Rue How-To: Personalized Welcome Mat
If you visited Rue La La at all last month, you probably saw our April login page. (If not, peep it here.) A personalized welcome mat? Needless to say, I was inspired.
One trip to Home Depot, a few printouts, and some work with an X-ACTO® knife later, my front porch has serious personality. Here’s how to create your own.
What you’ll need:
- Door mat (about $10 at Home Depot)
- Black spray paint ($2)
- Stencils – I printed mine on regular printer paper, in a few different sizes
- X-ACTO knife
- Scissors
- Thumbtacks
- Newspaper
- Tape measure, if you want to be precise
How to do it:
- Print out your mat message. (Need an idea? How about a Rueism?) If you have heavier paper, it might make the cutting process a bit easier, but I used regular and it worked well.
- Decide what size your font should be by placing the pages on the mat and eyeing them from standing level. If you can’t read it clearly, it’s too small.
- Use the X-ACTO knife to carefully cut out the letters. Do this on a safe surface, like a thick piece of cardboard or magazine (I used an old Rue La La box). Make sure to save the letters that need fill-ins, like Es and Os.
- Go outside (inhaling toxins is no fun) and place your stencil plus fill-ins – tape measure optional – on the mat where you would like the message.
- Secure the pages and pieces with thumbtacks. Don’t be modest – the spray will cause lightweight paper to blow around a bit, and you want these as stable as possible.
- Cover the rest of the mat with newspaper to prevent the paint from spreading.
- Spray the stencils completely.
- Let dry for a minute or two, then reveal!
By Julia Ivins, Staff Writer
What will your welcome mat message be? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us at @ruelala, then check out our Rue How-To column every Wednesday.
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