Stenciling a doormat has always been on my craft to do list, but I liked the simple W one we got when we moved in, so I haven’t made one yet. With the quarantine, the lack of events or house projects to craft for and a massive need to relieve stress through creating since I can’t leave the house, I decided our door mat needed an upgrade!
When looking for ideas of what I wanted to paint, I came across a Friends themed Pottery Barn welcome mat that I liked. Not only is it the perfect message for after social distancing is over, but I knew I could make it for way less!
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“Welcome Friends” Stenciled Door Mat
What you’ll need:
- Door mat
- Scrap card stock (2 12″x12″ pieces)
- Cricut Maker
- Painter’s tape
- Black acrylic paint
- Blue acrylic paint
- Red acrylic paint
- Yellow acrylic paint
- Foam paint brush
First thing was to create my design. I downloaded the Friends logo and also the Friends font. I opened Design Space to setup my canvas using a rectangle resized to my doormat as the background. Then I uploaded the logo and finally added “welcome” in the Friends font. After some resizing, I had my design!
I read a few tutorials on what’s the best material to create a stencil with for painting on door mats and most of them used card stock, so that’s the route I went with. I was nervous because I’d only ever stenciled with vinyl before and wasn’t sure how great the card stock would hold up.. but that’s the
Because my doormat and design were larger than 12″, I was going to need my 12″ x 24″ mat to cut the design. I put 2 pieces of card stock side by side on my mat for cutting (versus slicing on my canvas).
After my design was cut, I taped the card stock together and taped the design to my door mat. I would have used painter’s tape if I could find a roll, but used leftover ram board tape instead from our leftover renovation supplies.
Then I started painting! Carefully dab the paint over the stencil onto the mat. I used my hand to really hold the design in place on some areas (like the E). After letting it dry, I did a second coat of paint the next day, then lifted the stencil off.
I couldn’t believe how clean the lines were using card stock! I was happily surprised and excited about how great the mat turned out. I even liked it a little more than the Pottery Barn one because the letters were a little thicker and easier to read.
The paint and card stock were free since I already had them, so I only spent $11 on the door mat, compared to the $35 option on Pottery Barn. Not a bad savings and great dup!
I’m still choosing a cute mat to put under it and make it pop, but after pressure washing the concrete and wiping all the pollen off the door and windows, the front porch is looking pretty good!
