When I married my hubby well over a decade ago, I became obsessed with my new last name. I wanted everything to have my new initials on it and made sure to introduce myself by using my full name. I was just so proud and excited that I couldn’t help myself.
Flash forward 12 years, and I am annoyingly still the same way. I am even more proud to be married to my guy now than I was then and now that I live in the south I feel as though monogramming everything is just a natural process. Whether or not that is true, I don’t know, but I will continue to use it as my excuse until we eventually move back up north. 🙂
In my quest for all things to be labeled and initialed as my own, I was looking for a way to add some personalization to my porch. There are lots of personalized doormat options available, but my frugality kicked in and I was unwilling to pay anywhere from $50 to $100 for one. Thankfully, I found this rug while I was perusing Ikea recently and decided that I could hack my own doormat!
I used my Silhouette to cut my stencil, but if you don’t own a cutting machine you can still give this a try using the freezer paper transfer method. I don’t have a tutorial for it, but there are tons on YouTube or Pinterest if you search for them. My stencil was cut out of cheapo dollar store contact paper and I set it right down on top of my doormat. The challenge here is that the contact paper will not stick well to the coarse mat, so you will have to paint a bit more carefully. But there is good news too…because of that same coarse texture, the paint will not run or bleed. I just used a small craft brush and traced along the stencil, then went back and filled in any areas that needed it.
As a final touch, I decided to add some polka dots to the sides to give it a bit more character. I used a stencil brush and paced my dots two inches apart. I like the touch of whimsy that it gives the more formal monogram.
My front door is partially covered, so I wasn’t too worried about weather damaging the doormat. I used black chalk paint mostly because it was what I had on hand, but also because I think that it may hold up better with the constant rubbing of shoes. I will be completely honest here and admit that I do not know how well this mat will hold up, but for now it looks and feels pretty tough.
This is a fun way to spruce up your front porch just in time for spring and it only took me $10 and 30 minutes to make. I love that the possibilities are endless. You could personalize your doormat with just about anything!
I wonder if there is some kind of sealer you could spray on it. Any ideas?
I wondered the same thing, Debbie. I assume that you could spray a clear sealer on it, but I chose to leave mine for now. For an experiment as much as anything else. I will come back and let you all know how well mine held up.
I’m also obsessed with that last name, refused to give it all the way up! And definitely adding this project to my to-do list this summer!!!!