DIY Welcome Mat: Chewie, We’re Home

Happy Saturday, friends! (Aka Craft-urday at my house.)

First off, can you believe that Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters in less than two weeks?! Between running the Pittsburgh Half Marathon last weekend (stay tuned for a race weekend recap) and dwelling on Avengers: Infinity War (I can’t stop thinking about it!), Solo has definitely snuck up on me!

But even so, I’m always in a Star Wars mood. From Death Star pies to Star Wars gingerbread cookies, I love a fun Star Wars DIY or recipe. While I enjoyed the sun and nice weather today, I decided to decorate my own welcome mat and give my front door a spring makeover, Star Wars style.

Decorate Your Own Star Wars Welcome Mat

I’ve had my eye on a new welcome mat for some time, and I’ve always thought about decorating my own. Bryt from InLiterature.net recently shared a tutorial to make her own doormat, and today was the day that I finally decided tried to get crafty and make my own.

Since Solo is right around the corner, a Star Wars welcome mat seemed appropriate. And what better welcome phrase to include than “Chewie, We’re Home.”

What You Need:

• Plain coir rug
• Outdoor acrylic black paint
• Foam paint brush
• Cricut Explore Air II and cutting accessories (mat, weeder)
• Cricut Stencil Vinyl
• Chewie, We’re Home and Millennium Falcon png file (DOWNLOAD)

It was harder than I thought to find a plain coir rug! I ended up purchasing mine from IKEA. It’s roughly 23.5 inches wide by 15.5 inches tall.

Once you have your supplies collected and the welcome mat design DOWNLOADED, you’re ready to begin. Depending on the size of your coir mat and your Cricut mat, you may need to cut each word individually like I did.

To ensure I had the spacing I liked, I first cut out the pieces on extra paper to lay them out on my mat. For my mat, I cut out my words and Millennium Falcon at the following widths:

• Chewie – 11.5 inches wide
• We’re – 6 inches wide
• Home – 6.2 inches wide
• Millennium Falcon – 6 inches wide

This little scoundrel may have gotten a little “chewie” on my paper templates…

After confirming the size and spacing you’re after, it’s time to cut the items out on your Cricut Stencil Vinyl.  Because I only had a 12×12 mat, I decided to cut each word and shape out individually. (If you’re new to making stencils with vinyl, check out this article on how to use stencil vinyl from Create & Babble.)

Once I had my words and Falcon shape cut out and weeded, I laid out the vinyl stencil pieces on my coir mat and used masking tape to help secure the pieces in place. As you can imagine, vinyl does not love to stick to a coir mat, but fear not! Just do your best to cleanly smooth out each piece of stencil vinyl, taping down the corners to help the pieces stay in place. 

Once you’re ready to paint, pour your outdoor acrylic paint into a painting dish and get your sponge paint brush ready. Note- You may want to wear gloves while painting, as it is helpful to hold down the pieces of vinyl while you are painting to keep them in place.

Let me also add that as I was painting, I thought I might have to throw away my mat and start over! I felt like my stencils were moving and that there was no way I was going to have clean lines, but alas! Once I removed my stencils (post painting), I was pleasantly surprised to find that my design had clean, sharp edges!

Now, to paint your items, dip your sponge paint brush in the paint (you’ll want to have a good coating of paint on your sponge) and dab the sponge in the area you are trying to cover. Be careful to only dab up and down so that you do not accidentally move the pieces of stencil vinyl or accidentally push paint under the edges of the stencil.

Take your time painting. If needed, add a second coat of paint to get your desired color on your mat.

After painting over your entire stencil, let your mat dry. Once the paint is no longer wet (or earlier if you’re impatient like I am), slowly and carefully lift off your stencils. If needed, feel free to go back and clean up any edges or light spots with extra paint.

Welcome, smugglers and scoundrels of the galaxy.