Painting a sisal/coir carpet?

[Thurston Garden]

A few years back we thought it would be a fab idea to have a sisal/coir carpet fitted in the dining room. Very hard wearing and natural. Then we got a dog....and cat.

Of course, the carpet has numerous stains (from dirty paws/mouse carcasses etc and not pee or the, erm, other!) which won't come out, using various methods, including a professional carpet cleaner chappie. So... I bought a natural rug which fills most of the room but leaves a couple of feet of exposed, stained carpet around the edge of the room. I had wondered if I could paint something on this, a bit like you would a floorcloth to darken the sisal/coir down to a shade where the stains would be less noticeable. I have a big pot of water based wood stain in the shed and was going to have a wee try painting this on an offcut of the sisal carpet.

Has anyone ever done this, or anything similar? I bet there's a waterbased something or other that I could paint onto it....just not sure where to start!

I also fitted a second hand glass door on the dining room so I could keep the cat & dog in/out depending on the situation.

Ta!

[Annpan]

Don't know but I'd imagine, if you did, you'd need to water it down a bit more... to get a kind of a wash, rather than a 'paint' effect

[snapdragon]

if you paint it with a water based wash-proof emulsion you'd have a sort of knobbly lino - sounds kewl

[Thurston Garden]

Aye, I do think it will need to be watered down...it will go further that way too!

The carpet is quite knobbly or ridgey anyway, so the finish is not really as important as getting the paint to stick properly. More like a stain than a paint I think?