I haven’t done a “repair this” for a while but this is something I’ve been wondering about for a few weeks now: how can I repair/revamp a stained rug?

It’s a circular cotton rug with off-white (even before the stains!) and pale blue strips, and even though it was pretty cheap, I love it. But it is stained and dirty now and it really needs a good clean and/or a revamp.

Since it’s cotton, it can probably handle some tough cleaning love – but it’s also about 2m/6-and-a-half feet in diameter and heavy and awkward to work with. It’s not going to fit in a sink or a washing machine – even cleaning it in a bath will be very awkward because it’s so big.

As for revamping it, since it’s cotton, I thought about the possibility of dyeing it – but again, that’ll be an awkward job, and also potentially a very, very messy one.

Any suggestions for how can I clean it? Or any advice for dyeing it or revamping it in another way?

A neighbour is throwing out some old seagrass mats. They’re about 6ft long (2m) by 4ft wide (120cm) but are water/mud damaged up the entire length of one side.

They’re a basic horizontal weave – like really, really big bamboo placemats – so are quite flexible if you roll them with the weave, but hard to roll against it (if that makes sense).

Any suggestions about what could be done with them?

(I’m calling it seagrass matting because that’s what it looks like to me – if I’m wrong though, please let me know what it is.)