DIY Doormat

I embarked on a little DIY project over the holidays and I am so happy with the final result, I could barely wait to share it, but I think it's a perfect way to "welcome" 2012.

You all probably remember our porch project where we painted and refinished the porch columns, walls, and floor. In that process we threw out our disgusting outdoor mat (I won't even say welcome mat) which was way too big for the porch and not that useful (and disgusting).

I couldn't find a welcome mat that I liked, so I decided to make one myself. Now, let's start by saying that  I am great friends with spray paint. It's never let me down in a crunch! So, I grabbed some spray paint, a Trampa door mat, and some frog tape and off I went. Here's the end result:

And here's how I did it:

First, decide what design you want. I played around in PowerPoint and came up with these options:

It was fun to play around, and to be honest until I started taping it out on the mat I hadn't decided on a final option. Anyways, once you have some options that you're happy with you can get going on the mat.

For the "K" monogram, I made a template in Word and printed out the letter.

I then traced it onto bristle board and cut it out with a utility blade.

From there, you choose a design and tape it out. I thought that it would be easier to keep things simple since I wasn't sure how sharp the edges would be with the spray paint.

And then the fun part - get painting!

Remove the stencil, and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Some of the edges aren't perfect so be it. I tried to spray as much as I could directly from above, but some paint still snuck under the stencil and the tape (it was -5 outside, so the tape wasn't sticking perfectly). If you are going to do this it may help to use some spray adhesive on the back of the stencil.

Happy spraying!