I am so excited to be collaborating with DownEast to bring you this DIY tutorial! I have always been in love with their home decor and I am so thrilled to announce that my tutorial will be in all their 17 home store locations!
The tutorial is on this DIY dip dyed wall hanging. I have seen these everywhere and have always wanted to buy one, but I am super picky when it comes to home decor. So making one myself was the perfect option for me!
It is actually super easy to make, just a little time consuming. It will take a couple of hours to complete the cutting, tying and dying. Then a few more hours for it to completely dry, but the end results are worth it! So set aside a few hours for this project.
First you will need:
– 2 boxes of dye. Have them be similar in color, but one darker than the other. (example: pink & red, turquoise & navy…) I prefer the Rit brand. You can find it at your local Walmart or Target.
– Cooking twine. You can also find this at your local Walmart or Target. Or if you prefer to order it online you can do that as well.
– Wooden dowel. Can be found at your local craft store.
– Scissors. I bought this gold pair at Target.
– Rubber gloves (I highly recommend these! I didn’t have any on hand and luckily only ended up with a couple blue fingers, but it will make your project a lot smoother and easier.)
STEP 1: You will want to start cutting the twine. Keep in mind that it will be half the length you cut it once you tie it to the dowel. So you will want to start with longer pieces first and you can always cut it later.
I measured my twine along the shorter side of my family room rug for length. I strung it back and forth until I had a bunch laying on top of each other and then cut the ends to be less time consuming. (I also had to keep cutting twine throughout the project to add to my dowel)
STEP 2: Time to start tying the string to the dowel! You will want to fold the string in half, making sure the ends meet evenly. Then you will want to make a small loop above the dowel.
STEP 3: Bring both ends of the string up under the dowel so the ends of your string are pointing north, with the loop still in place.
STEP 4: Pull the string down through the loop so it makes a knot around the dowel. Pull tight and push all the strings together until they look like the strings on the right.
*You can take as much or as little twine as you’d like at a time. I tied one string at a time because I like the uniform look and how it all flowed together. If you take more strings together to tie around the dowel it will give your wall hanging a more “chunky” look.
STEP 5: Now it is just a process of tying, tying and more tying! This is the most time consuming part. Keep tying strings across the dowel until they are almost touching both ends.
*this is what your dowel should be looking like as you are tying. Once they are all on it is easier to hang it up before you dye it and tighten all the knots.
STEP 6: Make sure all the strings are tight and that there are no gaps between the strings.
After that, you will want to create “layers.”
Pick a section in the middle and cut the end off so it is even.
Then cut that layer into a downward arrow.
I liked to cut the sections into points because even though they are blunt layers, I liked how they blended.
You will want to pick a section on either side of the middle, cut them higher and into downward arrows as well.
There should be two sets of layers on either side of the middle section.
Once you have finished cutting each section accordingly it should look like the picture below.
STEP 7: Make sure you are wearing a dark or old t-shirt while you are dying. Dye might get on your clothes and skin, so wear something you would be okay getting stained.
Use whatever sink, bucket, bowl/method of dying you would like, following the instructions in the dye packets.
I dyed the twine in my kitchen sink in two stainless steel bowls. Probably not the most practical way, but I didn’t have a good place to do it outside and I didn’t want our driveway to be stained blue.
It worked pretty well for the most part. I used lots of old towels/washcloths and thankfully didn’t get any on my white counter top!
STEP 8: I found it a lot easier to dye the twine after it was already wet. So make sure that the twine is damp before you start dipping it into your sink/bucket/bowl, etc…
STEP 9: For the ombre effect you will want to start by dipping your twine into the lighter color. Bringing it 2/3 of the way up each layer.
I made sure that the turquoise was even across the whole top even though there were shorter layers.
STEP 10: Next you will want to start dipping the twine into the darker color. I dipped each layer separately because I wanted the navy color to be at different heights. I only left about 2 inches of turquoise remaining at the top.
After dipping it into the navy I dipped it back into the turquoise to help blend the colors. I didn’t this back and forth a couple times to get the desired look.
STEP 11: For that strong ombre look you will want to leave the twine soaking in the dye to give it that dark navy look. I left mine soaking for about an hour, leaving about 2-3 inches of turquoise/navy out of the bowl.
After the hour I moved more of the dyed twine out leaving just the ends in to make them really dark. Remember, to get the ombre look you don’t want to leave all the twine in. You want to gradually pull out the twine a little at a time so the ends will be darker than the top.
STEP 12: After it has been soaking for a couple hours you will want to let it hang to dry. I hung it out in my garage with something underneath to catch the excess dye as it dripped.
I left mine hanging overnight just to be safe and not get any dye on my walls after I hang it.
STEP 13: Find the perfect place for your dyed wall hanging and hang your work up!!
I hope you enjoyed that tutorial! I had so much fun seeing the finished product, and I couldn’t love where it ended up more! A huge thank you to DownEast Home for making this post happen!
If you have any questions about this tutorial don’t hesitate to leave a comment! I would love to answer any questions you have.
xo,
Sara
*This post was in collaboration with DownEast
Can you use thicker yarn for this project?
Happened upon this project as it was listed with several more on fb. Thought I had shared to my page; but did not. Could not remember anything by penny pincher which was incorrect. Qued on fb every combination of words dip dye twine wall hanging to no avail. Went to chrome and did same thing. . Success!! A Pinterest blog post with everything! Could not share no matter which way I tried. So, I took pics of the whole project – page by page. Then remembered to go back and look at your blog name. Found you !!! Searched back to June 2017!! Sent to messenger. Now to go back and delete this photographed pages in gallery. I really, really like this project!!
Wow, cool post. I'd like to write like this too – taking time and real hard work to make a great article… but I put things off too much and never seem to get started. Thanks though. wall art trends 2019
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Loved this! It turned out great. I'd love to make my own – how much twine did you use for this project?
What did you use to hang it?
I just used a couple of small nails and rested it on top!