Summery Style: 9 DIY Rope Rug Projects to Try

While winter brings to mind ornate wool rugs and sturdy but plain salt- and snow-soaked doormats, summer rugs can be lighter and more playful. Buy and dye some dollar store clotheslines or recycle your old climbing ropes and get to knitting, crocheting, coiling, or just good old-fashioned gluing.

This tutorial requires $16 worth of clothesline rope and some hardcore crochet skills, and the result is totally spa-worthy.

This project involves building a weaving board (it’s just a plank and nails) but then you’ll be set up to make rugs for everyone you know!

This one requires painted rope, a sewing machine, and a significant amount of patience, but the beauty of the format is you can stop making coils whenever you get sick of it!

For the previous coil doormat, you paint the rope beforehand; this one has you paint it after—or not at all.

If you can do a garter stitch and you own a pair of hilariously oversized knitting needles, this satisfyingly chunky mat can be yours.

Sturdy rope and silicone paint combine to make a rug that can stand up to wet shoes and boots. I would have kept that awesome black rope unpainted and then painted a rug made of lesser rope, so this is kind of two tutorials in one.

This tutorial is technically for rope wall art, but the results could totally be a rug. Glue together a rug with charmingly uneven ends, or just paint a ready-made one.

Of all the many, many rope rugs and doormats I’ve looked at while putting together this post, the nautical knot ones are my favorites. You can go full-nautical by using sailing or lobster ropes, but these also look lovely when done with a natural jute or sisal. The one shown here was actually made of recycling climbing rope!

This sisal rope rug, with its pale border, is totally classic to me. But be warned: “By the time I was on the 5th or 6th roll and about 6-7 hours in, I was literally cursing this project… I don’t think this project would’ve been that bad if I had known how long it would take..” Good luck, everyone!