Hexagon Stenciled Mat: a tutorial

I'll start out by saying I'm not 100% thrilled with how this project turned out. I had a much different vision in my head when I browsed the doormat section at Hobby Lobby and envisioned tessellating hexagons. I ran into some issues when the contact paper didn't adhere to the doormat quite as well as I had hoped. This led to some paint seepage in the stencil. Nonetheless, I thought I'd still share this project with you. I really do think it's a fun project, just one of those that fell short of expectations. I'll just provide you with some first-hand tips so that your rug may turn out a little nicer than mine.  

Next time I'll use an indoor rug with a less textured finish. I think the rough, textured nature of an outdoor mat doesn't isn't exactly ideal for this project. I would also go with a different color scheme next time. My mat turned out a little too 4th-of-July-esque for my taste. I was looking for more of an orange-red, but it was slim pickings at Hobby Lobby. 

And it should be noted that you could use any shape for this project...squares, triangles, hearts, circles... I think they'd all provide a nice pattern. I found my hexagon shape here, printed it and transferred it to cardstock so that it would be easier to trace over and over. 

Materials:

Doormat

Heavy Contact Paper

Spray Paint

X-acto Knife

Marker

Hexagon Stencil

Most doormats are blank on the underside. I used this as my empty canvas. 

Mark the ends of the mat on a section of contact paper. Cut the contact paper so that there are several extra inches on either side of the mat. 

It helps to go ahead and continue the mark across the full width of paper. That way you know where to stop the design. 

Start tracing your shape, leaving at least 1/2" in between (I think I might do as much as 1" next time for better adhesion). You might also find it helpful to use a ruler to keep your shapes as straight as possible. 

Move over to a cutting mat (an old magazine on a hard surface would work too) and start cutting the shapes out. I chose to leave some shapes uncut for variation in my pattern. 

This part is a bit tricky. You'll need to slowly remove the paper backing and adhere the contact paper to the mat. Masking tape helped me to keep the paper on securely.

Paint carefully with the spray paint facing downward towards the rug. You may notice where my red ran over the blue in some areas. More of that imperfection I was telling you about. 

Give the paint a little time to dry and remove the contact paper. 

So not exactly what I had in mind...but still a pretty cool addition to my doorstep. 

It compliments my recently acquired pumpkin collection quite nicely. 

By the way I saw the idea for "drilling" holes in pumpkins here (via Martha Stewart). I actually used a cork screw and it worked perfectly! It really looks lovely when all lit up. 

Questions? Let me know (:

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