Our house came with a kitchen that’s a bit of a cosmetic fixer-upper. It’s definitely isn’t the worst kitchen I’ve ever seen, and we’ve already made some upgrades, but the days of those poorly-stained dark wood cabinets are numbered. They desperately need a coat of paint, but until we get around to it, there are a lot of little ways to make the kitchen look nicer, like lots of greenery. The room came with little hooks in front of the kitchen sink window, and I suspect that they were used for some sort of window treatment, but I decided to use them for plants. When I came across these cute bowls on clearance at West Elm, I grabbed a few to make into planters.

Macrame Plant Hangers

Materials:
Paracord -I used 32 feet per planter of 550 nylon paracord, similar to this kind (which comes in a ton of great colors!)
Metal ring
Scissors
Measuring tape
Masking tape
Matches, lighter, and/or candle
Bowl
Plant
Soil
Pebbles

Steps:
Note: Before I trimmed the excess rope ends, the planter was 36 inches long, but the final length is about 27 inches. The following knot locations worked for my bowl, but you may need to adjust the distances between the knots for your particular bowl or pot. If you want to make your hanger longer, you’ll want to start with a few more feet of cord.

1. Cut 4 pieces of paracord, 8 feet long each. Cover the cut ends with masking tape so they won’t unravel.

2.Gather up the cords and find the center. Fold them in half, slip them through the metal ring, and then put the ends through the cord loop. This is a lark’s head knot.

3. For all of the decorative knots, I used a Josephine knot. This page has a really good diagram of how to do it. I colorized one of the ropes in the photos below to help you see how it’s done.  It looks complicated, but after you’ve done it a few times it becomes pretty fun and easy. It helps to practice with some scrap cord.

4. I tied a set of 4 knots 10 inches from the bottom of the ring between adjacent pieces of rope.

5. Now it’s time to swap partners. Tie another set of 4 knots, 5 inches below the first set, between adjacent pairs of rope.

6. Tie 4 more knots, 2.5 inches below the last set, then gather all of the cord and loosely knot it together with an overhand knot several inches below the last set of knots.

7. Put your bowl in the holder and test the fit. Adjust the location of the bottom knot if necessary.

8. Trim the bottom cords so that they’re even, then melt the ends by holding each one near a flame. Be careful, don’t burn yourself or set anything on fire!

9. Place a layer of pebbles in the bottom of your bowl, then plant your plant in it.

10. Hang up your new planter someplace where it’ll get plenty of light. Don’t forget to water it!