My Favorite Part of the Nursery

[still no baby, and I'm caught up with work, so here's another nursery post! Because I know you haven't had enough.]

 When starting the planning of the nursery's decor, I knew the walnut wall was where the crib was going to be, and it had have some fun personality and be the absolute focal point of the room. Of course I consulted Pinterest and mulled over lots of ideas, as one does any time you're planning something.  Or if you're just procrastinating.

Of course you already know what I settled on, and how it looks:

So while deep into research, I came across this pin, I knew it was exactly IT:

 original post here

I loved the boho feel of a macrame hanging and the texture it lent to the wall, but it was still clean and modern.  A perfect mixture of all the aspects I love of my house :)

So like any self-respecting crafter [and after pricing large pieces on etsy], I set about learning how to macrame.  I can knit, which means I can loop yarn together using sticks to make pretty things, so surely I can tie knots, right? [spoiler alert: I can.]  And I happened to have a library of how-to booklets from the 70s, courtesy of my Grandma Thiele:

A trip to Lowes secured the things I'd need to get it on the wall: a 4 foot dowel rod that's 1" diameter [$4] a couple of hooks to secure it to the wall on both ends, so it's not just hanging on one nail, willy nilly [$3].  A quick test in the store showed me that the 1" dowel fit just about perfectly in the hook, and then I figured with the thickness of the cording, it would fit nice and snug against the wall.
I settled on this clothesline for the cord.  I really wanted natural cotton, but in the weight I was looking for, it was still crazy expensive [and, honestly, hard to find online, which means impossible to find in stores where the Haus is].  But even though it's synthetic, it's not really shiny at all [which, anything plastic-y and shiny would have been a hard pass.]  Plus it's white, so it still straddles that line between boho 70's - the macrame - and modern - clean white.  Done!
It was hard to judge how much to buy, though.  I figured the hanging would be 4 feet wide by about 3 feet long [my goal, anyway], which is kind of a lot.  Each hank of clothesline was 200 feet, and that seemed like a fair amount, so I got two just to be sure.  Totally winged it.  [$18 each]

At home, I set about marking out evenly-spaces marks to tie the cords onto, and the amount of overhang I wanted on the sides:

Then, the worst part:  cutting all of the lengths of cord.  Oy.  I came up with 30 [I think] spots, spaced 1.5" apart.  And since I wanted the finished piece to be 3' long, I figured I would need about 6' to work with for the knots.  I doubled that [because you attach it to the rod doubled over and with a lark's head knot].  So I set about cutting 30 pieces of 12' long pieces. 

[as a seasoned knitter, I know that you do every. thing. you. can. to keep that shit from tangling, or your life becomes a tedious hell of untying wads of knots.  So, as I do with yarn, I kept them in tidy rolls so as to keep my sanity intact]

And then I tied them all on, on the lines!

I consulted my favorite of Grandma's booklets, this one from 1976, and studied some knots.

I decided just to keep it super simple, and just do basically one knot, just artfully arranged in a fun pattern.  The Left Square Knot was my winner.  I like all kinds of macrame, and something more involved would be super cool, but I just had a whole nursery to work on [and work was going to get crazy in September] so I just didn't feel like devoting the time to learning every single thing.  Plus, there are a ton of lovely macrame pieces on Pinterest that are simple and stunning.  So.  Off I went!

I securely screwed the hooks in the middle of the wall, and put the dowel in there to make sure everything was level.  These screws are super tight in dense walnut - I'm pretty sure I can hang on it, even in my super-pregnant, extra heavy, current state.

Tied on the pieces:

Decided it looked a little sparse, and added a couple extra, and smooshed them a little closer together:

And set about the knots, just starting on one end, working to the other:

[and once I got to the end, I had an extra cord that couldn't be tied to another, so off to the floor it went.  Trial and error.]

Then once I got going, it was just fun to tie some knots, stand back and decide what should come next, and tie more knots! Check out the fun gif of the process, and watch for Maltese cameos! 

[sorry if it's wonky - every time I decide to take a series to turn into a gif, I hit the stupid tripod]

After it was all done, ends secured with hot glue, everything trimmed to the same level, I decided it was too low; the tips of the strings were kissing the top of the crib.  So I re-drilled holes 6 inches higher, and it looks muuuch better [even though I hate putting unnecessary holes in my wood walls]

So after 400 feet of the cord, I only had scraps left.  No. Joke.  And some of the lengths at the bottom are shorter than others, because that line just plain ran out [and where it ran out, the cord stuck out, since it didn't have any weight to make it hang down.  Hence the hot glue.] 
So - start out with an obscene amount of cording if you want to macrame a wall hanging - it takes a shocking amount!

If this baby doesn't come soon, I may even post another DIY project I did for the nursery when I couldn't find what I wanted - the furry footstool :)