Although I’m saving my driftwood pile for the giant lawn Komondor I plan to build, I did spare a gnarly piece for this easy, no weave, DIY wool wall hanging. I have a confession to make: I love the look of cozy woven wall hangings, but I hate weaving. I remember we did weaving in grade school and it made me so tense that the headband I was weaving got narrower and narrower and narrower. The weird thing is that I had a mini loom for beading which I loved, but I just never took to weaving yarn or, come to think of it, knitting and crocheting.
If you love the yarn fiber art that’s trending right now, but dislike weaving as much as I do (surely I can’t be the only one?), check out this easy tutorial for a no weave DIY wool wall hanging – can you guess the secret supply I used?
Supplies for DIY Wool Wall Hanging:
- Thick curtain rings (like these or these)
- Small eye pins (I got mine at Lowe’s, but craft stores carry them too)
- Wire (24 gauge – nothing too weak)
- Driftwood or branch
- Yarn
- Large needle (to thread the yarn)
- Wire cutters
If you’d like to make this DIY wool wall hanging budget-friendly, check out your local thrift store for supplies. You’ll find big bags of yarn – much of it still in the original packaging – and bags of curtain rings for a fraction of the price – it’s one of those rare items the thrift stores haven’t priced sky high.
Before you begin, it helps to roughly decide your layout and how many rings you’d like to make in each color – or you can just keep making them and then play with the arrangement after. I ended up narrowing the design to three colors: blue, teal, and pale grey and then halfway through making the rings, I started to firm up on the random layout and narrow down how many more I wanted to make of each color. Please admire how artfully random my arrangement is, because it’s not random at all and took me hours to nail down, haha:
To make the wool wrapped rings for this DIY wool wall hanging, start by wrapping and anchoring the wool around the eye pin. Then wrap it around the ring, burying the end of the yarn in the process. When you reach the end, use a large needle to bury the tail. The yarn is textured enough that it won’t unravel. Repeat, a million times – this is an excellent project to do while you’re binge watching your favorite show on a lazy Sunday because it’s repetitive and mindless, which is kind of soothing.
To connect the rings, I used 24 gauge wire to attach the rings. If you’re super confident in your layout, you can actually do this first because it makes burying the wire way easier, but if you’d like to play around with the arrangement that’s okay too. Take a piece of wire and loop it through the eye pin, twisting a few times, then wrap the wire around the curtain ring above it, twisting a few times. Spread apart the yarn a bit and bury the wire.
When all of the yarn wrapped rings were finished and strung together in an order I liked, I twisted some eye pins into the driftwood (make sure to clean it first). Here’s the best way to figure out where to put the eye pins: hold the driftwood up on the wall so it’s lying as flat as possible (a second set of hands helps with this) and then hold up one “strand” of yarn rings to see where it needs to be positioned to hang nicely. Mark with a pencil and repeat for each strand. This takes some extra time but the driftwood is so gnarly and without this step, the strands of rings might not hang flat against the wall. With the placement for the eye pins marked, I just twisted them firmly into place. If you’re making a really massive piece that will be heavy, you could pre-drill the holes and even add a tab of epoxy to the end of the eye pin, but for this size piece it’s really secure as-is.
To hang it on the wall, I used two strategically placed nails but you could also affix D-rings to the back. Then you just need an assistant to help you flip them all the right way – and you’re done! I love the modern vibe of this fiber art – it has a mid-century modern meets coastal aesthetic that is definitely my favorite decor pairing.
It was kind of addictive making all of these yarn wrapped rings and I bought bags and bags of rings, not knowing how large I’d like to make my wall hanging, so I actually have some smaller versions I’ve listed in the Etsy shop!
Check out the versions of this wall hanging currently listed in the shop by clicking here and here. I have a really cute, super small one to list (at an irresistible price) too, but I’ve even been toying with selling this one as well, because I’m considering a different color combo and they’re just so fun to make! I’d be happy to make some custom ones for anyone looking for the perfect gift – just let me know soon so I can make them in time for the holidays. I’d love to send a little piece of Lake Superior to you.
