This soft, scrumptiously squishy DIY pom pom rug takes very few skills to create and is a great way to use up a bunch of scrap yarn!
This DIY pom pom rug is like the best gift you could ever give your home. Seriously. Your home is there for you everyday, having walls and a roof and heat. The least you can do is gift it an epically squishy, texture-tastic rug for the floor.
And let’s just admit that a handmade pom pom rug is just as much a gift for your feet and eyes as it is for your floors.
Really, this rug brings me joy every single time I look at it.
And the kids love it too. They roll around on its fluffiness and stroke the strands of the pom poms.
I wish you could reach through the screen and pet it because it’s just ridiculously soft and bouncy. It’s like part sheepskin, part sweater and part Lady Gaga costume.
I first came across a tutorial about how to make a pom pom rug on Say Yes and I knew immediately that Quinn’s room would need this furry amoeba.
And the icing on the wooly cake is that I didn’t have to buy a single thing to make this pom pom rug. I had a rug pad from several moves ago and I used up several skeins of white, cream and oatmeal-colored yarn from my stash.
(This rug turned out to be that 1 in 100 time where you can justify all the stuff you’ve been hoarding for years “in case you need it for a project some day.” I needed it! And thus will now have ammunition to justify hoarding another 10 years of craft supplies.)
DIY Pom Pom Rug Supplies
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• yarn (Try to use different textures and thicknesses to add more variety to your rug, especially if your color scheme is fairly monochromatic like mine. Try this one, or this one or this one.)
• rug pad
• toilet paper tubes
• sharp scissors (These are my fav!)
How to make a pom pom rug
1. Cut your rug pad into the size and shape you’d like your rug to be. Mine is an oval.
2. Make a boatload of pom poms. (Check out my full pom pom tutorial!) Make sure that you leave the “tails” of the yarn you’re tying around the pom pom yarn pretty long. These tails are what you’ll use to tie the pom poms to the rug pad.
3. Lay your pom poms out on the floor and admire how cool they’ll look together.
4. Make even more pom poms. Lay them out and admire some more.
5. When you’re starting to get close to having enough to cover your rug pad, begin tying them on using the “tails” from creating the pom poms. I knew I wanted a really dense rug, so I placed them fairly close together. Once you’ve tied some on, you can always go back and fill in any gaps if it’s not fluffing to your liking.
6. Make some more pom poms. I’m just kidding. Kind of. You will probably find though that once the pom poms are all tied to your rug mat, there’s going to be areas you want to fill in a little bit.
7. Trim off any wildly stray strands from your pom poms. And if you’d like, trim the tails on the backside of the rug. I didn’t.
8. Sink your feet, hands, heck even your elbow, into the heavenly bliss that is a pom pom rug.
9. What room in your house could use a little pom pom floor party? I hope you enjoy your rug as much as I love ours.
If you’re looking for other modern DIY home decor ideas to deck out your space, you might like:
How To Make a Hexagon Shelf From Popsicle Sticks
15 Minute Floating Box Shelves from Cigar Boxes How to Recover a Glider Chair
DIY Modern Bunny Shelf (perfect for a baby’s nursery!)
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This is such a cute rug! Love your idea, it looks so soft and plush. Complimets for your skills, and pictures!
I wish you could reach through the screen and squish it, Nicoletta. It IS plush! I’d make a pom pom pillow topper for my bed if I had the patience 😉
Hi, I’m loving this however I have a problem I hope you can help me with, no matter what yarn I use or how many times I wrap it around it’s never fluffy, just saggy & a flop, any idea what I’m doing wrong.
Thank you. X
Hey Amanda,
I think you probably just need more overall strands of yarn per pom pom. So whether you’re using a pom pom maker or a cardboard tube, I’d just wrap more yarn around before cutting it to make the pom pom. 🙂
Jess
hey [email protected] there is a video on youtube for this, it is called the secret to a perfect pom pom, hope i could help
Such a cute idea 🙂
Thanks Emma! I really had fun making it.
Happy crafting!
Jess
Wow Jess! Your rug is too pretty! Well done 🙂
Thanks Aga! I love it. It’s almost the kind of thing I don’t want anyone to step on, but I try to remind myself that I can alway just make another one 🙂
Happy crafting!
Jess
Haha so true!! I would probably hang it on the wall to be sure ! :”)
Ah!! This is so cute and fluffy! I just want to stick my toes in it – is that weird?
Ha. No, I don’t think that’s weird at all, because it feels AWESOME when you do! And you’re reminding me of my favorite pickup lines–“I’d like to run barefoot through your hair.” My friends and I used to dare each other to say it to guys in college 🙂 Now I just want to run barefoot through big fluffy piles of yarn…
How many dfferent size pom poms sizes did you use?
Thanks!
Good question, Kim. I kind of made them randomly, but I used the same piece of cardboard for most of them. I think they look slightly different because of the different weights of yarn. This is a super forgiving project so just experiment a little bit 🙂
I think you’ll love the final product. I do!
Jess
hi Jess. can you tell me about your scissors please? the link you posted isnt working and ive spent hrs searching online. google is not my friend right now.
Hey Carolyn,
I’m so sorry about that. These are the scissors. (Affiliate link)
Happy cutting!
Jess
I’m sorry Jess,I should’ve been more specific. The scissors I meant were the ergonomic black ones.
Oh! I got them at IKEA for less than $5! I brought them probably about 7 months ago.
Hope that helps (and that they still have them so you can get some)!
Awesome! Thank you!
Are the pom-poms baby safe??thanks 🙂
Great question. I have found that as my daughter gets older, she’s able to pull some of the strands out of the pom poms, so I’ve needed to put it away for a while until she learns not to do that. Repeat Crafter Me has a great video tutorial on making pom poms with hot glue in the middle, which I think would solve the problem.
Hope that helps!
Jess
Is this rug washable?
Hey Hannah,
Unfortunately, I don’t think it would fair well in the washer. I think the pom poms might look a little ragged and droopy after the spin cycle.
Hope that helps.
Jess
WOW! This is so cute!
Thanks a lot for your tutorial.
My pleasure 🙂
Hi Jess, I’m thinking of making this for my kid niece and nephew. I unfortunately have no idea how much yarn to order. Approximately how many spools did you use and what were the lengths of the spools? Also, what size was your rug? Any help on this would be great!
Hi Jess, I’m thinking of making this for my kid niece and nephew. I unfortunately have no idea how much yarn to order. Approximately how many spools did you use and what were the lengths of the spools? Also, what size was your rug? Any help on this would be great!
Hey Ayushi!
Man, I wish I had a simple answer to this. My rug is about 20″ in diameter. The thing is, the amount of yarn you need is very dependent on how thick it is, how fluffy you make your pom poms and then how closely together you tie them onto the rug pad. The great thing is that you can use inexpensive yarn for this because you don’t need anything fancy, so if I were you, I might order a little extra. If I had to guess, I’d say you could get by with 1-2 skeins of thinner (worsted weight yarn) and 3 skeins of chunky yarn to make one rug and you’d probably have some yarn left over. Again, this is just a really rough guess because I used a bunch of yarn from my stash.
Hope that’s slightly helpful! 🙂
Jess
I am going to make this! i love this idea.
p.s what is the cardboard tubes used for?
Yay! We love our rug around here. The tubes are just for wrapping the yarn around to make the pom poms.
I wonder: If I used some sort of glue while making the pom poms–like gluing them together in the center, or something like that–then maybe washing this rug would be OK. It might come out with more of a felted look. What do you think?
Hey Lyone,
Yes, I think glue might help! I saw Repeat Crafter Me do a video once about how she hot glues the middle of pom poms so they can’t come apart. Something like that could be perfect. I think if you avoided 100% wool yarn, you could wash it on cool and delicate without felting issues.
Thanks for the great idea on the glue!
Jess
question!?!? right now I am in the process of making a pom pom rug for my son’s nursery. so far I have approximately 20 pom poms made. I just layed them out on the floor to get a rough idea of what the rug will look like but when I stepped on it the knots from where u tied the pom poms dug into my feet. I thought by the look of the rug from photos that it would be soft and comfortable for my son but it was not at all. so what I am wondering is if I am doing something work or if that is what it is actually supposed to feel like? thanks!
Hey Lili,
I’d def classify ours as soft and comfortable. When I step on it, I do feel a little budge from the densest area of the pop pop middle, but it’s not bad. I’m guessing that once your pom poms are tied onto the rug and there are more of them to add poofy-ness all around, it will be less noticeable.
My kids love our rug!
Jess
Hey Jess,
I LOVE your rug – it is absolutely stunning! Those pops of gold and pink make me so happy 🙂
I’m curious to know how it’s holding up now it has been in use for a few months? Have you had to clean it at all? And are the poms as fluffy still? Have you had much loss of strands?
I can’t wait to make my own!
Thanks 🙂
Ali
Hey Ali!
I am happy to say the pom poms are still very fluffy. I haven’t tried to clean it yet, but it stays pretty clean because we don’t wear shoes in our house. The thing I have found though is that my baby daughter loves to pull strands out of the pom poms. Ha. So, I think there would be very minimal yarn loss with regular use, but even with her picking at it whenever she gets the chance, the pom poms have remained pretty full.
I’d love to see a pic if you make a rug of your own!
Jess
This is a wonderful idea for a rug in a college dorm. I think if you make sure the yarn is machine washable and you wash and dry the matting first- it should survive cleaning!
I am inspired! I am going to start on mine today. i will post a pic once i am done. i am a little ambitious. going to see if i can make one for our din. the room is about 20×20 and is where we spend most of our time. i think we would love this. thank you for sharing!!!
Oooooh! Amazing! You must send a pic when you finish! I would LOVE to see a larger version! How squishy and wonderful.
hi, love the rig, just wondering how it has held up over time? did the pom’s squish/flatten much?
Great question, Ciel! My pom poms have stayed really quite fluffy. The biggest issue for me is that my toddler loves to pull strands out of the pom poms 🙂 Other than that though, it’s still looking really good. 🙂
Jess
Hey Jess! Such a beautiful rug! I’m happy to see that you still take the time to respond to posts even though this one has been up for a while.
If I used the hot glue technique to keep the poms together, do you think it would affect the comfortable squishiness of the rug?
Thanks!
Hmm. I’m not sure about that. I think you could try gluing a pom pom or two and just squish it between your fingers to see if you feel the glue. If it’s not too noticeable, I don’t think it will bother your feet. 🙂
Love this. I can’t click on your link for the rug mat. Where can i purchase this from?
Boo. I’m sorry the link didn’t work. Here’s a new link to a version on Amazon. (It’s an affiliate link.) At one point I know IKEA carried something similar as well, but I also think you might be able to buy rug pad like this at Target or Walmart.
Jess
I have not found a mat like this at all. I have only found the bath mats with the suction cups…..any suggestions? Or am i looking in the wrong places? I have been to target and walmart.feeling frustrated and ready to start
Hey Joanna,
Hmm. I believe I’ve seen them at Target before. Here’s one on Amazon that would work well. I’d search “rug pad” on a few sites like Target and Walmart and see if it seems like they have it in-store. Might save you some running around when you actually get there.
Good luck and happy pom pom making!
Jess
I love this pom pom rug craze! Alongside such a soft, plushy rug, I was wondering if I can make a plushy pillow to match with this similar technique? Any tips for how to go about this would be great! Thanks
Oh yes! I think that would be an awesome idea! I’d just cut a smaller square of rug pad and do the same thing I did here for the rug. Also, then you could crochet a back square for the pillow or create two sides of rug pad/pom poms and sew them together by hand.
Sounds like fun!
Jess
Can I sew them onto the rug backing and not tie them ? I’ve made about 100 pompoms and not left any longer yarn to tie !! ??
Hey Yaz,
Yes! I think you totally could. I’d just use a tapestry needle to thread the yarn through the pom poms and tie them onto the rug pad. Way to go on making 100 pom poms!!
Jess
Thanks jess ! Will give it a go xxx
I’d love to see a picture of your larger rug!! I’m thinking of making this for my daughter’s nursery but don’t know how many pompoms I need and if it’s too ambitious 😉
Hey Nina,
You could always get started with the pom poms and just stop whenever you’re feeling like it. In hindsight, I could have made my rug smaller and still had a great effect. Also, if you plan on making this, I’d recommend buying a pom pom maker from somewhere like Michael’s. They’re about $7 and they’ll speed things up!
Happy pom pom making!
Jess
Every time I get pregnant I buy three or four skeins of plush comfy yarn because “I’m going to make my baby a blankey”, but I never finish it. So now I have three gorgeous skeins of Bernat Blanket yarn… Maybe I’ll finish this progect lol! Thanks so much for sharing.
Haha, I can so relate to this, Amanda! Those pregnancy nesting hormones are intense aren’t they!? Sounds like a pom pom rug is definitely in order. 🙂
Hi,
Just wondering if the rug has any risk as a trip hazard for newly walking bubs or busy toddlers on-the-go? Would their little feet slip “in between” the pompoms if you understand what I mean?
Thanks
Megs
Hey Megs,
In my experience, everything is a trip hazard to newly-walking babies. 🙂 I do think it’s not the easiest thing to navigate for new walkers, but that’s probably exactly why they like it. It’s interested and a challenge and a different texture than everything else. During the phase when my daughter wanted to pull every strand of yarn out though, I simply used it as a cushion on the chair I nurse her on and it looked great there too. 🙂
Happy pom pom making!
Jess
Why do you need the toilet paper roles
Is it best to use acrylic or wool yarn or is it okay to mix and match?
You can totally mix and match! I like the variety of texture.