How to dye a gigantic rug...

My living room makeover continues. I bought fabric for new curtains and a bit for new pillows as well. My budget remains rediculously small, but I like a challenge. What I also like is Cost Plus World Market. I found the perfect rug there for $250, but alas, my budget is $100, so I left it at the store. I have a perfectly functional rug, but it looks nasty. It is 7x10ft. and cream, almost white. A giant cream rug seemed like such a good idea in DINK land (double income no kids). Now, covered in stains that won't come out, I am ready for a new rug.

Enter Rit dye: It was $1.83 a box and I got 3 because I had no idea how much dye was needed for a gigantic cream rug.

I decided to try and dye the giant cream rug a dark chocolate brown, similar to the one I saw at Cost Plus. The challenge was that the rug weighs about 40 pounds dry, so submerging it into dye wasn't an option unless I had a crane to lift it out after I was done. Option B, although unorthodox,  was to put the rug on a tarp and apply the dye to one side of the rug and then the other with a sprayer. A weed sprayer filled with hot chocolate brown Rit dye, to be exact.

I poured the dye into the sprayer with my children as my captive witnesses and my husband taking pictures really hoping that I wouldn't completely ruin our good cream rug and then beg for the $250 one.

This is Mandy, the other captive witness of mommy's dye experiment.

Here goes nothing...

The color sprayed on just fine.

Enter the kitten:

The cat has been wanting to be a brunette.

Oh, don't panic, I resisted temptation. It was very tempting though. I really wanted to dye the cat. The dye process is rather adictive.
I wonder if this would work for a spray on tan?

Almost done. I ended up doing 2 coats of sprayed on dye before I reached the right color, but I am happy with the results. As I slowly but surely finish my room makeover, I will post pictures. Stay tuned to see the finished $5.49 rug.