A red, white, and blue front porch needs a coordinating welcome mat, wouldn’t you say? Instead of buying a brand new mat, I gave our old mat a patriotic welcome mat makeover with a few coats of spray paint. This technique can be used to refresh any outdoor mat or rug that still has a bit of wear left.
I bought a Threshold welcome mat from Target not long after we moved into The Mad House. It stayed outside our front door for several years before getting too dirty and faded to be usable. Instead of buying a new one, I decided to give the old welcome mat a makeover.
I brought out my trusty spray paint (find my supply list at the end of this post) and cut a quick stencil out of scrap cardboard.
I covered the mat as well as I could with a coat of dark blue paint. Then I added some stars in a true blue color. If you are going to paint a welcome mat like this, I suggest using spray paint rather than brushing on acrylic paint. The process will be much faster, and the paint will cover much better.
Finally, I added a few more stars in red. I considered adding white stars too, but I figured they would look dirty almost immediately.
Sure, I probably could have found a new welcome mat for $20, but I am a believer in using what you have. Now that it has a clean new look, this door mat has a few more years of use ahead of it.
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- doormat
- cardboard
- box cutter
- Plutonium spray paint in Submarine
- Plutonium spray paint in Truer
- Plutonium spray paint in Hot Sauce
Try out these other patriotic DIYs:
Oh, sooo cute, Jessica! Pinning immediately, I have lots of worn mats and never thought to revive them like this. My stencils will get a workout, whoop!
Definitely! No need to spend good money on something you are just going to wipe dirt on!
Is there a tutorial for the US cutout on your door?
Have some health problems that prevent me from doing a lot of the projects I want to do but when I can do them again, I am going to try the door mat & the shim flag.
I have some items in my cart on Amazon. If I click through to Amazon and buy the spray paints from them, will you get credit for the items already in my cart or would I need to add them to my cart after clicking through your site? I’m trying to increase the amount you get not cause problems. Thanks for the tutorials, they are always easy to understand & follow.
Thanks for the question! You can find the tutorial for the door decoration here: http://madincrafts.com/distressed-wooden-americana-sign/
As long as you click through from my site, it shouldn’t matter if the items are already in your cart. You are sweet to ask!
I hope you are feeling better very soon!
Wow, this is a lovely mat. I love what you did to it. I am sooo doing this.