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DIY

Macramé Hanging Planters

September 15, 2014

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I’m so excited about my new hanging planters!

Before a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea what macramé was. I learned it’s a 13th-century form of weaving that was popularized in the 70’s and is making its way back into design trends. I saw a couple of macramé projects on my reader, and decided I’d give it a try. During the process, I realized I’d been doing Cavandoli macramé since I was little. Anyone ever make friendship bracelets? It’s basically the same thing! (Also, a fun fact: Wikipedia says macramé may be derived from a Turkish word!)

First, I purchased three small pots from Bauhaus and filled them with little stones for drainage:

I found these cute succulents at a flower shop in Kızılay:

Now for the macramé. Here are the basic steps. (For more detailed instructions, I followed this site and this site.) I used jute, but other people use nylon cord. Any kind of stringy stuff should work. Cut 8 strands, each about 5 feet long.

Knot the pieces together, but leave a couple of inches below your knot. That is the bottom of the planter. Separate the strings into 4 groups of 2 strands each:

Select one group. About half an inch from the big knot, tie the strings as though you were tying your shoe. Then make a second knot and tighten:

Repeat that step with the other 3 groups:

Choose a single strand and repeat the double knots with the adjacent strand from a different group:

Repeat until you have a second layer:

Then repeat to make one more layer. You can make these fancy with different kinds of knots, but I kept it pretty simple because my pots were so small. Once I put the succulents inside of the macramé hangers, I had to make a lot of adjustments to even out the knots.

To hang them, we mounted Command Hooks to the back side of the crown molding. Our crown molding sticks out from the wall about 5″ in front of the windows to make room for the curtain tracks. (No curtain rods here.)

Some leaves broke off of the during transport and planting, so I’m also trying my hand at propagating succulents. We’ll see how that goes!

DIY Frame Jewelry Holder

September 16, 2013

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Now that we’ve settled into the new place, I’ve been trying to add more decorations to make our apartment more of a home. One thing I wanted to make since last year was some kind of jewelry holder. I’d finally gotten tired enough of having everything lying on my dresser, so we stopped into Bauhaus in Cepa mall. (Bauhaus is kind of like a Lowe’s and Home Depot.)

I found the perfect supplies! Here’s what I used:

A piece of cork
A picture frame (that did not come with glass)
Screw hooks
Sewing pins
Command Picture Hanging Strips

First, I trimmed the cork with scissors so it fit inside the frame. My cheap-o frame didn’t come with glass, so it made it even easier to place the cork.

David was gone one evening, so I put on a movie and started screwing in the hooks. It was a lot harder than I thought it’d be. We have a mallet hammer, but when I hit too hard it warped the hooks. The frame was quite tough to hand drill into, and we don’t own many tools here. I finally managed to screw in all 7 hooks.

Only a few were warped:

Next, I attached the Command Picture Hanging Strips. All of the walls in our apartment are concrete. You cannot nail or even easily drill into concrete. I was quite pleased when I found these. Depending on the size and how many you use, they can hold up to 10 pounds.

They attach together kind of like velcro:

I followed the directions. You have to wait an hour after you attach the strips to the wall.

After I reattached the frame to the strips, I stuck some sewing pins into the cork. I’m sure you can find cute push pins in the States, but I all I could find in Turkey were bright plastic ones. So sewing pins it was:

I used the pins to hang my rings. Once I had the pins placed, it was time to load it up!

I didn’t bring a ton of jewelry with me overseas, but my new jewelry holder fits what I have perfectly:

I’m super happy with it! I might try to paint something on the cork later. I didn’t hang any earrings because I have a pretty bowl I use for those. If you wanted to, it would be super easy to attach a string across the top to hang dangly earrings.

The whole project cost around 25 TL, which is about $13 USD. The Command Strips were the most expensive piece of supplies. Hooray for craftiness!

Wood Pallet Art: Joshua 24:15

December 1, 2012

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We’ve added a few things to make our white-wall apartment feel more like home. (It’s amazing what a few light fixtures and house plants can do!)

I’ve seen a lot of cute DIY wood pallet decorations on Pinterest. Our friends found pallets at Bauhaus for only 10TL, so I got some paint and decided to give it a try.

First, I printed out Joshua 24:15 on paper. I laid the paper on top of the wood and traced it with a pencil. The pencil made an indent, which gave me lines to follow.

My original plan was to have two pallets – one with the verse in English, and the other with the same verse in Turkish. The project took a lot longer than expected, and I only finished the English one. I’ll eventually get around to finishing the other one…

It sat propped against a wall for several weeks. It’s difficult to get nails into the walls because they are concrete. David surprised me one day and hung it up and even added greenery and pinecones! Perfect for some holiday decor.

Joshua 24:15
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Yeşu 24:15
Ben ve ev halkım RAB’be kulluk edeceğiz.