DIY yarn wall hanging. An unexpected thrift store upcycle

Wondering how to decorate your walls cheaply? Make this DIY yarn wall hanging from a thrift store find.

I have decided that this year is going to be the year that I make and end to bare and empty walls in my home. Since I moved in, I have haphazardly hung some things here and there but most of the big walls are still pretty bare. Partly because the big outer walls are all of the very solid concrete kind. I can’t just hammer in a nail to hang something, it needs heavy duty drilling and will leave permanent big holes. On the other part there is also the question of how I can decorate my walls cheaply, since the budget is limited.

Well today is the first episode in what I expect will be quite a long series of posts on my wall decorations. And this one was cheap. And easy. And fun to make. 

Update: Since this post was first published I made some more wall decorations like my Boho Feather and Seashell Wall Hanging, or my burlap pumpkin wall art, or my summer hat wall decor in my boho bedroom.

I made a yarn wall hanging with a distinct boho vibe. And looking at that pic, can you guess what I made it from?

Come on, take a closer look, I am sure you can guess…..

If home fashions of days past are anything close to what used to decorate homes over here in the low lands, than it must be familiar…..

If thrift stores carry the same stuff everywhere, than you must have come across dozens of these…..

Look!:

Remember those hand crochet half curtains? Those used to be the height of home fashion at one point in time. Grandmothers everywhere were busy crocheting these for daughters and grand-daughters until every window had its own little curtain.

I found two of these curtains in a bag of ‘miscellaneous’ that I got for a buck or two at the thrift one day. I was probably eyeing the doilies that were in there too and forgot about these as soon as I saw them.

Then the other day as I was rummaging through my stack in my craft room I spotted the tassels with the wooden beads and realized they were part of a set of two curtains. And then my head started spinning. What if….

And so those two curtains were merged for proper length and upcylced in this DIY yarn wall hanging. It was a lot of fun to make and not hard at all.

Original DIY yarn wall hanging. The steps

1. Find something to use as a base. This will make it so much easier. I used these crochet curtains, but pillow cases, tapestries, woven wall hangings or open knit fabrics would work too.
   Lay it all out and decide how tall and wide you want your finished work to be.
2. Work your material to give you the desired base. I simply cut off the fringe from one of the curtains (crochet work is forgiving like that),  turned it upside down and hand sew it to the other one. No need to be fussy, quick and easy is the way to go.
3. Gather your leftover bits of yarn, ribbon, fringe etc and have fun. I used the crochet work as a base for some weaving, knotting and sewing. Whatever worked with my base fabric and with the yarns and ribbons that I was working with. I just kept adding rows until it started to look full.
4. Find yourself some nice movie to watch (in my case the show of choice would be an english detective) grab your yarn and start making pompoms and do some old fashioned spool knitting and make extra embellishments.

Put it all together until you are happy with the end result.

Total hands on time was only half a day of relaxing play with yarn and that included watching two episodes of Midsommer Murders 🙂  

Total costs? Negligible. It was all leftovers and freebies that I used.

But I am loving my DIY yarn wall hanging so much. It inspired a mini makeover in my living room because I just had to create the perfect spot for it.

Let’s take a closer look at my handicraft. Shall we. 

And trust me,  when you look very closely you will see how easy this is, and at the same time how forgiving for all the little imperfections that happen when you work with second-hand materials. 

The cut off fringe was re-attached to add a bit of extra oomph and flair to the project. And the pompoms give it some extra depth and whimsy.

And I am totally not kidding. I moved sofa’s and settees around my room, just to create room for an extra little seating corner. And a place to show off my DIY yarn wall hanging in style. 

If you like this, you will also like my: refashion cardigan project

One more close up, for the road, shall we…..

I love my little boho wall hanging so much. It fits in with the bohemian decorating style I have going on in my home. 

So how about you? Are these crochet curtains as common in the thrift stores in your knick of the woods as they are here? Ever thought to bring one home and repurpose it?

Can you help me to figure out what to hang on all of my bare walls? Got more ideas for me to create, more wall decorations cheaply? 

My coastal plant container – a diy project from days galore – is still going strong.