How to Paint a Gingerbread House Doormat

Take a $10 doormat and turn it into the cutest one on the block! See how to paint a gingerbread house doormat…you don’t have to be an artist to do it either!!

Welcome to week 3 of our Homemade Gift Series. Make sure to visit Wendy from WMDesign House, Amy from Amy Sadler Designs, and Regina Saved From Salvage to see their beautiful ideas this week.

DIY Gingerbread House Doormat

You don’t have to be an artist to paint your own gingerbread doormat…I promise! It’s not that hard and most of it is painting straight lines.

This would also be the most adorable hostess gift for a holiday party! I would grab an inexpensive boot tray and wrap a ribbon around both the rug and tray. Or the doormat and a fresh greenery wreath wrapped together with a big bow…better than that bottle of wine and poinsettia!

Start off with a plain doormat. This one is $10 from Target but I’ve seen them at Lowe’s and Home Depot as well.

The Gingerbread Lane Mat from Ballard Designs inspired this rug. I pulled up the image on my iPad as a guide for drawing and painting my plain coir mat.

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Here is the inspiration rug for you to use:

Outline the Gingerbread Village

Before I started to paint the gingerbread rug I outlined the houses with white chalk using a ruler to help guide me…I’m left-handed and am notorious for crooked lines!!

Remember this doesn’t have to be perfect or look exactly like the inspiration rug…mine does not come out the same.

Paint the Gingerbread House Outlines

Once I had a rough outline of the gingerbread houses on the doormat with the white chalk it was time to paint. Using white acrylic paint and a straight paint brush I started to go over the chalk outlines.

The paint does not go on smoothly onto the coir mat and that’s OK! When you are looking closely at the rug when you are painting it may look sparse, you really have to stand back a few feet to check.

If you are like me you can keep a ruler close by to make straight lines with your paint!

The Ballard Designs picture helped give me ideas for how to draw the windows and doors. My rooftops were not as detailed as the inspiration picture…but that’s alright because (spoiler alert) it comes out adorable in the end!!!

Paint the Windows & Doors

After I let the paint dry on the outlines of the houses it was time to go back and add the doors and windows. This time I grabbed a small angled craft painting brush and a small tip brush to paint in the details.

All I did was try to vary the styles as I went across the rug and worked on each of the houses. Nothing needs to be perfect!!! When you are standing back it will look amazing!!!

Add Festive Details

Let the paint on the windows and doors dry for a few minutes before adding a few festive details. Using a small round paintbrush and dark green acrylic craft paint it was time to add a few Christmas trees, wreaths, and garlands to my gingerbread village doormat.

I’ll let you in on a little secret…this is where you can disguise any boo-boos you made when you were painting the doors and windows.

Then I added a few bows and berries with barn red acrylic paint. To paint the bows I basically made 2 round dots of red paint and added 2 lines underneath. When you stand back from the wreath they will look like bows.

As I worked my way across the rug I just tried to vary the details that I painted on each house.

But garlands and bushes disguise any crooked windows!!!!

Now let the paint set and dry completely before you try and move it.

Finished Doormat

Really, how cute is this??!! Overall it is a pretty easy project just remember that you don’t have to be the best artist in the world to do projects like this!! It is basically drawing lines and letting your imagination guide you.

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Handmade Gift Series

Welcome to week 3 of our Handmade Gift Series. Make sure to visit Wendy from WMDesign House, Amy from Amy Sadler Designs, and Regina Saved From Salvage to see their beautiful ideas this week.

WM Design House

This week Wendy from WM Design House made lavender sea salt homemade soap.

Amy Sadler Designs

Amy made the cutest felt Christmas coasters. What an adorable idea for a hostess gift this holiday season!!

Saved From Salvage

Regina will show you how to make keepsake ornaments this week. It’s such a clever idea for a homemade gift to give!

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Check out week 1 & week 2 of the handmade gift series