We love Tom Baker. And we needed a new runner carpet for our hallway. Enter this easy DIY Doctor Who rug (for under $30). Our first project in our new house!
Some of you guys saw this last week on our Instagram. We planned on posting it here a few days ago, but wanted to wait and make sure that it wore well and that the paint didn’t chip/peel/etc. So far it’s looking good as new! And that’s with two VERY sheddy black dogs.
Oh, and that’s right, I said PAINT. This is a plain ol’ cheap beige runner carpet from Home Depot, painted to look like Tom Baker’s iconic Doctor Who scarf. Want to make your own? You’ll need:
Light colored runner carpet ($13 at Home Depot)
Paint (we used some acrylic craft paint, and some latex paint samples)
Textile Medium (aka Fabric Medium)
Sponge brushes
Painters tape
Tiny crochet hook
A few shades of yarn
Superglue (optional)
This project actually only ended up costing us $13 (for the plain runner), since we already had the yarn from our DIY Doctor Who Tom Baker cowl scarf, we had the Textile Medium from our DIY geek pillows, and we always have a stash of super glue, painters tape, and sponge brushes on hand.
Anyway, first we rolled out the runner carpet. Obviously. Then we started taping stripes on the carpet, with painters tape. We just made up the stripe pattern as we went, basing it on several different Tom Baker scarves.
We used a ruler to make sure the space between the tape was even (that’s a level in the photo, but the side you can’t see has a ruler on it).
Once it was all taped, we mixed up our FABRIC PAINT (using textile medium). Yep, adding textile/fabric medium to your acrylic or latex paint essentially turns it into fabric paint, if you follow manufacturer instructions. So it won’t peel/chip, stays softer, and can even be washed. We did this for our DIY geek pillows, and those have held up great for months now.
When painting, make sure to stipple the paint on, instead of brushing it on. You want to really get the paint into the fabric. We used our fingers too, to help work it in.
For paint colors, we just picked whatever colors from our paint stash said “Tom Baker” to us. The carpet was already beige/tan, so that helped. We also used yellow, blue, green, red, purple, and brown.
We had to do the stripes in a couple of different stages, since most of the painted stripes are right next to another painted stripe. If that makes sense. Basically we painted every other stripe, pulled the tape off, let everything dry for an hour or two, then taped OVER the previously painted stripe to paint the stripe next to it.
Once everything was painted, we decided that to really feel like a Tom Baker scarf rug, we would need fringe.
For this, we cut a bunch of yarn colors that match the rug into pieces of the same length (however long you want your fringe, x2). Then we just stuck a small crochet hook right through the rubber backing on the runner, to do a basic fringe. Once the fringe was done, we put a tiny tab of superglue on each little fringe-knot, to make sure it stays put.
That’s it! It took about 4 hours total for painting, including dry time, and 1-2 hours for fringe (with breaks). For scale, here it is against a 70 pound very happy black lab. 🙂
What do you think of the DIY Doctor Who rug? The grain of the fabric stayed exactly the same, but the texture did change to a more stiff kind of feeling. Not a carpet you’d want to lie down on, but for a hallway runner, it’s fine for us.
Andie L. says
September 29, 2014 at 11:01 amThis is awesome! I wish I had a long hallway in need of a carpet to make this. 🙂
ournerdhome says
October 2, 2014 at 12:22 pmThank you! It’s our first time having a long hallway, so we were pretty excited about it, haha. 🙂
Rachael says
September 29, 2014 at 2:10 pmI love this!!!
ournerdhome says
October 2, 2014 at 12:23 pmThank you! We were worried it might end up crispy (like our one ill-fated attempt at painting an upholstered chair), but in the end we love it too.
Kerry says
September 29, 2014 at 3:32 pmIt looks amazing (and your dog is adorable)! Thanks for the tutorial…I may have to try this.
ournerdhome says
October 2, 2014 at 12:24 pmThanks, Kerry! (and our dog thanks you too 🙂 ).
kaycreate says
September 29, 2014 at 3:52 pmSo great!! I love how vibrant the paint it on the rug, and it’s awesome that you can wash it too!
ournerdhome says
October 2, 2014 at 12:26 pmThanks! And washing is definitely a huge plus. We did some minor spot cleaning tests, and so far so good!
Lisa says
September 29, 2014 at 10:49 pmThis is such a cool idea! I have really got to try out fabric medium one day. Pretty much my whole house is carpeted, but if I ever achieve wood flooring, I will definitely be making one of those! ^___^
ournerdhome says
October 2, 2014 at 12:28 pmThank you, Lisa! We ended up buying way too much fabric medium when it was on sale, so now are trying to come up with a lot more ideas for it. 🙂 So far everything we’ve used it on has held up pretty well!
ejensen says
September 30, 2014 at 9:39 amLooks fabulous – very Tom-Baker-Doctor.
ournerdhome says
October 2, 2014 at 12:30 pmThank you! I rarely have a chance to wear my Tom Baker scarf (not cold enough here), so at least this way we can bring some of his style into our everyday lives. 🙂
Skye @ Planet Jinxatron says
October 6, 2014 at 6:16 pmThis is fantastic. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who remembers Tom Baker, all the younguns have these new Doctors! 🙂
ZaineyLaney says
October 7, 2014 at 6:35 amSo creative! It looks like you crocheted it yourself!
karen says
December 8, 2014 at 8:46 pmSeriously, this is, like, the best thing ever. I think i need to make one of these for my house!
ournerdhome says
December 9, 2014 at 11:12 amThank you, Karen! 🙂
Emily Crowder says
March 16, 2015 at 12:35 pmCan you give a breakdown of the inches per color?
ournerdhome says
March 16, 2015 at 10:18 pmNo problem! We just eyeballed all of the measurements when we made it (since there are so many variations of the scarf), but ours breaks down approximately like this:
Tan: 5″
Green: 3″
Tan: 3″
Red: 4″
Purple: 1.5″
Yellow: 2.5″
Green: 4.5″
Brown: 1″
Blue: 3″
Tan: 5″
Green: 2″
Yellow: 4″
Tan: 5″
Green: 1″
Purple: 4″
Red: 5″
Tan: 3″
Brown: 1.5″
Blue: 1″
Emily Crowder says
March 18, 2015 at 11:10 amThank you very, very much!
Valerie H says
March 25, 2015 at 6:00 amHow is this holding up after months of use? I can’t wait to make it for my husband!
ournerdhome says
March 25, 2015 at 6:33 pmIt’s holding up well! It’s had some fading (it’s in a very heavy use hallway), but we actually like it a little better now that it looks worn in – since now it looks more muted like the actual scarf. So far so good!
All American Pool & Patio says
August 7, 2015 at 8:24 amThis is really cool! I can see a DIY project for my daughter and me really soon! She LOVES Dr. Who!
Kitt Wattenphul says
November 13, 2015 at 11:55 amThank you! After I figured out that I could not buy this, I made one. My brother saw it and requested one too. If I didn’t have the yarn on hand I would buy a heavy rug yarn, but other than that I love it. For me it is the epitome of Doctor Who, for others it is a cute rug that goes with my decor.
Pam says
December 5, 2016 at 6:29 amMy 14 year old daughter is a big fan of Tom Baker. She has been wanting a “Fourth Doctor” scarf forever so this just might become a project. Thanks so much for posting it.
Writingzme says
February 22, 2017 at 7:22 pmAbsobloodylutely brilliant! I’m still smiling!
bulletnails says
August 28, 2018 at 7:16 pmthis rug is fantastic! i just moved and have a 17′ entry hall that this would be so perfect for – and so great to make it almost the length of the real scarf 😉