Macrame-ish Plant Hangars, a DIY.

I know, I know, you see these plastered all over the interwebs these days, these DIY macrame plant hangars.  Or is it hanger with an e.  Either way.  Plants a' hangin'.

They're enjoying quite the renaissance lately too.  As I am myself a product of the seventies, Iiiiiii dunno if they ever went out of style.  To me anyway.

Rather than trendily create something retro-y vintage-y as I am not a trendy person and I encourage trend avoidance, this was more of a necessity for us.

Finn see, he's a jumper boy.  In the front window.

At first it was astonishing, seeing this giganto-dog hop his front feeties on up there.

One unbelievably large Finnster.

Then it became cute and we got a good chuckle.  But now, we let it go on too long and it's, well, kinda a problem.

One day I came home and a plant was on the floor.  Another day was a candle holder.  The straw that broke the camel's back?  Samson's water bowl.

Think us weird, it's ok, but when we brought Hailey's ashes home, the box went right to the window.  Watching, guarding, barking but mostly watching the world go by was one of Hailey's most favorite activities, keeping that busy alert brain of hers constantly working.  Unfortunately this window was just up out of reach enough that she couldn't see out for which we felt crummy.

We wanted her to finally be in the window.  So she's been there with one of her favorite toys, her leash, her collar, a tuft of fur.  Not long after, Mike brought Sam's ashes down along with his water bowl and a favorite toy.

Then one day we came home and the water bowl was shattered, a slew of pieces all over the floor.  Mike was so distraught.  It was heartbreaking for me to see.  After that it became a high priority to clear off the sill.

If one searches online, there are a bazillion and one ways to make these spiffy hangars and I can't say I did anything fancy or special or all too different.  Although, one I did improvise and somehow magically it's working.  As I've mentioned, knots are not one of my strong suits but practice can only help.  Right?  Right.

I have to say, the hardest part was finding the plant pots to begin with, budget-smartly, making sure I found good sizes sans holes in the bottom but mostly ones I liked, that passed my uber-picky muster and looked good together.  They came from TJ Maxx and HomeGoods so they were all shrewdly priced.

Before.  Big blank corner.  Plant on sill.  Hailey's ashes hiding behind plant.

A tip...using the 1/4" sisal* was the trickiest as the more I brought the pieces together, the thicker it got and the more, heh, unruly.  The clothesline* was way easier to manipulate, plus I had gotten two of them on sale for ninety five cents each.  Bargain!  They're cotton so if the white drives me batty, as it kinda does, I can always dye it.

I think it's more of the visual busy-ness, the multiple stringy-ness that's making me a smidge batty more than anything.  That and the newness of it.  It's a lot.  I had to forewarn Mike to which he responded, "ahh, I'm sure it's fine."  Then he came home and "ahh.....ahem."

Anywhoooo.....

See, I had typed a good portion of this up earlier and it was funny and entertaining and lively and then I goofed, accidentally deleting all the text, lost forever into the ether.  Rather frustrating even despite Mike's positive attitude ("that's ok babe, you get to make it better and funnier this time").  I'm struggling this week and it's not taking much to rattle my cage hence why funny, entertaining, and lively seem in a wee short supply here.

Right, ok, but anywhoooo again....

For the basket-y looking planter I found this clever tip to make a neat circle for the underside.

From there it was generally the same as something like these or this.  I found that I needed to keep the bowl somehow mixed within the strings to land knots in specific places -- it was rather perplexing and tangly.  Maybe I should have read lessons first!  But me, nope, I always jump in head first.  Doh.

Plus too, I see now those I linked to start from the top and work down.  I started from the bottom and went up.  Hence why my top knots are ehhhhhh a little less than elegant and they don't hang from rings.

Knots.  And hooks.

As the sisal one was trickier, and sisal is curlier and less forgiving than the clothesline, I opted not to mess with it too much.

I used some twine and tied it around the string pieces to give it a suggestion of visual interest and variety.

Hard to see here, but the twine is tied around just below that knot near the top.

The last one, my favorite one, I totally made up on the fly.  Since I kept the round drilled out plugs from the 1x6 of the wine racks, a little chin scratching, I desired a way to incorporate those as beads of sorts.

First I cut the fifty foot clothesline into five equal length pieces.  Nope, didn't come to ten feet either.  Weird, right?  Hmm...

I laid them out flat next to each other, together, placed the planter on it, threading a bead on each string.  Next I pulled the strings up around both sides flatly and tied a biiiig knot, leaving three beads on one side of the planter.

Of the longer length going up, I dropped two strings down, wrapped them around the perpendicular sides as additional planter support and knotted underneath.  Two of the three going all the way up have beads, a knot under each to keep them from sliding all kittywampus any which way, and then I single knot at the top to hang from.  Lastly I frayed the ends near the first knot above the plant itself, workin' that 70's vibe.

I won't lie, this one gave me fits and starts as I had trouble keeping the planter in there but eventually with adjustments, it's holding.  The price I pay for getting all sorts creative, huh?  Heh

A couple a' swivel ceiling hooks* and bam, plants hanging from ceiling out of Finn's reach.

Luckily for me, I ran into two ceiling joists to screw directly into.  Mike thinks I should move the middle one back into the corner further.  I think I need to move the basket bowl one.  Either way, patching and painting a ceiling hole is less than appealing currently, so we shall wait.

But there they are!  Macrame-ish plant hangars!

They're growing on me.  Ah ha, growing, pun...I'm such a dork.

*The sisal, clothesline, and swivel ceiling hooks are Amazon affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.