Garden Hose Door Mat

For weeks I have been trying to throw out this very used and very leaky garden hose and the City garbage men refuse to take it! It’s annoying (the garbage men) but then I thought they must be sending me some type of message urging me to repurpose and reinvent this green coiled mess. Yea right.

Anyway, as you can see, I decided to transform the garbage misfit hose into a very useful door mat.

You’ll need:

  • A leaky garden hose.
  • A square dollar store door mat. I bought a square gray door mat for $1 at the local Christmas Tree Shop.
  • E-6000 adhesive at a craft or hardware store. I used three tubes of the stuff for this project.
  • Garden pruners (to cut the garden hose).
  • A strong scissors to cut down the mat.
  • Some heavy garden pots to use as weights to hold down the hose sections while the glue dries. Actually any heavy object will suffice.
  • .75″ x .94″ corks (to seal the cut ends of the hose lengths).

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Place the door mat on a flat surface.
  2. Using the garden pruners, cut a section of the hose so that it creates the outer half circle of the mat. Don’t worry if the ends of the hose hang over the mat…you can trim them off when you’ve finished gluing all of the sections onto the mat.
  3. Place a generous amount of glue on the hose then position it on the mat. Remember, you’re working with the outer half circle first.
  4. Position heavy pots on this first section to keep in place and let dry overnight.
  5. When the first section is dry, simply repeat with all of the remaining cut hose sections to fill in the half circle using heavy objects to hold the sections in place.
  6. When finished and all of the hose sections are dry, cut the ends with the pruners so that they are all the same length.
  7. Glue and insert corks into each of the ends to seal the openings.
  8. Finally, with a scissors cut the door mat base to the half-circle shape you’ve created.
  9. Done!

I feel really great about this project because I’m keeping crap out of the local landfills and this mat is super durable and easily cleaned by hosing it off….ironic isn’t it.  Thank you garbage dudes!

Happy crafting!

82 responses to “Garden Hose Door Mat

  1. Awesome idea for those old hoses! Thanks for always sharing the brand and type of adhesives and other materials, very helpful!

  2. Joshua Tree Tables

    This is an awesome idea and a great way to recycle! Thanks for sharing!

  3. Joshua Tree Tables

    Reblogged this on The Joshua Tree Table Company and commented:
    Great idea!

  4. Mark, this is such a brilliant idea. A must try!

  5. fantastic idea!

  6. Love this idea. Way to think outside of the box. Featuring you at Totally Green Crafts.

  7. Good job. Love this idea and garden hoses come in all kinds of color. I live in Mississippi and sooooooo miss the Christmas Tree Shops. The only thing we have that is close is Olde Tyme Pottery. not the same ;(

  8. Hey, this is a great idea! And I’ve got a leaky garden hose just waiting for the project! Thanks for the post.

    • Fantastic…and good luck! This project is so easy and the doormat is durable. I’ve been using mine for months and it’s holding up beautifully and easy to clean as well.

  9. I love this! What a cheeky project and I need a mat for the back door, unfortunately I just threw out the old garden hose! Very smart to cork the ends of the hose.

    I’m pinning this. I’ll be keeping my eye our for anyone trying to throw away a garden hose.

    You would be a perfect addition to our Eat Make Grow Blog hop. You are a crafty gardener! I hope you’ll submit this post!

    http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/2012/08/eat-make-grow-thursday-blog-hop-5.html

    • Good morning Foy and thank you for visiting my blog! I’d be delighted to submit my post and contribute to Eat Make Grow Blog Hop. Let me know what I need to do or what you need from me.

      Again, many thanks for visiting my site. Happy crafting and happy cooking!

  10. Very cool. Were you able then to repurpose the three adhesive tubes or did those just go to the landfill?
    Any ideas on how to keep those toxic things out of our earth are welcome!

  11. VERY unique! Thanks!

    May all your gardens grow,
    Jan

  12. love it…. thank you

  13. I wonder if you put it out in the trash if by chance the garbage persons would take it now? Betcha so. Home of course. Very neat idea.

  14. Wouldnt this be slippery? I would worry about someone with wet feet or it being stepped on after it rains and that person falling.

    • Hi Helena! Thanks for visiting my site! It’s very durable and is not slippery although I can see your concern. My door mat has been sitting by my back door for months through rain (and now snow). Haven’t slipped once 🙂

  15. Just what I’ve been looking for! I have two leaky hoses that I just can’t throw in the trash. I will have wonderful mats for all kinds of places. Thanks!

  16. stupid question. Where did you get the corks???

  17. Thanks for great idea, I linked it on my recycle-upcycle blog (http://freshtrash.blog.com/) hope you don’t mind! Feel free to stop by!

    Cheers!

  18. Magnificent goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you are just too fantastic.

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  20. Thank you for sharing …. I so excited to start this project.

  21. Great! Now I have to make one of these. I have a heap of hose that I pulled up from my pasture that I didn’t want throw out. Brilliant. Thanks for the details.

  22. Great idea, I am going to try and do a complete oval starting at the center and flattening as I coil. I hope it works as well as yours. Any other pointers?

    • I had the same idea. Doing an oval w/ no cutting except for getting rid of the metal ends. Also wonder if it would work with an air hose. Just threw one of those out a couple months ago…darn!

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  24. Did you cork the ends because you filled the hose pieces with water? kind of pricey for the glue amount/price for a recycled project.

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  26. Hi,

    you written a very nice and interesting blog, it will very helpful for me.

    door mats online

    • You are welcome and thank you for visiting my blog! I see you visited me through pepper fry.com. Please note that this project (Garden Hose Doormat) was conceived and created by me and I would be happy to work with you to under agreement to recreate this item for pepperfry for resale.

      I would appreciate it greatly that you not reproduce for resale without my written consent or agreement.

  27. Pingback: Two Ingenious Reuse Ideas for a Leaky Garden Hose | Earth911.com

  28. Is this slippery? It sure looks nice and I would love to have one like it out by our garden. Nice Job!

  29. did you find it costly that adhesive is not cheap? i like the idea though

    • Not really Jeanine – For me the value of recycling the leaky hose far outweigh the cost of the adhesive. And, the doormat is still looking fabulous and holding up beautifully!

      Thanks for visiting my blog!

      Mark

      • Unfortunately the toxicity of the E6000 far outweighs that of a hose sitting in a dump. It is said to cause cancer and is even banned in California. 😦
        I do love the look of the mat though so perhaps you can suggest a safer adhesive that could be used? Maybe even try wiring it together? 🙂

      • Hi Jennie: Agreed! The E6000 adhesive is harsh but I found the brand, Crafters Pick The Ultimate Glue. It’s a non-toxic, child-safe crafters super glue. I haven’t tried it yet but plan on giving it a whirl!

        Happy crafting!

        Mark

  30. Good post. It seems like a nice and fun way to recycle old garden hoses. Thanks for posting.

  31. I normally buy mats online at http://www.imagemats.com.au/
    I love this recycling idea. I have a lot of worn out hose tubes in my garage. I think this would save me a lot.

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  33. Do you remember how big the tubes of adhesive were?

  34. how long of a hose was used for this project?????

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  40. Thanks for this awesome Idea AND for making the page/instructions easy to print!!

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