This is more than a DIY post today. It’s a story about a door mat– a door mat that I think I’ll keep as long as I can. I may need lots of paint.
Many of you know that my sweet baby was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year. He’s currently doing great, but last year was beyond tough. In the midst of his treatment period, we were blessed to have friends who had offered to bring meals to our family.
One day, my husband announced that we needed a new door mat. Our door mat was looking ragged, and we should have a better mat if visitors were coming (according to him). He headed out and returned home with a door mat with four little birdies and a tree branch on it.
We had never bought a door mat with an image on it before this one. I know I must have looked at him inquisitively.
“I bought this one because it has four birds on it. The biggest one is our daughter, and the other three in the nest are the boys,” he said.
At a time when the future looked so uncertain with one of our boys, this door mat was special. I think about him bringing to home every time that I look at it.
When I noticed it looking a bit ragged and worn earlier this year, I just left it for a while. I couldn’t bear to get rid of it, but I wasn’t sure how to make it look better, either. When I went to Haven Conference and tried out the DecoArt Americana Decor Outdoor Living Exterior/Interior Paint, I liked the consistency of the paint and thought it may do the trick on the door mat.
Using a variety of DecoArt Exterior/Interior Colors, it only took a few nights to re-vamp my little birdie door mat.
I had to fill in some where the image was worn off, but it turned out bright and new!
Our door mat is under the front porch, so it is not exposed to direct elements. However, I did accidentally leave it out in the rain the day after I had touched up a few places. The paint did not run or fade, even though it was new. I’m hoping that it holds up for a long time!
Click the affiliate links below to see the specs on the colors that I used!
What a sweet story! I would not have thought to use the paint on a door mat!
can you tell me how well the paint held up?
Awesome! I am still using the mat and have made no changes to it. It still looks great. Just a note, this is not the door that we use to enter in daily, so the mat does not see as much traffic as other doorways.