Homemade rugs add style without the expense

If you’re bored with your floors and hankering for a unique look without the price tag, check out these seven do-it-yourself projects for inspiration.

Stephanie Herbert of the DIY blog A Scoop of Sherbert created this contemporary area rug for under $30! While she scored all her carpet squares on Craigslist, she shares tips on how to find your own. Once you've collected your squares, lay them out until you find the perfect pattern, cutting squares to size with scissors or a carpet blade. Connect the carpets together on the undersides using QuickSeam carpet seaming tape. 

You might see similar-looking rugs in fancy catalogs, but this stunner is an $18 indoor-outdoor rug from a hardware store decorated with a stencil and acrylic craft paints. In her blog on inexpensive DIY projects, Erin Spain shares a key tip: Mix your acrylic paint with a fabric medium (you can buy both at a craft store). You may have to experiment to find the best way to apply the paint. Erin used a stencil brush to apply very light layers. Too much paint at one time will ooze and spread beyond the stencil.

This rug involves a little sewing, but the result is a statement piece that you can throw in the washing machine! The rug backing is actually a hardware store drop cloth. For the top, choose a wide, heavyweight cloth with the pattern you desire. Paige Pederzani of the blog Very Paige found her patterned cloth at IKEA. She recommends prewashing the cloth so that subsequent washings don’t cause shrinkage and mess up your finished piece. Attach the patterned cloth to the drop cloth thoroughly with tacky glue spray. Bind the edges with a sewing machine.

To make this adorable rug, you need only the simplest materials: wool yarn, scissors, a couple toilet paper rolls and a nonstick rug mat. The only major requirement is time. Liz Stanley of the lifestyle site Say Yes provides a tutorial on how to make the individual pom-poms, which involves wrapping yarn around the rolls, knotting and snipping with scissors. Once you’ve made all your pom-poms, you simply tie them to the rug mat.

This no-sew project from Expression Fiber Arts was made from 7.5 pounds of merino wool roving, which is a specialized type of yarn. Merino wool is expensive, and store owner Chandi suggests using cheaper materials such as Corriedale wool, blue-faced Leicester wool, cotton or bamboo if you want to spend less money. To go really cheap, cut out strips of fabric. In her tutorial, Chandi provides specific crochet instructions for creating this homey rug.

To make this nifty bath mat, you’ll need 175 wine corks and a sharp knife. That’s because you’ll be slicing each cork in half lengthwise. If you’ve made it that far and your fingers are still intact, sand the flat sides of the corks and hot-glue them to a nonadhesive shelf liner. Monica Ewing of Crafty Nest provides an illustrated tutorial.

If you’ve always admired those British hedge labyrinths, now you can have you very own mini version right at your front door! Tape a pattern onto a shag carpet, then go at it with a set of electric hair clippers -- kind of like mowing a lawn. You’ll need to replace the blades when you’re done, but the project-building site Make says that’s a small price to pay for this unique piece of floor art.