The Easiest DIY Checkerboard Rug Any Urban Outfitters Addict Will Love

Beginner-friendly tutorial for making a DIY checkerboard rug on a budget! No specialist tools are needed. Affiliate links in post.

Was this DIY rug easy, affordable and cute? Yes. Will I ever attempt to do it again? Probably not.

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the checkerboard rug tutorial that I am finally posting. If any of you follow me over on TikTok, you may have seen this months ago and to that I say . . . nothing really. Your girl is very much behind schedule.

(Although, that is a solid argument for you lovely people to head on over to my TikTok and follow me, k thankssss – @miasdiyprojects)

Back to the rug, though. As many crafting enthusiasts are, I am obsessed with the craft blog Collective Gen. She’s always making the most stunning creations and giving my Amazon Prime subscription a workout. (Well, you have to use it for it to be cost-effective right?)

Back in March, Collective Gen posted a tutorial on making custom rugs . . . and I simply had to recreate it myself!

Now, I’ll tell you guys the truth: this was not my favourite craft. I 100% recommend recreating it at home for a stylish and budget-friendly statement rug. It’s worth the time investment for sure. But my ADHD brain just did not enjoy having to spend a weekend cutting two big rugs into squares. Way too repetitive for my tastes.

That said, it is one of the easiest crafts to follow along with at home – and you can’t really go wrong! (Unless you do, but that’s on you boo.) Plus, if you’re someone who can pop on a few movies and sit and cut squares for a few hours, you’ll be fine.

Honestly, I think the final version of this rug is a whole ass vibe. The colour palette is neutral enough to suit most decor schemes but you could really jazz it up! A pastel yellow and sage combination would be super cute.

What You Need:

• 2 x soft rugs in your chosen colours. (These rugs are $20.99 from Amazon)
• Carpet seaming tape
• A non-slip rug mat
• Xacto knife

How To Make:

Check out my TikTok tutorial below – the written how-to is below:

@miasdiyprojects

diy checkerboard rug🌻 thanks @genevavanderzeil for the inspo! #diyproject #diyrug

♬ Hip Hop with impressive piano sound(793766) – Dusty Sky

1. Decide how large you want your checkerboard squares to be and cut a piece of cardboard down to size.
2. Working on the bottom/foam side, use an xacto knife to cut your rugs into squares. Use the cardboard as a guide to help! Make sure that you’re doing this on a covered surface. While you do this, seperate the edges and corner pieces for easy access later. (You can try doing this with sharp fabric scissors but I had no luck.)
3. This is the fun part! Line your squares up in a checkerboard pattern, foam/bottom side up, and tape them together. Align the edge pieces and corners to create a more finished look.
4. Place a non-slip mat under the rug and you’re done!

See – it’s definitely not a difficult craft, just a little time-intensive! If you’re in the northern hemisphere and the weather’s starting to cool down, this could be a great weekend project though.

Some styling ideas:

Now, if I were endlessly rich and I hadn’t left the rug in Canada, here are some of the home decor pieces I would love to style it with.

Alright, my friends, we shall end at the end! I hope you guys enjoyed this craft. Would you try this yourself? What colour combination would you pick? Let me know your thoughts below!