Painting an Ikea Doormat with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint...It Worked!

I recently bought a $1.99  rubber-backed coir doormat from Ikea.
I was  curious to see how Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint would behave on this surface.

$1.99 Ikea Coir Doormat ready for painting!

I wasn't sure how this would go, so I decided on 
a simple striped pattern using
Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in the gorgeous shade of red — Tricycle! 

Tape measure, Painter's Tape & Heavy Marker

The only tools necessary were a measuring tape, painters or 
masking tape, a marker/texta that's thick/heavy enough to 
mark a rough surface....and paint!

Mixing up Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Tricycle

I mixed the Milk Paint up  & let it sit while measuring the 
width of the doormat at 50cm width, figuring I'd paint 
three 10cm stripes with 10cm spaces between.


 Simply measure 10cm from the edge, mark the coir across then place the
 tape onto the markings then measuring and marking 20 cm from the marking
 to where the next stripe begins. 

Once taped up...I got painting!
I didn't add Bonding Agent to the Milk Paint as I considered this 
more of a "dyeing" practice than painting. 
The coir is quite fibrous & absorbent & I was hoping it would grab onto the pigment.

I experienced a fair amount of, "This isn't going to work," when I got started...

The I-don't-think-this-is-going-to-work Stage!

I used an inexpensive natural bristle brush because 
I didn't want to abuse the fibres of my quality brushes. 
The paint splattered about everywhere as the bristles caught in the fibres!
It required a bit of horizontal and vertical brushing....but was not as time-consuming as I expected.
Once you get the feel, it's fairly easy & fast.

It did "splotch" a bit as the photo above shows, but this evened out as it dried. 

Starting to take shape

The end result is actually quite striking!
I'm very pleased with this little experiment & my mind is
 whirring with ALL the possibilities...chevrons, monograms, geometrics...the list goes on and on!

All this for a $1.99 doormat & easily achieved with an $8 Sample Bag of 
Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint.
Just in time to welcome Spring!

All done! Love this result!

This doormat is Part One of
 "The 3 Unreal DIY Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint Challenge" blog post coming soon. 
Check back or sign up for blog alerts (top right) to see all three unreal projects!

It's all here...for the love...
Sada