Eco-Friendly Bath Mat – DIY
Recycle & Be Creative.
How about doing something back for Mother Earth: … like an eco-friendly home decorating craft?!
Here’s a fun, eco-friendly rug-making project to enliven your bathroom.
Towel Rug
Give your old towels a second life by transforming them into super soft, eco-chic bath rugs. All you need besides the towels is a gridded matting that you can find at any craft store or home ware store.
How-to Instructions for this Handmade Bathroom Floor Mat
1. First, wash and dry the towel or towels you’ll be using for your mat.
2. Decide how big you want your bath rug to be by measuring the dimensions on the flour, e.g.. in from of your shower recess, as shown here.
3. Purchase gridded matting and cut it to those dimensions. Can be bought at a craft shop or basic home ware store as this usually sits under floor rugs to avoid slipping. It is also called an ‘anti-slip mat’.
4. Cut the towels into 5-6” long pieces, approx. 3/4” thick.
5. Knot each strip along the grid, ensuring they all face the same way.
Tip: for a thick, full mat, knot along every line. For a thinner mat, knot along every other line.
It’s an easy to do project that require little concentration. . It may take you a while but it will be worth it once you’re finished with your eco-chic bathroom mat.
Budget: nil, and your old towels have a nice new use.
Video Tutorial on How to Knot Your Own
Earth Friendly Bathroom Mat
Source video/image: Michelle Kaufmann
I received inquiries as to where to find a base for this rug. This would be one solution: Blank Latch Rug Canvas With Grid
Furthermore: be sure to read the additional post with Further Instructions & Care Tips below, if you are serious about making this.
RECYCLED / HANDMADE RUGS
(Rug making patterns, instructions & tips)
1. Here’s how to Make THIS nice ‘n’ thick Bathroom Rug from Old Towels (this article).
2. Further Instructions & Care Tips for THIS Recycled Towel Bath rug
3. Make Your Own Ruffle Rug from Old Tshirts (NEW TUTORIAL)
4. Contemporary ‘grass’ Rugs (soft on feet; shown on the right, made from yarn)
5. How to Make Rugs from Recycled knitted Cabled Sweaters
6. Contemporary Handmade / Crochet Area Rugs
7. Rugs for Kids Bedrooms and Play rooms
Rugs for YOU, without the work of making them
I just want to also show you some rugs by our site sponsor, eSaleRugs. They actually have surprisingly beautiful and modern mats and rugs, as well as grande, one-of-a-kind Persian rugs. The prices are reasonable, so do check them out. Just click on the image or either link.
Extra 30% Off Everything + 10% Off when you buy 2 or more rugs!
New promotion: Free Rug Giveaway Every Day at eSaleRugs.com
… free… mmm… sounds like a good deal to me.
This is a WONDERFUL idea! I’m loving it! I will definitely be saving this for a future project!
I cannot seem to find gridded mat anywhere. The plastic canvas sold at craft stores does not look near big enough. Any suggestions?
I love this idea. Would make for a very soft rug. Thanks for sharing the tutorial. BlueRidgeAlteredArt.etsy.com
This looks a bit like rug hook canvas. The grid squares look 1/2″ across? Love the way this rug came out, and after it is washed and dried a few times it will shed all those fibers and fluff up in a pretty way. I find this canvas at thrift stores with unfinished kits all the time. Your rug is cute and clever.
This is awesome! What a great way to reuse old towels! Thanks for joining the linky party! :]
Love this idea! I featured it on my blog today, please feel free to pop over and check it out!
Jen
This looks awesome! Do you think, that it would look good as a larger rug, say, for the front room? I’ve been dying for this rug:
http://www.westelm.com/products/lourdes-sanchez-bulls-eye-rug-r968/?pkey=cpattern-rugs-flooring
But I don’t want to pay the price! So grabbing a bunch of old towels or soft fabric to dye it to something similar like this. I just don’t know if this project would work for a larger rug.
I tried doing this over the summer, but after spend 4 hours and only having about 6 square inches done I put it down and haven’t picked it up since! How long did it take you?
Sure it would! More work though!
The reason my towels are old towels is because they aren’t as soft as they used to be and kind of scratchy. So if you use scratchy towels won’t you get a scratchy rug?
How fun! I love this idea!! Super creative!
amber @ barbwired
What a wonderful idea! This would be great for using up scraps too.
If you can’t find the mat, just ask someone that works there for the anit slip mat for underneath rugs. It’s usually found folded up in a plastic package hanging from a hook. Someone in the craft/fabric dept should be able to help you.
What a great idea. I want to try to make in the near future.
I love this idea and can’t wait to try it! Have you tried washing it? I’m curious how well it will hold up in the washer?
I’d handwash this baby rather than put it in the washing machine. Simply because the towel strips are unfinished. However, one might try it out with a few towel strips tied together washed with a regular load to see how fussy it gets.
I CANNOT FIND this matting you’re using. I was SO excited about doing this project…until I drove all over town trying to find this stuff. I’ve been to Hancock Fabrics, Joann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby…can’t FIND IT!!!! Please let me know where I can get it.
Love this idea. The anti-slip mat is a great idea, as it keeps the rug from moving. i just found one at the Dollar Store. I’ve also seen them (for more $) at Kohls and Ikea.
This is such an awesome idea! I can’t wait to make one! I featured this on my friday favorites!
http://www.lilbitofus.com/2011/07/friday-favorites_29.html
I made one for my kids bathroom, and when I washed it it totally ruined it!!!! So frustrating after all the time I put into making it.
I love the idea and I was actually thinking of making such a bath rug with cotton strips, but I do have some old (scratchy today) towels. I wonder about this though. The edges of the towel strips are unfinished and towel unravels a lot and non stop, what happens with all that mess? How did you deal with it?
I love this idea. About how many bath towels does it take to make a rug that might be 3′x4′?
I can’t wait to try this one at my house!!
Great idea…so I am making one from ends of fabric..cotton. Canot find matting anywhere so I am using canvas and sewing it on. Will show it when I am finished.
This looks like Fun! Can’t wait to make one!
I think I used the wrong gridded mat. It’s an antislip but the holes are so small. I already cut several 3/4″x5″ strips and they look short and fat when I tied them in. So frustrated! How big should the holes be?
I don’t want to give up but I also don’t want to keep going and have it look bad… Suggestions? Please help!
when you cut towels, they fray like crazy. im curious, how long was the rug “shedding” little towel bits?
So cute! but don’t know if I have the patience.
One place to recycle old towels is your local veterinarian’s office or the local animal shelter.
While donating towels there I came home with my latest dog!! All in all a great trip
Wow this is great! Thanks for sharing.
can you give us an idea of about how many towels it would take to make this mat? I have two regular sized bath towels in my bathroom color that are getting a little ratty, I’d like to use. Do you think 2 would do it?
To Mandy: it takes 2 to 3 bath towels to make this bath mat.
Im having a VERY hard time finding the mat! Ive driven all over called different yarn shoppes! HELP! Im having a Pinterest party on Saturday and this is the project we were ALL SO looking forward to!
Don’t the little terry cloth loopy things come off after you cut the towel? In the video, when she cut her strips, you can see all the little loops all over the counter. Am I going to have to vacuum up towel fuzzies forever after making this?
I’ve been wanting to make a rug for my daughters room, but wouldn’t wanna use towels, is there any other fabric that could be used?
Brittany – try using recycled t-shirts …I found this idea a while back and thought about doing it. I think it would be awesome! http://xoelle.com/2009/05/t-shirt-latch-hook-rug-tutorial/
Yes, you will have to vacuum this for a while. Different quality towels will fuzz less than others. For a new fuzzy-solution, simply make this rug in t-shirt yarn. It will be beautiful and easier to maintain. Actually, t-shirt yarn will make this into a rug suitable for other rooms as well, besides your bathroom, so it’s a great idea overall. Cut up those old t’s.
That looks like Fiberglass mesh used for drywall/tiling not an anti slip rug mat.
Joann’s sells a No Slip Rug Canvas… That should work… Didn’t read all of the other posts but had a heck of a time finding the mat too, so I just thought I’d share. I believe it’s with the latch hook supplies… Wish me luck and I wish you all the same.
Don’t really know if this is what you are looking for. This is my ragrug made 18 years ago. I hang mine on the wall and yes it sheds!!! It wasn’t a planned image just randomly added the 4 different colors and this is what came up when I finished it.. Not a bathmat at all.
KathyR.