Using craft foam is a really easy way to make throw rugs and area rugs for your dollhouse.
I found some craft foam that had a texture to it like a small loop carpet, so it was the perfect texture for a small carpet.
I made two of the rugs using this foam, one with a fringed edge and one that I painted gold to potentially use in the gold room of my dollhouse. Since it’s foam, not fabric, you can paint it with regular craft paint and it worked just fine.
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How to make a fringed craft foam dollhouse rug.
Start with a piece of textured craft foam, or smooth craft foam if you want to make a smooth-looking throw rug. I got this piece at Michaels in the section where they have foam and printed felt pieces.
I didn’t notice it until I got home, but the piece that I bought had a pretty obvious flaw line on it. You can see it in the photo where my thumb is.
This wasn’t a big deal for me since I could use the line to cut smaller pieces to make the throw rugs, but if you’re going to be “carpeting” large areas of the floor, make sure to check the foam that you buy to make sure it’s one solid piece without flaws!
Cut the foam to the dimensions that you want. If you want it to be an exact 1:12 scale, just do the number of inches that the feet of a real throw rug dimensions would be. (3″x5″ for a 3’x5′ rug etc.)
I just cut two pieces that I was going to use for two separate throw rugs, I didn’t worry about the dimensions. You can cut craft foam using regular scissors, but I used my old-school paper cutter that I got from the thrift store.
For the first throw rug, I cut a fringed edge on each end of the craft foam. Super simple.
I used my multi-cut craft scissors for this, but you can use a regular pair of scissors, or a pair of herb cutting scissors. (click here to see those on Amazon.) I like the multi-cut scissors because it gives you an even cut each time.
That’s it! For this version, all I needed to do was to cut the fringe. The throw rug can go in the black and white room for now.
If I decide to add a cow print to it to go with the top of the furniture, I can do that later by painting the spots on. Painting this was pretty easy, so read on for that.
How to make a colored craft foam throw rug.
For the other version of this, I painted the craft foam to make a gold throw rug that I can put in the gold room eventually if I decide to use it.
I started with some metallic gold craft paint and the piece of foam that was still rectangular with an un-fringed edge.
I don’t know how metallic it will look when it’s done, but it will be better than having it painted with a flat yellow color.
I used a soft paintbrush and painted the textured foam with an up-and-down pouncing motion to get the paint into all the little crevices of the texture.
Make sure to paint the edge of the craft foam so that the base color doesn’t show. Depending on how thick the foam is, it can be pretty obvious that it’s not gold all the way through if you don’t get the edge done!
Let the paint dry, and place the throw rug in your dollhouse.
Craft foam is a really easy way to make rugs and flooring design options for a dollhouse, especially if it’s textured like this to begin with. If you use multiple pieces you could do an entire floor this way to make it look like it was carpeted…It’s easy to cut and easy to paint, so it’s a good option for dollhouse flooring.
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