I recently took up rug tufting, and it's not only a fun hobby, but the finished product also makes for surprisingly good wall decor

After I tufted a rug in a class, I didn't really want to step on it. It ended up becoming one of my favorite wall pieces.

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I recently tried my hand at rug tufting.
It's a fun and easy hobby, but if you're like me, you might not want to step on your finished art.
Instead, I hung mine on the wall and it makes a great alternative to picture frames.

If there's one thing my fairly small apartment has plenty of, it's picture frames. Our living room has one of those trendy gallery walls, which I still love, but I also had to face the hard fact that not every wall in your home can be a gallery wall, lest you want to live in visual chaos.

Still, our tiny nook of a home office, which faces away from the window, looked painfully bland without any art. It wasn't until I took a rug-tufting workshop at the Brooklyn-based studio Scattered Kind that I finally had a solution: using my newly made rug as wall art itself.

a desk setup showing a wall rug above a computer screen

Rug tufting became popular on TikTok (incidentally, how the friend I found the class in the first place). Having tried it, I think this is largely because despite how challenging it looks, it's actually a lot like using a vertical sewing machine and it doesn't take too long to feel comfortable — I was taking a pottery class around the same time and thought this was infinitely easier!

A tufted rug of clouds and a sunset on canvas

Aside from buying the materials (canvas, a rug tufting gun, yarn), it's a very beginner-friendly hobby with pretty much endless options for design and creativity. As such, the options for buying handmade tufted rugs online are equally varied, especially if you look on DIY-friendly sites like Etsy:

As to why you'd want to hang a rug on your wall, I can speak from personal experience in that it's a fun little textural feast for your eyes (and hands). It adds a little playfulness to your space and also protects your rug from the wear and tear of feet/boots/spilled red wine.

I have yet to try this, but for cleaning I assume that I can run my dustbuster over the rug to avoid any dust accumulation (which actually feels easier than wiping down dusty picture frames).

a home office showing a computer at a desk and wall art, including a rug hung on the wall

Hanging a piece that feels more unique (especially one I made myself) has been a nice way to put down my millionth framed photo in favor of something a little more dimensional.

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