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You can buy a Halloween doormat for about $20. But what you CAN'T buy is a Halloween doormat with a demented little dastardly demon on it. So we're gonna DIY it.

Coir doormat with demon printed on it, sole of running shoe with "help me" written on it seen walking through a door above.

As a general rule I am not a person who gravitates towards cute unless it's a baby animal or tiny food. Like a sandwich that could fit on the tip of your finger!

In life, this hasn't been much of a problem except for that time when I told my niece her baby looked like a Triceratops. We disagreed on whether or not this was a compliment.

Obviously when Halloween creeps up I lean in hard to the creep.

I've never had a Halloween doormat before. I'm not sure why but I assume it's because most of them have laughing, hat wearing spiders on them.

This year I decided to make my own appropriately creepy mat featuring a demon.

You may have less enthusiasm for terror inducing religious entities but the technique will work with whatever silhouette you choose for your doormat.

If you're not interested in making a Halloween doormat I've found 3 on Amazon that I think are pretty good. The black one with the skull is my favourite.

CROW DOORMAT

SKULL DOORMAT

BLACK CAT DOORMAT

MAKE YOUR OWN DOORMAT

Table of Contents

Materials

You're going to need:

A blank coir doormat
Spray paint
Cardboard
X-ACTO knife
a marker and some pins

Pick your image

Click here to download the demon image to print out for yourself.

Once you have your image print it out to the size you want and tape it onto a piece of cardboard.

Demon silhouette printed and cut out sitting on cardboard with pens.

Demon silhouette cutout taped to cardboard.

Try not to use a ton of tape because it'll get in the way of your drawing.

Making the stencil

Print your image and then cut it out.
Lay the cutout onto a piece of cardboard and trace around it with a black marker or pen. Fill in any spots you missed because of the tape.

Tracing outline of demon on cardboard with Sharpie.

Using an X-ACTO knife cut out the stencil.

Cutting out cardboard stencil with XACTO knife.

If your design has some thin little intricate bits clean those up with some scissors or the X-ACTO knife.

Rough edges of cardboard cutout stencil highlighted with a circle.

Once you're happy with the stencil put it on a blank coir mat. They cost about $15.

Securing the stencil

Cardboard DIY doormat stencil pinned to coir mat.

Pin or weigh the cardboard down paying close attention to the edges. Don't forget to include any loose pieces your design might have. For the demon there was the small piece that created his tail outline, and a veryyyy small piece within his hand on the right.

If you get good, close contact with the mat on those edges, your design will have much sharper lines. Which is good.

Paint it

Cardboard covering a coir doormat before spraying with paint.

Cover up the rest of your area (and mat) with cardboard so you don't spray paint everywhere.

Spraying coir mat with a cardboard stencil on it.

Spray a light coat of black paint. Hold the paint can directly over the stencil and spray straight down, not on an angle.

You can also use regular paint with a stiff, short bristled brush. If you're using regular paint, don't brush it on like you would a wall. Dab the paint on with repeated quick movements (like you're knocking on a door.)

First coat of spray paint on DIY doormat.

Repeat your first light coat with 2 more giving 10 minutes or so between coats.

Removing pins that were holding stencil on doormat.

Once you have good coverage and the paint is dry remove your pins or weights from the stencil.

Stencil sits beside finished product on black painted diy halloween doormat.

Lookin good. But some edges are sharper than others (the tail looks really sharp) and I lost the cloved feet. No problem. There's a fix.

Cleaning it up

Cleaning up a stencilled doormat with scissors.

If you have a bit of spill over or blurry edges you can clean them up with a fair of small sharp scissors. I used manicure scissors to cut out the cloven hooves again. You can see the difference when you compare the above photos.

It's done!

DIY demon Halloween doormat seen from above with 2 feet.

DIY demon Halloween doormat sits outside black painted front door.

You could go even further and protect the painted part of the mat with some type of clear coat, but this is only going to be out for a couple of weeks a year and I honestly think once certain people see it they'll just turn around and walk away.

So really not that many people will be stepping on it because they will be appropriately terrified of crossing my threshold.

DIY Halloween Doormat

Yield: 1 custom coir doormat

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Difficulty: Easy(ish)

Estimated Cost: $15

You won't save much money by making your own doormat but you WILL be able to adorn it with whatever image you want. Easily!

I have to say that I was really surprised at how well this worked.

A fluffy cat sits at a doorway threshold with Halloween doormat outside.

Not a single visitor in over a week.

→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←

Halloween Doormat DIY

Materials

Pick your image

Making the stencil

Securing the stencil

Paint it

Cleaning it up

DIY Halloween Doormat

More How to (Halloween)

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Materials

Pick your image

Making the stencil

Securing the stencil

Paint it

Cleaning it up

More How to (Halloween)

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