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When I was pregnant with my daughter, I really wanted a large scale macrame-style wall hanging for over her crib. As it turns out, they can be extremely expensive! So I did some inspirational research on Pinterest and decided I could totally make my own for way cheaper. I am frugal AF and very crafty, so making my own DIY wall hanging is absolutely something I would tackle at 9 months pregnant.
The supplies
The wall this hanging was planned for is floor to ceiling black wainscotting. With this in mind, I chose a very neutral palette of creams and greys. I wanted it to stand out and add lots of texture without being totally distracting. Plus I’m allergic to color🙃. A variety of yarn styles would really spice it up and keep the visual interest going. (I found all of the yarn here and here)
I bought a 1″ diameter dowel at Home Depot and cut it to 48″. Then I lightly sanded it so there were no rough spots for the yarn to get caught on.
The yarn was the tricky part. I had no idea how much I would need since I was making this up as I went. Based on the scale I was aiming for I picked 6-7 different yarns and bought 2-3 skeins of several of them. A few of the yarns I knew would only be used as pops, so I didn’t need a lot. Others would be featured heavily so I stocked up on them. I figured I’d rather have too much and return any unused skeins than have to make multiple trips back.
The process
First I made a loose template of how I wanted the yarn to drape. I cut lengths and tied them to the dowel to visualize how long I would need the sections to be. This also gave me a good idea of how many I would want to make.
From the beginning of this project I knew I wanted the outside loop to be fringe. I didn’t want to guess the length of it, so I figured I’d just make everything else fit inside it. I played around with how long I wanted each fringe to be and once I landed on the size I liked I just started cutting. Then I found a good show on TV and kind of went on autopilot. Every 100 or so, I’d loop them on to the string of yarn to gauge how many more I’d need. I used a solid cream color yarn and a gold tinsel wrapped yarn and alternated them throughout the fringe. The two skeins were the same brand, so the creams matched up quite well. This made the gold tinsel a sneaky little detail that was a fun surprise when you paid attention.
The other loops of yarn were just variations of braids and friendship bracelet knots I remembered from when I was a kid. I would start each loop on the dowel itself to give me an anchor point. This would leave only one end of each loop to worry about attaching.
To make the loops bulkier, I used multiple strands of yarn per design. This allowed me to be a little more creative with some of the techniques I did. It also let me mix and match some of the different skeins together to make more unique braids.
The rope (bottom loop in the photo above) was a fun addition. I laid out my loops to see what the spacing looked like and realized I had to make some fillers. I decided to try the rope style on a whim and ended up loving it! To make it, I took several different long strands of yarn and would literally just twirl one around the bundle. Every so often I’d switch to a different strand and keep twirling. To keep it looking *random* I’d try to mix up the block lengths. It reminds me of when you went on a tropical vacation and would get the colorful little yarn extension in your hair with the beads at the bottom!
Now that all my loops were done, I had to secure them to the dowel! The easiest way to do this was to take matching yarn and wrap/knot it tightly around the ends. This ended up adding a nice detail to my DIY wall hanging that I hadn’t planned for.
And at the very last minute I added an extra weaving detail. When I laid it out flat, all the loops lined up nicely. Unfortunately, once I hung it there was suddenly a weird little gap between 2 loops. I took a single piece of yarn and weaved it through a braid as a loose spiral. Again – totally unplanned but very happy accident!
The result
All in all I am SO happy with how this turned out! It came out infinitely better than I pictured in my head and wasn’t difficult at all. It took a while to complete, but I was able to do all the braiding/weaving while watching TV so it was actually quite pleasant. The only downside is now I want like 5 more!
Finished dimensions: 48″x27″
For less than $100 and a few nights of TV, I was able to make a beautiful DIY wall hanging for my daughter’s nursery. Is this something you’d make for your home? Let me know in the comments!
