How to Make Your Own Painted Deck Rug

Outdoor rugs can be expensive and keeping them clean is time consuming. Learn how to make your own DIY deck rug with paint. It’s the perfect low maintenance solution to adding interest to your outdoor space and you can do it in a weekend!

After making over the back deck, I knew I wanted a rug to define the sitting area. I searched for an outdoor area rug, but just really didn’t find the pattern I wanted. I also started wondering how much care was this rug going to need? How easy would it be to keep clean? What happens if it gets wet, will it mold?

Laying out that kind of money for an area rug wasn’t going to work if it only lasted for one season. Then I decided to create a painted deck rug. How hard could it be? A stencil and some paint was all you need.

How to Make a Painted Deck Rug

Let’s get dirty!

Step 1. Prepare the surface

Clean your decking thoroughly and apply paint or stain in the color of your choice. Allow to cure completely before starting the stenciling for your painted deck rug. Check out my Deck Makeover | See The Gorgeous Before and After to see how I got my deck ready for this painted deck rug project.

Step 2. Tape off the area for your painted deck rug

Using FrogTape, tape off the area you want to stencil. I added an extra border of tape so I could paint a solid border all the way around. This gives it a frame and makes it look more like a real rug.

Step 3. Paint your rug using a stencil.

Using a stencil is the easiest way to get the job done, although I’m not going to sugar coat it, it can be messy. I had to rinse the stencil off between applications to avoid having bleed marks. The Morrocan stencil I chose gave me exactly the look I was hoping for.

Once you have the entire rug painted, go back and carefully remove the tape. It’s best to do this before it is completely dry to avoid lifting any paint away from the design.

Step 4. Allow your painted deck rug to dry completely

Now I know you are probably impatient like I am and you want to put your furniture on it and start using that area, but you have to let it dry completely! I would wait at least 24 hours for it dry then you have one more step before you can start setting up your seating area.

Step 5. Apply polyurethane

Apply a coat of polyurethane in a matte or satin finish to protect the painted deck rug from the outdoor elements. Sun will fade it and rain will ultimately wash it away little by little if you don’t apply a protective coating. Allow that to cure for at least 24 hours.

Now you can set up your seating area!!

The seating area looks so much better now that it’s defined with this painted deck rug.

Now it really looks like an outdoor living area!

Looking for more outdoor ideas? Check out this Must See DIY Patio Makeover with Pergola, this How To Build a Large Planter Box Using Scrap Wood and this DIY Outdoor Movie Theater and Projection Screen