This is possibly the easiest and cheapest DIY pillow that you can make! This DIY rug pillow only cost me about $5 to make and it adds tons of personality and texture to my living room!
If you’re on the lookout for some new pillows to add color, texture, and interest to your living room, there are about a million options. I love to make my own pillows and my 10 Minute DIY Pillow Cover method is my go-to when I want something new. I got kind of a crazy idea in my head last week though when I found a cheapo Walmart rug that I had picked up for about $5 a few months ago hiding out in one of my cupboards. It turns out that it was exactly the type of thing that I was looking for to refresh my living room. Perfect, nubby texture? Check! Soft blues and darker blues together in one pillow to help tie together some of the different tones I have going on in this part of the house? Check! Dirt cheap? Check! Well, that last one wasn’t necessary, but it was a good bonus! So here’s how I made my DIY rug pillow using a rug I found at Walmart!
The Rug That I Used for my DIY Rug Pillow
I find myself always rooting for stores that almost everyone can access easily to do a good job with their home decor. I don’t know why, I just do. So when I find myself in a Walmart every once in awhile, I always check out their home decor stuff just to see what I can find. I don’t always buy something, but I do find some fun little treasures there quite frequently. One day during the late fall, I happened to notice these flat-weave rugs that they had on clearance in various shades and patterns of blue. They were only $5 each, so I bought a couple of them, thinking they’d add some nice color on the front porch. I did end up using one out there, but the one I used for the pillow stayed in my cupboard. Until now!
This particular rug is perfect for this purpose because it’s not too big and could be folded in half to create a reasonably-sized pillow. It also wasn’t so thick that I couldn’t sew through it. Finally, it has a great texture to it, similar to what I’ve seen on some pretty expensive throw pillows lately. The pillow this rug creates kind of reminds me vaguely of some of these blue Serena Lily pillow covers that I love, but that sadly don’t ship to Canada. So look for a rug like this for your pillow making purposes. 🙂
Turning the Rug Into a Pillow
I’ve seen people do this a few different ways, and honestly they all seem overly complicated to me. Since I was using a rug that was a good size for this purpose, all I had to do was fold it in half and sew the two ends together to make the bottom of the pillow. I then turned it right-side-out so that the two ends were hidden inside and it looked like a proper seam.
I did all my sewing by hand for this because I wasn’t sure how well my sewing machine would handle the thickness of the rug. Plus, it was a small enough project that it still didn’t take me any more than 30 minutes total to complete the whole thing.
For the ends of the pillow, I pinched one side shut and just let the finished edges of the rug hang out. I think it add a little decorative touch and the texture of the rug hides my stitches pretty well.
I stuffed the pillow using some regular ol’ fibre fill from the craft store and sewed the other end shut the same way that I did with the first one.
Voila! Pillow!
Such a fun little project. 🙂
Let me know if you try this one out as well! I’d love to hear where you found your rugs and how your pillow turned out!
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- Ten Thrift Store Home Decor Finds That You Should Never Pass Up
- More Recent Amazon Home Decor Finds
- Furniture Update: Old-Fashioned Hutch to Modern Buffet
- 5 Ways to Upgrade a Bathroom on a Budget
- The Creek Line House Easy-Peasy Decorating Archives
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.