Rug of a Different Stripe

Add color and pattern to your floors with a painted floor canvas. Use a 6-foot section of 52-inch-wide, pre-primed heavy artist's canvas or floor-cloth canvas (available at art stores for about $9 per yard).

With a pencil and a tape measure, mark off intervals for the stripes at both ends of the canvas. Beginning on one side, make a mark at 6-3/4 inches, then mark off seven 5-1/2-inch intervals. Use a yardstick to pencil in lines from end to end. Starting from the left side of the canvas, apply 2-inch-wide, low-tack painter's tape along the right edge of the first line. Then, follow this pattern of taped and untaped intervals: 1-1/2-inch interval, 2-inch tape, 5-1/2-inch interval, 2-inch tape. This pattern repeats across the rug, until another 6-3/4-inch interval remains on the opposite side of the canvas. Seal the tape edges by pressing them down with a credit card.

Using a foam brush and latex paint, paint the wide stripes light yellow and the narrow stripes dark yellow.

When the paint is dry, remove the tape. Mask off a 1-1/4-inch border around the entire canvas; paint with dark yellow paint. When the paint is dry, remove the tape. Top the completed design with two coats of non-yellowing polyurethane to protect the surface from damage.