DIY Decorating & Design host Nancy Golden explains how to make a patriotic floor cloth that adds the charm of old-time Americana to a country home. Materials:
Heavy-duty artist's canvas, unprimed
Steam iron
Scissors
Fusible hem tape
Latex primer
Latex base coat in ivory
Acrylic craft or stencil paint in black, country blue and red
Pencil
Tape measure
Paintbrush or roller
Masking tape
Small foam brushes
Star stencil
Stencil brush
Paper towels
Acrylic polyurethane
Paintbrush
- Cut a piece of heavy-duty canvas to size. Finish all raw edges by pressing a hem to the back side of the canvas. Clip excess fabric at the hem corners to create smooth mitered corners, and press the hem in place with fusible hem tape.
- Apply a coat of primer to the canvas with a paintbrush or roller. When dry, apply the ivory base coat.
- When the base coat is dry, lightly draw your pattern on the painted cloth. Mask off the edges of the sections of checkerboard to be painted black (figure A).
- Use a small foam brush to paint in the black squares of the checkerboard (figure B). When dry, remove the tape.
- Stencil stars on the border. Dip a stencil brush into country-blue paint, dab off excess paint on a paper towel, and pounce the flat end of the brush on the star.
- Paint a red border around the checkerboard middle.
- When the painted surface of the floor cloth is completely dry, protect it with two or three coats of polyurethane, allowing it to dry between each coat.
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