BEEP BEEP!
That’s me tootin’ my own horn. I’ve finished the most laborious, time consuming project I’ve ever attempted. It’s a hand-dyed 8×10 dense wool rug using the Monet gardens at Giverny as inspiration (which is Step 0: Inspiration)
As you may recall, I started this project back in February. I think I’m ready to talk about it because I believe Anthropologie is ready to listen (and hire a new creative team member…wink wink). I love their rugs. I was hoping my rug would turn out as a cross between the Lost Atlantis Rug and the Torridon Rug
Step 1: Find a rug. I inherited this 8×10 ivory ($1500) wool rug, but if I had to buy one, I’d probably get this large cotton one from Ikea. It’s $60 for a 5’11” x 8’2″
A benefit of this rug is that it’s quick-drying cotton. Mine is dense wool and took FOREVER to dry. In fact, I’m still not convinced it IS dry, even though it’s currently in my living room, under a slightly green pigmented Shih Tzu.
Step 2: Cut a hole in the box. Whoops. Wrong project. I mean, buy Rit fabric dye. The liquid dye was much better than the boxed powder dye (which flew all over the kitchen and into my nose when I added hot water). That’s all you need! A rug, dye, and hot water from the sink!
I used about 10 bottles total (at $3.99 a bottle). The best color was dark green and it was relatively hard to find. In fact, several of the bottles I bought at Michaels that were labeled “dark green” were, in fact, purple.
Step 3: If you’re doing this outside and especially if you’re dying wool, check the weather first. The drier and hotter, the better! You want this puppy to dry fast. That being said, sunscreen is a necessity, unless you’re into the leather sack look, which I guess is a statement.
Step 4: Do it. I placed the rug out in the yard. I ran the hot water in a bucket and poured some dye in. I started off really light because I wanted a good base, with no white showing, before I began layering. Don’t let this photo scare you (also, remember that after I steam cleaned the rug, it went from ivory to yellow-ish and I figured it would be more fun to dye over it than try to get it back to ivory).
After it looked sufficiently psychedelic, I fell into a deep depression. I decided to finish for the day and let the rug dry out a little before coming up with a new game plan. I went inside to hydrate. By the way, the Breville juicer on Amazon is the BEST juicer! It handled that mondo-carrot like it was it’s job (it actually IS it’s job). This juicing is not mandatory to rug-dying, but it is important.After my refreshment, and about a week of drying time (outside while it was hot and inside the garage when it was rainy) I decided I wanted it to have a “windowpane” border. I drew out this high-tech sketch. To execute, I made a dye batch of highly concentrated dark green dye and hand painted it on with a large brush.
Then I went back to work saturating the rest of the rug. I wanted it DARK, like my original Monet photographs. This process meant making each batch with more and more dye. At this point in the project (and because I did this barefoot and without gloves), your feet and hands should look like you’ve been living naked in -30degree weather. Unless you’re dying your rug red. Maybe then you’ll look like Elmo.
At this point in the process, I fell AGAIN into a deeper and more dramatic depression. I had bought $50 worth of dye and spent more than 10 hours on this project at this point and was even less sure I even liked the rug. Tyrone was even less confident. So I decided there was no other option than to finish the project, put it in the house and see how it looked in action.
Step 5: Rinsing and drying, the suckiest step ever.
So, now you’ve got a rug sitting around that it SATURATED with dye. You’re hoping all of it is permanently dyed, but there is no way of knowing until you rinse. To do this, I got out the garden hose and soaked the rug and basically scrubbed and rubbed the water around and off the sides of the rug. This process took a REALLY long time and was a definite workout. I naively thought at this point I could just toss the rug over a ladder or two so it could get some airflow. However, it was SO SO heavy that I had to let it dry a little overnight before I could get it up on the ladder (with help).
Then I scrubbed it again so that the dye could actually drain off the rug. LASTLY, I let it dry like this for a few days. Due to the nature of the dye draining, my windowpane design became significantly less pronounced. Maybe that’s a good thing? I don’t know.
FINALLY it was time to bring it inside.
So, the moral of the story is that this is a really hard project that I’m really proud of, even though the verdict is out on whether or not it was a success. It’s functional in the living room and does remind me of the Monet paintings. I can call it a success based on the fact that I found NOTHING on hand dying wool rugs in the manner in which I intended.
Now, I will give you a few links and ideas to more practical applications of this project, if you are brave. The Apartment Therapy Blog is a great resource.
Alternative Project 1: Basically the same thing I tried, only she had a much thinner wool rug and wisely chose one color. However, this person used a spray bottle to apply the dye. I don’t think this would have worked with mine, considering the size and density of the wool. BUT, how great does her rug look!?
Alternative project 2: I think I’ll definitely have to try this technique. So, you can tape off a rug using painter’s tape and hand dye OR paint a design on. From what I understand, this works best with cotton or those natural sisal rugs (also cheap at Ikea). This would not have worked with my rug because taping off a design would be like taping off a sponge…the dye would not stay in place. Anyway, I think these rugs are really really great.
Or, if you’re as tired of this project as I am at the moment, you can just buy a great graphic rug on Overstock like I did. Also, there’s a Living Social online deal running at the moment: $10 for $20 worth of Overstock credit. In addition, you can go to this link for a 7% discount for new customers. You click on the link and the 7% is automatically activated.
Whew! Longest post ever. Thanks for reading! Especially you, Anthropologie!