painted floor cloth - tutorial

Materials

Large piece of canvas
Matt latex/acrylic wall paint for base color
Acrylic craft paint for the design details
Fabric markers (optional)
Shoe glue (or something as strong as)
Clear water based varnished
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Paint brushes

First we cut our canvas to size leaving an extra inch on each side for the hem. We painted the canvas generously using an acrylic wall paint and allowed it to dry before applying a second coat. 

Now it's time to get creative! We used acrylic craft paint for the children's hand prints. We then attempted to use masking tape to create a striped border, but the quality of the tape thwarted our efforts. Cheap isn't always cheerful. We decided to use fabric markers to write all of the children's names and nicknames around the edge to create a border. This was a really cute result.


 
Once it was dry;

1. We used a ruler to draw a border around the outside of the canvas, 1inch in from the edge. We then drew a 45 degree angle at each corner.

2. We cut the four corners off along the 45 degree line. 

3. Flipped the canvas over. Ran glue along the edge and folded along our pencil line to create the hem.

4. We continued this on the other 3 sides.


We then painted the whole thing with varnish. We applied six coats, allowing the varnish to dry between each coat.


Voila! A personalized, durable floor cloth that can withstand washing, scrubbing and a whole lot of traffic.
 



The kids made this for my brother to say thank you for a great summer at his cottage. He's such a softie, he's going to love it. 

Comments

[Meags Keogh]

This is one of the best ideas I've ever seen. Brilliant and thoughtful. I think my mum would like one too :)