Braided Rope DIY Basket

As fall approaches, we start thinking about making our homes cozy and inviting. Though the air hasn’t quite cooled yet, I’m already thinking of how to make our home a place we want to be when the weather turns cooler. Rope baskets are always popular decor but I decided to make a rope DIY basket with a twist!

I thought it would be more texturally interesting to braid the rope before creating a basket and it turned out great. 

Supplies needed to make your own braided rope DIY basket:

• Macrame Cord
• Glue Gun/Glue Sticks
• Scissors
• Glue Gun Helper Set (Finger Caps – These items aren’t totally necessary but boy are they handy! They will save your fingers from glue gun burn.)
• Black Acrylic Paint and Paintbrush (optional)

Step 1. Start coiling the macrame rope around itself, adding a bit of hot glue every time you wrap halfway around the coil. Continue coiling until you have the size you want – this will be the base for your basket. Cut the cord and add a bit of glue to hold the end tight.

Step 2. Cut three lengths of 13.5 feet of rope (total of 40.5 feet). Because of the long length, it will be easier to braid the rope by tying or tacking the top of the braid to the wall. As you can see, I balled the rope lengths up to more easily braid.

Step 3. Use the glue gun to attach the braided rope to the base that you created.

Step 4. Wrap the braided rope around the coil and add small bits of hot glue continuously while you wrap, moving upwards to create the basket.Step 5. Wrap until you get the height you want, cut the braided rope and use the hot glue to tack the end pieces down.

You can stop there if you like the natural look. Though I do like the natural color of this cord, I wanted to pep the DIY basket up a bit with some color blocking. Step 6. I used a regular paint brush and applied a section of black acrylic paint. It would be too difficult to tape off so I just carefully applied the paint. I found it best to keep a generous helping of the paint on the brush because the rope soaks the paint up. I also made a mini DIY basket to hold some special handmade beads. I finished up by removing any leftover bits of hot glue.       

So that’s it! It took me the length of a movie (about 1.5 hours) to create this DIY basket. Most of that time was spent braiding the rope because it’s a bit difficult to manage three ropes of 13.5 feet!

Do you have any home decor plans for the fall? If not, I definitely recommend making your own DIY basket!

Katie

Katie is the creative mind behind lemonjitters.com, a blog dedicated to all things crafty. Her interests are ever-changing and currently include: kitschy kitchen timers, digital design, eating lots of chocolate and paper crafting.