright colors of this rug, but I wanted to switch it up. I have a thing against red in home decor lately…not sure why. Anyway, the colors Kenny and I have in mind for our future kitchen together are cool colors like yellow, lime green, teal, and aqua. The red just didn’t jive.

So I painted over the red:

See? Now it goes much better with all of the stuff around Laura’s and my apartment, ie. my globe (my color inspiration) and gallery wall. I used paint that I got for free last year and got creative mixing it together.

I still have to waterproof it with a coat of polycrilic or something, but I didn’t have that at the old apt.

I love it. 🙂

Now I have this burning desire to figure out how to make these from scratch…it can’t be that hard, right?