How to hang a rug on the wall

This post will show you how to hang a rug on the wall so you can display a favorite piece in a different way! It’s easy to hang a rug on the wall and use it for something practical. Here’s how!

We have very few carryovers from our old condo left two houses later. One random thing that has survived is a small rug.

We used to have this rug under our two person dining table in the condo to protect the carpet if anything dropped. When we moved to our old house, it was in our laundry room.

This rug is blue and white striped and starting to get worn, so it couldn’t be on the ground anymore. So, we decided to hang it on the wall in our new modern boho laundry room!

Be sure to check out our geometric countertop for folding laundry!

Let’s show you how we did it!

How we built a frame and hung a rug on the wall

This rug was too small to do anything major, but large enough to be a nice piece of art on the wall.

We knew that the laundry room was a great place for it, and we had a great way to solve a problem. Here is the before picture.

The builders of this house put a gigantic electrical panel in the center of the wall in the laundry room. Obviously this big grey metal box wasn’t going to work with our natural tones in the boho look. So we decided to use the rug to cover it up.

Check out how we hung a picture frame on hinges to cover the electrical panel in our condo!

How to measure for hanging a rug on the wall

There are a few options for how you can hang a rug on the wall. You can use clips, a rod or build a frame.

If you’re just hanging a rug as is, you don’t need to measure much. If you’re trying to build a frame, you need to measure how that will happen.

We were trying to cover an electrical panel, so we needed the rug size to be bigger than that. But the fringes of the rug also weren’t in the best shape.

It’s best to measure the size of the material you’re going to build for the frame and account for how much of the frame you want to show.

Building a wooden frame for a rug

The wooden frame we built to hang the rug on was very simple. We cut 1 1/2″ wide by 3/4″ thick strips of wood for the frame.

We wanted the rug to pop off the wall a bit, but not waste too much space.

After determining the width and height we needed for covering the electrical panel, we cut the strips needed and then nailed and glued them together at right angle joints.

Then, we cut four corner braces of wood the same thickness with 45 degree bevels on each end and nailed/glued them into the corners for stability.

Attaching the rug to the wooden frame for display

How to display the rug on the frame was as simple as some staples. We laid the rug out on the ground and centered the frame on it.

Going side by opposite side, we used a heavy duty staple gun to tack the rug onto the frame as tight as possible.

We started with the long sides, then went for the short sides before doing to the corners.

The corners were the trickiest part because there was so much fabric and there was some damage. So we worked it as best we could and cut off some excess.

Here are all of my favorite Large DIY Wall Decor Ideas!

How to hang a rug on the wall

Once the rug was stapled to the frame, we used nails into the wall the hang the frame on.

The entire thing is fairly light, so there was no need for anchors or special hanging hardware.

Plus, since this is covering the electrical panel, we needed it to be easy to remove so we could cut power whenever we needed to.

We absolutely love how hanging this rug on the wall turned out! It is a great way for us to display a large piece of art for a much lower cost than buying something.

Video tutorial of how to hang a rug on the wall

We made a video tutorial of how we hung the rug on the wall. The video will show you how to built the wooden frame, how we stapled the rug on, and how it looks after!

Other ways to hang a rug on the wall

Another way to hang a rug on the wall would be to use clips. You could use metal clips that are more industrial or wooden decorative clips.

You can also buy a rod that would hang the rug like a curtain.

Finally, if the rug is thick enough, you could always just add nails through the rug to hold it up.