Hi there, this is Katie.I saw a super cute rope hanging shelf online, but I knew I could make them myself for cheaper. (My super handy husband helped too). All you need is a board, rope, and a nail to hang it from.
The boards we used are are ponderosa pine and the rope is a cotton/poly blend that we got from D&B.
Ok, you need a few other things. Sandpaper or a sander and a drill or a drill press. Also for a finished look you can either stain or paint your board. We used dark walnut Minwax stain.
I made a one for my living room and my teen daughter wanted one for her room too. She helped throughout the project. It was a great way for her to learn and we love spending time with her
First select a board and figure out how long you want your shelf to be. Ours are 2′ long each.
Then sand your board so it’s nice and smooth. Start with a heavy grit, we used 80 grit. This gets the rough edges off. Then use a lighter grit like 120 to smooth everything out. We (my husband) thought it needed to be even smoother so we then used 220 grit sandpaper.
This is the sander we used but you can use regular sandpaper and do it by hand.
My husband used these bench cookies to keep things from moving around too much while we sanded. He purchased them from Home Depot.
Then measure where you want your holes for the rope to come through. You need a hole in each corner. Ours are 1 inch from the edges.
Then drill a hole using either a drill or a drill press. We used a 3/16″ bit. The goal here is to have the width of the hole about the same width as the rope or just a little smaller.
Next is staining. Make sure you wipe down your board first with a paper towel to remove any sanding dust and then stain your board. We used these shop paper towels to wipe them down and also to apply the stain. Follow directions on the can and make sure you do it in a well ventilated area. We did 2 coats and then sanded it a little by hand. Also if you don’t want dark stained fingernails wear gloves If you end up getting it on your hands this is a great soap for cleaning your hands.
Let it dry! If you want can add a clear coat for a more polished look. We wanted ours a little more rustic feeling so we skipped the poly/clear coat.
Measure your rope into 2 long lengths. I wanted the shelf to hang 20″ so my rope lengths are 48″. This gave us enough extrarope to tie them under the board.
Pro tip: Threading the rope through the holes can be tricky if the ends have started to fray. Use a little tape, ours is electrical wrapped around the end. It’s best if the tape hangs off the end a little.
Knot the ends of the rope. Pull them tight so they won’t come undone.
Pro tip: To see if your shelf will hang evenly use a level.
Hang a hook, knob or nail where you want your shelf. If you’re putting heavy or valuable things on your shelf I would recommend screwing it into a stud.
Loop the ropes onto the hook, knob or nail on the wall and add your decorations! With this shelf you need to make sure it’s balanced so things don’t slide off.
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