Rug tufting

December 2025

I had been following a rug tufting channel for a long time and loved the rugs the guy made, but they ran $1,100 and up, well out of my budget for a rug. So I figured, heck, I am crafty, why not see if I can do this myself?

What actually got me moving was a complete tufting kit on Facebook Marketplace. It had everything I needed, and I figured I could sell it for the same amount when I was done.

Sandtrap

That is the name I gave the rug. I drew it up on my computer to read like a golf course, layers of green around a patch of sand, in the same colors as our house. Then a trip to Hobby Lobby and Joann's for a wool-blend yarn in the colors I wanted.

Frame, cloth, and design

Built the frame, strung up the cloth, projected the design onto it, and traced it with a Sharpie.

Wooden tufting frame standing in the garage

Design outline drawn on the cloth in Sharpie

Tufting

A couple of practice corners to get a feel for the gun and how it works, then I outlined the design in one color and filled it in.

First tufted outline in green on the cloth

All green layers tufted, center still empty

Backing and cutting

With the design tufted onto the cloth, I glued the back: hot glue at the corners and folded edges to hold everything in place, then flooring glue for the backing. I used a rubberized non-slip backing, even though the rug ended up on the wall. Then I cut it out.

Back of the tufted rug showing the yarn loops

Carving

The hardest part by far was the carving: cutting into the pile to define the edges between layers and give the rug depth. I wanted rounded edges between the areas, and that took longer than everything else combined.

The result

For a first rug, some areas came out very dense and others had a little less rug than I would have liked. Doing it over I would make a few different decisions, but I love it, and it is a good piece of art for the house.