How to Paint Rug Designs on Hardwood Floors

Clean the floors to remove dust and dirt. Remove any furniture that will be in your way.

Measure the floor with a tape measure to select the placement of your faux rug. Keep in mind the arrangement of your furniture. Make positioning marks with chalk.

Mask off the exterior of the faux rug with low-tack tape, using your chalk marks as a guide. Burnish the tape strips with a clean rag.

Sand the area to be painted with a sanding block. Take extra care when sanding around the taped edge. Wipe off your work surface with a damp rag to remove dust. Allow the floor to dry.

Paint around the edge of the tape with a foam brush. Begin each stroke on the tape. Paint toward the center or your panel to keep paint from seeping under the tape.

Fill in the rest of the background color of your rug with a paint roller. The final direction of each pass of the roller should follow the direction of the planks of wood. Let the paint dry overnight.

Sketch your basic rug design on the painted panel with chalk. Mask off any other panels of color with low-tack tape.

Paint the panels with foam brushes and paint rollers. Use narrow rollers to fill in small areas. Remove the tape while the paint is still wet. Allow the paint to dry overnight before adding details.

Use stencils to add patterns and painted designs. Keep your stencil brushes fairly dry to prevent the paint from bleeding. Clean the stencils off from time to time, if paint begins to build up.

Remove all of the tape. Carefully scrape off any paint that bled under the tape with a putty knife.

Use a thin lining brush to paint the fringe on the shorter sides of your rug, if this is appropriate for the style of your rug. Keep paint off the body of your rug with a strip of tape.

Allow the paint to dry for 24 hours. Apply polyurethane to protect your painted floor . Roll on two coats, lightly sanding the surface between coats with low-grit sandpaper.