How to Make Macramé Hanging Plant Extenders

Carolyn J. Braden • 3 Minute Read 

How to Make Macramé Hanging Plant Extenders

When we needed new hanging baskets for our home’s front door porch area, I knew succulent planters would be best for our Sanibel Island, Florida home. Succulents do a great job at lasting a long while in the hot, tropical environment and look very modern. The old coconut planter baskets were looking old and were kind of too big for our porch area so I set out to find new replacements.

Minnie Pearl loves hanging out with me when I create!

I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted in a coconut basket form, so I choose some small cute little succulent hanging baskets at Lowe’s. The chain and hooks they hung from ended up being slightly too short, so I decided to make some macramé plant extenders to hang them from.

I saw some macramé plant hangers on Amazon, but since I already had the macramé supplies and needed them to be a custom length, I decided to figure out how to make my own. Read on to learn how to create macramé hanging plant extenders.

Our cute little hanging succulent planters

If you know me or follow my social accounts or my website DIY creations, you’ll know how much I love macramé. I’ve bought a lot of macramé products over the years for my home, and with this DIY, I am finally starting to dabble in creating it myself. I learned how easy it was when I was an art teacher many years ago at a professional development session.

I love these hanging plant extenders!

Another teacher was teaching our group how to do a simple macramé project and it’s all about tying macramé cord in certain styles. It takes some time, but a simple project like my macramé hanging plant extender can be created in minutes. They would make a perfect gift for someone (think Mother’s Day crafts!) or for your own home.

Get my 1 minute video tutorial for this project below or via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:

If you don’t know much about macramé, it is a knotting style of art that was known to start many, many years ago. The primary knots used in macramé are mostly simple square knots, which is what I used for my DIY plant hangers. It was used to adorn costumes, seen on towels, veils and more. Read more about the history of macramé on Wikipedia.

The macrame style goes perfectly with our overall Sanibel bungalow

If you don’t want to make your own macramé designs, you can pick up some for great prices on Amazon.

Here are some of my favorite Amazon readymade macramé products I’ve added to my home:

Here’s how to make a DIY macramé hanging plant extender:

The supplies you’ll need to create macrame hanging plant extenders

Supplies:

Instructions (I’ve included written instructions for the read/write/auditory learners and video instructions and photos for those that are visual learners like me)

1—First, I cut two pieces of macramé string to about 36 inches. I needed my hangers to be about 9 inches in length, and I knew the string would shrink as I knotted it, so I kind of guessed the length to cut the macramé string. I definitely had extra.

How I looped the string around the wood ring

 2—I then folded the cut string in half (making sure it was even in length before doing so) and looped it around one wood ring to attach it.

3—Next, I clamped the ring to the end of a table to make it stay in place as I made the knots and straightened out the strings.

These small clamps help me with lots of projects

4—This knotting sequence is just a square knot. I separated the strings into three parts; a single string on the right, a single string on the left and two strings in the middle.

You start with a basic square knot

5—I started with the single string on the right and made it into a “backwards 4” shape, taking the string OVER the double strings in the middle and UNDER the single string on the left.

The hardest part is remembering which side you stopped on

6—Then I took the single string on the left and placed it under the double strings and OVER the single string (the backwards “4”) and pulled both single strings up the double strings in the middle, forming the first knot.

You repeat the knotting process on both sides

7—You then repeat the same process on the left. Make a number “4” with the single string on the left going OVER the middle two strings and UNDER the single string on the right, then take the single string on the right UNDER the double strands and OVER the single string on the left.

The string positioning for the left side

8—I repeated this knotting process, alternating on each side until my plant hangers were about 9 inches in length.

You can use wood rings on both ends

9—I placed the strings through a wood ring….

How to end the macrame plant hangers

10—Then I knotted the other end onto wood ring….

I trimmed the excess close to the wood ring to “clean up” the look

11—and trimmed the excess. I made two, as I had two plants to hang.

I completed two macrame hanging plant extenders

I made each hanging plant extender be 9 inches, which is a bonus of making them yourself. I had a hard time finding some to purchase that were exactly like what I needed them for.

I custom made my plant hangers to 9 inches

If these written instructions are difficult to picture in your mind, I used this YouTube video by Majestic Macrame as a macrame knot reminder, as I’m a very visual learner. I used the instructions for the square knot and the tutorial really helps you easily create great macramé knots.

See it below:

These hanging plant extenders are easy and quick to make. I made them in about 30 minutes or less and they are budget friendly. I’ve had them on our porch now for over a month and they still look brand new.

The cutest little hanging baskets!

It’s hot and humid and we’ve had several storms since they’ve been hanging on the porch, and I’ve had no mold appear on them and they are holding up well. My plant baskets are about a couple of pounds each, so these DIY macramé plant extenders will hold a decent amount of weight.

If you’ve made this project or another macramé project, let us know in the comments below!

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Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.