Balcony Oasis - Canvas Rug
Cost of canvas - $60.36
Cost of paint - $6.00
Cost of 4" wide brushes - $4.00
I cut the canvas in 3 foot lengths which gave me the 3 foot by 5 foot rugs I was looking for. Next, I stitched around the edges with zig zag stitching to prevent the canvas from unravelling too much. My husband had to help me by holding the canvas because it is so heavy and unwieldly.
My original color idea was to use green and brown for the rugs. I scrapped the brown and green idea and went with two shades of blue that reminded me of the Caribbean ocean. I bought two paint samples from Home Depot for $3 each along with two single use 4 inch wide paint brushes. Home Depot will custom mix a small 16 ounce container of paint for you. Such a deal if you only need a small amount of paint. Really, these are two different colors, trust me.
Before applying the paint to the canvas, I put the paint in another larger container, filled the original container with water and added that to the paint. I didn't want thick paint for the rugs, I thought that might be too hard to paint onto the canvas. Watering down the paint worked perfectly.
As you can see I simply "eye-balled" the lines. If I have wanted perfect stripes, I would have used that blue masking tape and a tape measure to mark out the lines.
Note To Self: Next time I make these rugs, buy 4 yards of canvas and cut it 3 feet 4 inches wide to fit the balcony floor better. Also, consider a lighter weight canvas.