DIY kitchen mat (a tutorial)

I am always looking for kitchen rugs….I feel they make a room. They can make it more cozy and warm, they can bring a new color into the room, and for all you who are the dishwashers of the house, they can add some comfort to those not so fun, much too frequent times at the sink. I have found a few I love but am not willing to pay the big price on the tag. The other ones are always too small, the wrong color, cheaply made and just plain wrong. So, I'm so excited to have finally made one that perfectly fits my needs. Our rental has some old linoleum i cant seem to make look clean no matter how much i scrub, so it is in dire need if some coverings.

I searched on pinterest and found some beautiful DIY rugs. My kids and husband keep correcting me because it is not fuzzy, it is not a rug. Ok, how about mat.

I loved this fuzzy one made out of old t shirts, but when I looked at the tutorial and found out it took 60 hours(!!)Yes, 6-0!

I decided this one would have to wait.

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 I decided against it for the time being. My family is also very prone to spills, so the carpet in the kitchen idea is a little gross for us. Kind of hard to clean, and too many times in the wash makes for a short life span.

I also found these ones I have been wanting to do for awhile, but they can be a little bit spendy because of the size I would want it. I think I would do this kind more for a living area than a kitchen. They are made out of those kids foamy play pads!! And then painted and sealed to be used to bring soo much life into a room. Aren't they spectacular?!?!

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 I have been looking into these pads at toys r us, wal mart, target and ross. They are about $20 for 4, but all he ones I have found have the jagged puzzle edges. Someday I think I will attempt one like this. I would like to have hardwood floors to have one on.

Then I found this one from this wonderful blog.

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 Click on the link above(via) It takes you right to the directions. I will only add a few tips to them that I found out along the way, her directions are very detailed. She actually did this one with a plain piece of duck cloth that she hand painted this stencil on. I just used my favorite fabric I had and skipped steps 3-9. Here it is:

I just love all that it adds to the kitchen. In short, its just a piece of vinyl flooring remnant, fabric glued on top, and sealed so that it can be cleaned with a wet cloth.

I went to Lowes and got this piece of vinyl left over in the Clearance bin.

 It said it was on sale for .42 a square foot. Then the price said 5.62. It was 12’ long by about 4’. Didn’t add up to me, but I threw it in the cart, excited for a bargain. When I got up there the guy was all sorts of confused. I of course couldn’t help much, (those of you who know me know I failed one of my college math classes…. twice…eek! I still blame it on the fact that one man was the most boring, monotone speaking man Ive ever heard and I kept falling asleep. And the other a woman with such a strong foreign accent, she said “Fuctorization” 20 times a day, who can focus with that?!?!) Anyway, it rang up at $64. He kept saying that it was .42 cents a SQUARE foot and this was not a SQUARE piece, but a rectangle. Well, duh, buddy. He must of failed college math too. He finally had to call someone else and it came out at $8 and some change. Still doesn’t make sense to me, but Ill still take the bargain. I had to get spray glue. I got the cheapest one, which was $6 instead of the stronger holds which were around $16(yikes) This turned out to be a good thing. Here's my one big tip if you decide to make one of these (which you totally should) I cut the fabric, glued it on and taped it like in the instructions. But when I put the first coat of polyurethane, the fabric started shrinking. Then the vinyl was buckling underneath the fabric and the whole thing was curling. Bad. Bad. Bad. So, luckily, because the glue was not super strength, I peeled off three sides of it, so that it would do all its shrinking and then I would glue it back on. I ended up doing 6 coats of poly, one every 2 hours. I wanted to make sure it was completely sealed, since there is so much white. That way I can wipe it off and disinfect it for years to come. I also would have painted or just primed the vinyl first. When the fabric was wet with poly I could see a little of the brown squares poking through from the vinyl, but as it dried it is mostly gone. I then glued and taped the three sides back once it had dried overnight.

Sorry, this post I thought would be a quick one turned into a novel. I have so many interesting experiences trying all these DIY’s I cant help but share them. Now, go make a mat, give your kitchen some life!!