She Wanted a Rug on Her Concrete Front Steps, So She Painted One Instead
Concrete steps outside this orange house had become a mix of bare gray surfaces, old brick, and patched sections. Putting down an outdoor rug would have covered part of the landing, but it would not have done much for the risers or the mismatched concrete surrounding it.
DeeDee of Clover House took another route. She covered the steps in white paint, borrowed the orange already used on the house, and built a rug pattern across the concrete itself.
What starts with two painted stripes becomes more detailed as the project moves forward. Stenciled borders frame the center, while diamonds made with pieces of kitchen sponge fill the open white sections.
White Paint Covered the Concrete From Top to Bottom
Before paint, the entry had gray concrete across the landing and lower step, with brick showing on the upper riser. Added concrete sections at the sides made the different surfaces stand out even more.
Rather than trying to disguise each patch on its own, white paint gave the entire stair area one base color.
She Painted Over the Steps Before Adding the Rug
Paint went across the horizontal surfaces, front edges, brick, and concrete around the doorway. A brush helped work it into corners and the rough areas where the concrete meets the house.
She used exterior paint left by the previous homeowners, though she notes that paint made for concrete would be the better choice for the job.
One Color Made the Different Surfaces Read as One
Once covered in white, the brick riser and concrete steps no longer compete with each other. That blank base also created enough contrast for the orange pattern that came next.
The white paint had not had much time to cure before work on the rug design began, something DeeDee later said caused extra cleanup.
Painter’s Tape Marked Two Stripes Across Both Steps
Blue painter’s tape established two wide bands running from the doorway to the bottom edge. Each line continues across the top landing, turns down the riser, crosses the lower tread, then drops over the front.
Keeping those breaks aligned matters because the separate surfaces need to read as one continuous design when viewed from the front.
Orange Paint Connected the Steps to the House
Orange filled the spaces between the taped lines. Rather than introducing another color at the entrance, DeeDee used the same orange already covering the house exterior.
Once the tape came off, two orange bands framed a wide white center. At this point, the basic outline of the painted rug was there, but the center still had large empty areas.
Removing the Tape Revealed the First Part of the Pattern
Straight orange stripes now run from the door to the front of the bottom step. White remains on both sides and through the center, keeping the orange from taking over the small entry.
Rough concrete made the taped edges less precise in places, so white paint came back out for touch-ups.
Small Stencils Created a Border Inside the Orange Lines
Instead of adding another solid stripe, she used a small repeating stencil along the inside of the orange bands. The pattern follows the same route as the larger lines, including the change from tread to riser.
She found the stencil supplies at Dollar General and applied the paint with a small sponge brush, removing excess paint before pressing it through the stencil.
Stenciling Gave the White Center a Defined Edge
With the border finished, the white center starts to look separate from the rest of the painted concrete. Narrow orange marks create detail without filling the whole surface.
The uneven concrete leaves variation in the stencil marks, so the pattern does not have the flat, uniform finish of a printed outdoor rug.
Kitchen Sponges Became the Next Painting Tool
For the larger motif, DeeDee skipped another store-bought stencil. She cut inexpensive kitchen sponges into diamond shapes, dipped them into the same orange paint, blotted off the excess, then pressed them onto the white concrete.
The diamond was chosen to work with the home’s mid-century exterior, giving the center a geometric pattern that differs from the small border.
Diamonds Filled the Empty Center
Stamped diamonds spread across both levels rather than forming one dense block. Their placement leaves enough white between each mark for the orange shapes to remain distinct.
More diamond motifs appear across the riser, connecting the upper and lower sections when the steps are viewed from the driveway.
From the Front, the Concrete Reads Like a Patterned Rug
Finished steps carry the orange siding color down toward the ground, with solid stripes forming the sides of the faux rug and smaller motifs filling its center.
Nothing was laid over the concrete. Paint covers the patches, brick, tread, and riser while turning surfaces that once looked disconnected into one design. This isn’t the only way to fake a rug with paint. She painted a black-and-white runner across her concrete front steps, using narrow borders to make it look like fabric running down the stairs.
Would this fool you from the sidewalk, or can you tell right away that the “rug” is paint?
Image credits go to ourcloverhouse.