It's No Use Crying Over Spilled Latex Paint

Chris and I have been carefully painting the rooms of our house for almost a year with no incident. Not a drop on the carpet, no spills, no drips. Until one ill-fated evening when I was working on a project using bright red paint.

I was painting on a canvas drop cloth and being extra careful with the red paint. When I finished, I moved the drop cloth out of the way and found little puddles of red paint all over my beige carpet. Apparently canvas drop cloths are only good for making fabulous curtains, like these.

We did not have carpet cleaner on hand and this happened late in the evening, so after many tears, I googled what to do and came up with a solution using things I already had on hand.

Low and behold, the below method worked! The stains are just a slight tinge of pink, barely noticeable. I do not have a before picture for you but just imagine bright red, nickel size puddles of paint all over the middle of my living room. Basically, it felt like I was in an episode of Dexter. :(

Here's what I did to save my carpet:

**Tip: When you're blotting during each step, you're blotting until you are no longer making progress on the stain before moving on to the next step.

**I hastily combined several methods from the internet and I didn't write down any sources so if you feel like you own this cleaning method, please let me know and I'll give you credit.**