DIY Wall Hanging

I found an amazing vintage wall hanging at the thrift store and was shattered when I found out it was already sold. Not only that but it sold for $80! Come to find out in the world of vintage wall hangings this was a steal of a deal, they usually retail for anywhere from $300 to $1500. I knew my odds of finding another one while thrifting were slim and I definitely didn’t have the budget to buy one form a shop so I decided to make one myself with items I already had at home plus about $30 worth of yarn.

Not pictured is the large stick I collected from my neighborhood walk which everything is attached to in order to hang on the wall. You could also use a wooden dowel or a curtain rod.

I found a rug with interesting texture and fringe on the end as the base for the whole thing. I chose this pillow to incorporate because it has a great shape. A blanket (originally from target) that was made of long strands of yarn (huge bonus because it cut down on cost of yarn and time cutting all the long strands), about 8 rolls of yarn and a grass skirt to add some different texture.

You can easily thrift most of these items or may have things laying around your house. I suggest looking for items that already have lots of yarn, tassels, pre-existing woven shapes and using a rug that has fringe on the end makes it easy to tie on the stick.

That takes us to the first step. I attached the rug by tying the fringe around the stick and then wrapped the stick with yarn to hide the fringe.

I used a needle and thread to hand sew the pillow onto the rug. The fringe on the sides was taken from the blanket that I deconstructed and tied around the stick using a larks head knot.

The next step was creating these tassels with the rust orange yarn which I attached with a needle and thread. I wrapped the yarn about 25 times around a book that measures 10” and there are 15 tassels.

I knotted up small bunches of yarn and sewed them on by hand around the rest of the circle to really accentuate the shape.

Detail of knots.

At this point I adjusted the fringe on the sides and added some longer pieces to make it wider. The grass skirt was directly sewn on with needle and thread. The mustard yarn on the side is more tassels sewn onto the rug. I wrapped the yarn 25 times around our pink coffee table which measures 3’ and there are 6 tassels.

The last thing I added was, yep, more tassels made from the dark brown yarn. I wrapped the yarn about 40 times around a book that measures 12” to make these big tassels and there are 14 of them.

Layers and more layers make it interesting.

Here’s how it’s attached to the wall. In a normal home your walls won’t be crumbling away like ours. You should be able to put a plug or wall anchor in the wall for additional support.

That’s it! The whole process took about two days and cost around $30 since I had a lot of the items on hand. Well worth it and now I have an original piece with meaning. Good luck!