Wrapped Wire Wall Hanging with a Bud Vase

As renters, we have very little flexibility around wall decor.  I’ve ignored the “no nails” rule a few times and put some teeny tiny little pin nails into the a few places, but I hesitate to do that too much.  So the rest of our wall decorations have to be able to hang from those plastic hooks that hang from the removable sticky pads.  They work, but they don’t really hold a ton of weight.  And I wouldn’t trust them to hold anything that I’m in love with.

I’ve been trying to come up with a lightweight wall hanging for our entryway.  I really liked the idea of spelling out “home” somehow, but wanted a way to do it without putting nails in the wall.  So I wrapped flexible wire with twine and shaped it into the word.  To add even more cheer to the entryway, I wrapped a small bottle with the wire to use as a bud vase.  Wrapping the wire took a little bit of time, but it wasn’t difficult.  I just threw a Law and Order marathon up on the tv and wrapped away!  

What you’ll need:

Flexible wire

Twine

Wire cutters, pliers and scissors

Paper and marker

Small bud vase or glass bottle

1-2 adhesive hooks for hanging

What to do:

1. Use the paper and marker to draw out the word you want to spell.  Roughly trace the outline in twine and cut the length to measure how long your wire needs to be.  Add a few extra inches of length for a buffer, and add about 6 more inches to wrap the vase.

2.  Cut your wire to the length of the string.  Create a small loop at one end of the wire, and tie the twine to it to anchor the string.  Twist the twine around the wire, pushing loops together as you twist to make sure the string covers all of the wire.  As you approach the end, create a small loop on the end of the wire.  Wrap the twine up to the very edge of the loop, then tie it off onto the loop to anchor the string.

3.  Shape the wire into the word, using pieces of twine to secure points on the word that need to be held in place (I’ve placed a red “x” over every point in the photo above where I tied off a piece of twine to help the word hold its shape).  Wrap the wire around the vase to attach it to the word.

4.  Attach the hook(s) to the wall where you want to hang the word.  Use additional twine to hang the word from the hook.

p.s. if you’re wondering why I didn’t use the sticky hooks for the photos, it’s because the light in my entryway is terrible.  Instead of taking the photos under the fluorescent light, I took down some photos that were on a better-lit wall and used those nails instead 😉 

Last year: A jewelry tutorial!  Make your own pretty drop earrings.