Zebra Rug DIY

I picked up quite a few souvenirs on our trip to South Africa, which is not the norm for me.  I was excited about having a place to decorate (my boyfriend and I signed the lease on our house the week before we left) and I genuinely loved the style of the items we bought.  You can see some of them in this post (wooden masks, original artwork).  One thing I was lusting for but wasn't able to purchase was a zebra hide rug.  I saw quite a few for sale but there was no extra room in my luggage and I didn't want to spend extra money to ship it home.  (I was also unsure how to declare it and didn't want to deal with any trouble from customs.)  When we got back I started shopping on eBay and Craigslist for zebra rugs.  I found some reasonably priced options but decided to save some money and try a DIY version.

I found this cowhide rug on Craigslist for $60.  (It was listed for $80 but I put my negotiation skills to work!  Boom!)  Lucky for me there were a TON for sale in my area as these things are standard Texan decor.

I used a couple different sizes of paint brushes and black acrylic paint to give it stripes aaaaaand saved myself about $140!  The whole project took about four or five hours.  So far the paint has held up nicely but if it starts to wear off I'll just give her another coat.  You could use a fun color if you prefer, or even a metallic!  I'm loving this rug in gold.

 Right now West Elm has some really great South African-inspired wares.  You can check them out here: http://www.westelm.com/pages/south-africa/.