Sunday's Doormat Crafternoon at HIRL: Pics & Tutorial

On Sunday afternoon the sun finally came out to greet us happy crafters as we made some truly unique doormats at Hamilton's Institute of Rural Learning.

We took over HIRL's arts and craft room, a large rustic space nestled amongst their well-tended gardens, and made ourselves at home for a couple of hours. We also checked out their pottery studio, which is decked out with pottery wheels, an electric kiln, a painting booth and clay recycler, just waiting for a local potter or ceramicist to take up residency.

Everyone brought some tasty treats to share with the group (I even made my favourite malty caramelly slice- get the recipe HERE!) and we settled in with a hot drink while we thought about what designs we wanted on our doormats. I gave the group ideas including lettering, monograms, phrases and shapes, but everyone was so imaginative we ended up with every single mat being completely different but equally as awesome :)

Just look at these faces of concentration (and joy) as everyone designed their mat, made a template, stuck it down and got painting! We used a selection of matte, satin and gloss black spraypaints, and liquid acrylic paints in a range of colours for finishing touches by hand. Our mats were Ikea's Sindal doormats, made of 100% coir with a latex backing, because I love a good Ikea Hack! For your full tutorial, scroll to the bottom of this post :)

We had two special guests join us for this crafternoon: playful black labrador puppies called Tui and Zakilie, who were very well behaved guests! Thanks for bringing them, Fleur!

Check out some of the awesome completed designs made at the workshop- well done everyone! See you next month for something that may help you win Fashions On The Field during the Spring racing season! ;)

Free, downloadable, printable Tutorial: