How to Make a Welcome Mat for Spring

Michigan is finally starting to experience warmer temps which has made it start to feel like spring! To get in the spirit for spring, I wanted to share how to make a welcome mat for spring. With simple and easy to find materials, you can make a customized doormat of your own that will have your front porch leveled up for warmer days.

I seem to purchase a new doormat to sit out on our front porch at the beginning of every new season. Anyone else like this? This new season, I began searching early for one. After searching around local stores, I just couldn’t find one that I necessarily loved for this year. And then I had an idea, which is when this project came to birth!

What better way to decorate our front porch exactly how we wanted than to make a door mat of our very own! I went to my local Walmart to find all of the materials that I needed. I can always count on Walmart to keep me in my budget, which is why I chose there to shop for these things!

Why Make a Welcome Mat?

You may be thinking to yourself, “Why would she go through all of this work making her own welcome mat when she could just keep searching stores or better yet purchase one online?”. Which to that I will say, yes you have a very great point! Why would I not?

Well, here’s my answer.

Because being able to have a part in creating this year’s spring decor exactly how I wanted is worth it to me.

There are plenty of welcome mats on the market for purchase. Some that come with a price tag and others that seem inexpensive. But there were none that I liked 100%. There would always be one part of the mat that I didn’t love. Whether that be the type of border that they put around it, the font they used, or the phrase they chose. When I decided to make one of my own, I could make it to be whatever and however I liked. I loved the idea of that.

So, I got to work.

Materials for Welcome Mat

+ Coir Mat – I purchased mine at my local Walmart in size 18″ x 30″

+ Black acrylic paint

+ Wooden letters for tracing – stencils also work well

+ Permanent marker (black)

+ Paint brushes – I used a small angle brush and a stenciling brush

+ Flex Seal (clear)

How to Start Planning

Before you even begin creating the mat, you’ll need to figure out what phrase you want to put on your mat. Here are some fun examples you could use on your welcome mat for spring:

+ “Welcome Spring”

+ “Spring Has Sprung”

+ “Hello Sunshine”

+ “Hop On In” (if you’re into bunnies this time of year)

+ “Welcome Peeps” (another fun one for Easter)

As you can see, I went with the phrase “Hey Spring” for my mat. I wanted something simple when I was planning this design because I knew that I would want to layer a mat underneath and I didn’t want it to look too busy. The options are endless however and go with the phrase that best matches your home and personality!

Step-By-Step Instructions

Now that you have all of your materials and you are set on a phrase, it’s time to start designing your mat.

First, you’ll want to lay out your stencils on your mat. Here you’ll want to play around with the letters a little bit. Some things to consider when deciding the layout of your letters is the spacing between each letter (they should be the same size between each letter) and whether or not you have decided to put a border around your phrase. If you decided to have a border, you’ll want to plan your letters accordingly.

Once you have the letters placed how you like, you’ll take your black permanent marker and begin tracing around each letter.

After you have all of the letters traced, take your angled paint brush and black acrylic paint and begin outlining the letters you have traced. It is optional to skip this step, however I found that when I did this I got crisp, clean letters.

Stenciling It In

After the letters are outlined using the angle brush, it’s time to begin filling them in. Next you’ll want to use the stenciling paint brush and black acrylic paint. Begin painting inside the letters that you have traced. Because you’re using a stenciling paint brush, you’ll want to use a dabbing motion with the brush instead of using strokes, like you would for the angled brush. This will make sure all of the letters are getting covered in paint properly!

Let your letters dry. I waited 3-5 hours to ensure mine were completely dry.

Then depending on how the letters look once dried, you may want to add another coat of acrylic paint. I made sure to use enough paint the first time so a second coat was not needed for my mat.

Making the Border

I knew that I wanted a border around my welcome mat. I used an old piece of scrap wood that we had laying around. It was the perfect straight edge to get the job done. You can use anything laying around your house that has a straight edge!

I placed the board along the edge of the mat and used the black permanent marker to trace along the edge of the board. I left about an inch of space between the edge of the mat and the edge of my border.

Finishing Your Welcome Mat

The last step that you’ll want to make sure that you do is prepare your mat so that it can withstand the outdoors. It would be so sad to put in all of this work and creativity only for your letters to be weathered away by the rain and wind.

I used Flex Seal in the color clear to protect my letters and border. When you spray your letters with Flex Seal, you’ll notice that it may change the darkness of your mat. Because of this, you’ll want to be sure to spray only over top of your letters and border.

Allow the Flex Seal to do its job and dry completely before using your mat.

The Final Product

Ta-da! Now you have a brand new welcome mat for spring that is completely customized to you and your style of your home! I love that it is completely customized by you and for you, which is the best part of it all!

My welcome mat is now sitting on my front porch for all to see. I decided to layer my mat with a layering rug underneath to add a little more fun to our new mat!

What do you all think?!

What phrase would you put on a welcome mat that would reflect your personality or home? I would love to hear in the comments below!

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