In response to our recent post about Alexandra Wentworth's dyed rug profiled in Elle Decor, the mother of an Apartment Therapy reader was kind enough to send in her own step by step DIY version for us ...
My daughter forwarded this post (referring to the Alexandra Wentworth rug) to me because this spring I had dyed a small rug to cover some stains. It is a wool Karastan, good quality and soft to the feet, so I didn't want to lose it in my home office area. I had a packet of rit dye that I bought years ago but never used in a blue jean color, but added another packet to make the color deeper. I took the rug outside, laid it on an old shower curtain, dissolved the dye and put it into an empty windex container. Then I sprayed the dye all over the rug until the color was fairly even. I let it dry but noticed that it felt like it was coated and stiff. The next day I took the garden hose and totally sprayed the rug, washing out some of the color. The resulting color looks to me like faded blue jeans and it restored the soft feeling of the wool. I like how it looks now, much better than before, with stains that would not come out even with professional cleaning. I think you could use just about any color on an off white rug. It was simple and cheap.
Thanks Suzanne! We commend you for saving a soiled, but perfectly good rug from heading to the trash, giving it a new life. Bravo!
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Comments (17)
This is smart. Rit dye rocks! There is WAAAAAY tackier DIY all over the place. (like the original rug that sparked this post)
I love how that turned out and it's not tacky it's very smart. Not everyone can afford the latest and greatest. Reusing things is also a great way not to waste.
I think it's lovely. Reuse is always smart.
This turned out really well, I think. I love RIT dye ~ I am always dying my white shirts pink when they get stains on them... specifically in the underarm area. Shut up!
Nice save on the rug, Mom!
I don't like the color at all, but I do like how this person reused exisiting items instead of springing for new ones. This is the mentality people need to take on more.
Definitely looks better than AW's rug.
When I saw the first photo, I was, like, "Oh no. This is gonna look so wrong!"
Ha - fooled me. Looks great, at least as shown in the After Photo. If the dye had been all streaky looking, that'd be one thing. But it looks like it's been this blue-jean color all along.
I'm undecided on the color but I agree that this is a great idea and much better than just tossing out the rug.
Actually, I bet the texture of the rug shoes off much better now than it did when it was white and there was no contrast at all to show it off. In fact it was this that made me really like the results of the project.
How does it work when you wash it? Do the colors run and mess up the original pattern or lines?
Thanks for your comments. I just wanted to share what I thought was a good save. I really liked the rug, but not with the stains. That looked tacky, for sure! I haven't washed the rug yet as I only dyed it last month, but you can see how soaking it with the garden hose after I sprayed on the dye actually helped the colors fade, mellow, and become more uniform. I like it and I think if I need to wash it in the future, I will probably just do the same thing with the garden hose, rather than spot clean. It will probably continue to fade some more, like good old blue jeans. I like blue, but muted, so this works for me. I think one of the reasons it worked is because the fiber is natural wool, which has such a resilient quality. I good quality rug is an investment.
I don't understand... doesn't the dye transfer to the floor? Whenever I have dyed clothing, it bled in every wash... I can't imagine a garden hose would rinse it out well enough.
I like the idea though... nice save. I'd just be terrified of spreading that color all through the house... on my feet, or whatever.
have you checked to see if your feet are blue? I use rit and a lot of times I am blue afterwards- especially with cottons. How did you aet the colors? thanks for sharing looks very nice.
oops
set
the colors
yeah just wondering if the dye is coming off on shoes or the floor...otherwise great idea
Yeah, I'm curious about the color bleeding too. I don't think it would come off on your feet/shoes (I've dyed several shirts with Rit dyes, and wearing them doesn't stain my skin) but what about on the floor underneath?
this looks so beautiful...and i tried it out last weekend.
alas, the dye proved to be too thick for the spray bottle and stopped coming out of the nozzle midway through the dye process.
so instead of completing it in a wash basin at our apartment building (i'm sure maintenance wouldn't have been happy to see that), i just threw it away.