Easy DIY Hanging Rope Shelf in 30 Minutes

Easy DIY hanging rope shelf tutorial: how to make beautiful boho farmhouse wood wall shelves for storage & home decor, with rope & a drill!

Confession: until just a year ago, I used to be a total power tool phobia. The only time I touched a power tool, was to hand it to hubby.

Easy DIY hanging rope shelf tutorial: how to make beautiful boho farmhouse wood wall shelves for storage & home decor, with rope & a drill!

So, when some blogger friends invited me to a power tool challenge, I was instantly intrigued.  Really, can we build furniture with just a drill, the least intimidating of all power tools? ( OK,  the lovely hardware store people will make a couple of simple cuts for us, of course!)

Easy to build and hang, this beautiful gold and turquoise DIY rope shelf is also collapsible, great for those of us who move a lot or love to rearrange furniture! It is so rewarding and empowering to be able to build your own furniture! This was how I felt when I jumped into a 16 week wood working class and made this wall cabinet!

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The rope shelf we are making today is a lot easier!

Materials and tools to make DIY hanging rope shelf:

Materials and tools to make DIY hanging rope shelf

 Step 1: prepare ropes for hanging wood shelves

prepare ropes for hanging wood shelves

This step is optional. Dye the rope by dipping it into a bowl of diluted yellow acrylic paint. Lay it on plastic or hang it to dry.

dye ropes with color

Sisal ropes can have lots of loose fiber hanging, so I trimmed it a bit to give a cleaner look.

hang rope to dry

 Step 2: mark wood shelves & drill holes

Here’s a easy little trick on how to drill the 4 holes on each board: cut a square piece of paper 1.5″x1.5″, line it at each of the 4 corners, and draw a dot at the other corner. This will give us the centers for the drill to start.

mark wood shelves & drill holes

Use some scrap wood under the board that will be drilled through to protect your work table. Sand the wood a little if needed.

3/4" drill bit

We used a 3/4″ Drill Bit like this to drill the holes for the ropes to go through.

drill holes in wood shelving

Step 3: how to tie knot for DIY hanging rope shelf

Paint the wood with your favorite colors of acrylic paint or milk paint. I love turquoise, I also diluted the acrylic paint so the wood grains still shows a bit.

Paint the wood with your favorite colors of acrylic paint or milk paint

Cut 2 pieces of 1/2″ thick rope, each about 12.5′ long.

wood shelves with rope

I also colored a small piece of sisal rope the turquoise color for some fun details later.

 tie rope shelf knots

Fold a piece of rope in half, start making the first 2 knots, one at about 11″ from the mid point, the other at 13″ from mid point.

how to tie knot for DIY hanging rope shelf

Thread through the 2 holes on the top shelf, then tie a knot on the underside of each hole. Repeat on the other side.

wood hanging shelf with rope

The second and third shelf are all spaced at 12″ apart. So measure the rope and do the same knotting and threading for each shelf, keep testing and adjusting the knots if needed.

Easy DIY hanging rope shelf  in colorful boho farmhouse style

Gotta have tassels right? It’s so easy to make tassels with sisal ropes!

After the last knot, keep loosening all the twists on the ropes until you get a tassel like bundle. I also added the small piece of turquoise rope for a fun accent.

make beautiful boho farmhouse wood wall shelves for storage & home decor

There are many ways to hang the shelf. We have dry wall, so we used Monkey Hook Easy Picture Hangers for Drywall, each with 50 lb capacity.

how to hang rope shelves
beautiful hanging  wood wall shelves with vintage bohemian decor

What style should we call our rope shelf? Beachy and carefree? Colorful boho farmhouse? 🙂

Talking about carefree, this two pallet potting bench is definitely part of the group!

diy-pallet-potting-bench-apieceofrainbowblog (1)

Or these stenciled pallet wood floor mat!

Build a stunning tropical outdoor room with pallets- A Renters Remodel! | A Piece Of Rainbow

Love Creative DIYs?

35 Comments

  1. wow cute its looking amazing am really like it . so beautiful am so happy to read this blog post am going to bookmark it and share with fellows also

  2. These diy rope are supper in every things amazing happy to got this idea
    You really made my day ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
    Thank you so much

  3. Nice project! How do you get the knot exactly where you want it? half the time it ends up half an inch too low or too high and I get a crooked shelf.

    thanks

    • hi conor, that was the hardest part, and i should really add some tips to it! =) try using duct tape or a clip to mark the spot of each knot , which should help a lot! =) you can also adjust the knots slightly to move them up or down 1/2 inch.

  4. I had a quick question. I’ve got lots of boys in my house so things have to be pretty sturdy and I was afraid that the knots would slip? Did you use any special type of knot?

  5. How is this secured again? I could imagine bumping into it and making everything fall to the floor. Or heck, even just putting something on the shelf looks like it’d be an issue.

  6. Oh! Ananda, this is so beautiful. LOVE the gold and turquoise. I can’t believe how simple you make it look. I may have to change my living space or move to have one in my living room:) You’ve dressed it up so perfectly, too. xx

  7. Your project is so creative! Especially with the colorful rope and a bit of turquoise in the tassel. Nice tip about the paper template too. That takes out a huge margin of error and guesswork! Thanks so much for joining in one the One Power Tool Challenge:)

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