Like many others, I absolutely LOVE the look of macrame. I’m so glad it’s trendy again, and I really hope this trend stays for a long time! And while I really admire those who whip up magical looking macrame wall hangings and plant hangers, I really don’t have the attention span to do it myself. But I did need a quick solution to not having any more space for plants in our apartment, so I decided to make a budget friendly macrame-esque plant hanger myself, just using supplies from the local craft store.
This took about a half hour, was probably less than $5 in supplies, and I’m super happy with the result! If you’re obsessed with plants and need a plant hanger, I highly recommend making one of these. It would also make a really great homemade gift, just in time for the holidays!
SUPPLIES- ~20 yard spool of 5mm Cotton Rope (three strand cotton rope is ideal) I got mine from Michaels
- 2 skeins of Embroidery floss in the colour of your choice
- (optional) The plant/planter you’ll be using, to help decide spacing of knots/wrapping
- Scissors
- Wall or ceiling hook for hanging up the finished product
STEP 1: Measure and cut your desired length of cotton rope
Deciding how long you want your hanger to be might actually be the hardest part of this craft! Start by taking a look at where you plan to hang your plant, and use a measuring tape (if possible) to determine how far down from the ceiling (or wall) you want your plant to hang. I skipped this part and just measured the length of my arm and added about a foot extra in length, and then doubled it before cutting.
The length of the strand when folded in half, will roughly be the final length of your planter. Once you have your first length cut, you’re going to cut two more strands of the same length, totalling three strands. The final version of mine ended up being around 42 inches in length.
STEP 2: Tie the top and bottom knots
Take all three long strands, making sure they’re all aligned, and fold them in half. Then measure about two inches from the fold and tie a knot with all the strands. You may have to play around once you have the knot to make sure all of the strands are laying flat.
Then measure ~6 inches from the bottom and tie another knot with all the strands. Do the same thing as the first knot and make sure all of the strands are laying flat and looking pretty!
STEP 3: Attach and wrap the strands to make a base
Take two strands that are side-by-side, and measure up about 4 inches (or more (or less, depending on the size of your planter). Mine is quite narrow at the bottom, so I didn’t need the base to be too wide.
Take your embroidery floss skein and tie a knot around the two strands, leaving about an inch of extra floss at the end that you’ll tuck in later. Then, begin wrapping your floss around the two strands, applying the same amount of pressure each time you wrap it around. Once you have reached your desired amount of colour (or when the cotton rope seems to be held together well) wrap the floss around one more time and loop it through itself to tie a knot around the rope. Then tie a knot about half an inch down on the single strand and cut off the rest.
Then take something sharp (a knitting needle works well) and push the excess strands in between the wrapped cotton ropes to hide the end.
Continue the same process on the other two sets of strands, making sure that each wrapped section is the same length.
STEP 4: Create another 3 sets of wrappings just above where the top of your planter will be
For this step, it’s helpful to know which planter you’re using, and actually test out where you should put the next three wrappings to make sure the planter fits snugly. You could also make this set the same distance as the first set from the bottom knot, but I chose to make the strands between wrappings slightly longer.
Repeat the same wrapping process as above, and then hide the excess strands.
(OPTIONAL) STEP 5: Wrap just below the top knot
This part is personal preference, but I wanted to add a bit of contrast at the top of the plant hanger, so I wrapped about an inch of the ropes, and tucked the excess from the bottom up to hide the strands. It will be a lot more rope to wrap, so make sure you have enough embroidery floss left.
STEP 6: Cut and brush out the ends of the ropes
I really like the look of tassels, so I wanted the bottom of my hanger to look frayed. I started by unravelling the strands and brushing them out with an old comb, and then I cut off the excess strands to make sure they were even.
STEP 7: Put your plant in its new home and hang!
There are so many ways to hang these, but base it off of how much your hanger weighs once the plant is in it. You may need to find a stud in the ceiling if you’re using a hook. OR if you’re renting like me, you can use a handy command hook and just stick it to where the wall meets the ceiling.
Enjoy! Comment below with the colours you plan to use!
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