DIY macrame wall hanging for Christmas

Display your love of macrame at Christmastime with this DIY macrame wall hanging of a Christmas tree.

I am back to share my last macrame project with you for Christmas. I have a love-hate relationship with this project. Grrr… I really, really wanted to love this DIY macrame wall hanging. It had such potential! In my mind, it was so beautiful! But as I will explain later, it did not turn out how I envisioned it. Ugh! However, with a great suggestion from Mr. Wonderful, I was able to salvage it and it is still a cute DIY project for Christmas. So, I am going to share it with you regardless. 🙂

This DIY macrame wall hanging was inspired by an Instagram reel I saw where a lady was making a similar macrame wall hanging on a ring with basic shapes, like diamonds and squares. I thought to myself, I can make one like that with a Christmas tree and it will be so adorable! Plus, I hadn’t seen anything done like this before!

So I got to work on the project, which took me a whole afternoon to finish. As you will see, it was looking pretty great as I was making it. I knew it would be a subtle pattern with the Christmas tree on the wall hanging. However when I hung it up, it looked like this…

BAM!! Nothing! All I heard in my head was waaaah, waaaah, waaaah waaahahahhahahahhah. 🙁 You can’t see it… like at all! Maybe a little from the sides, but I am telling you, it shows up in pictures better than in real life. Ha!

Maybe some of you like the REALLY subtle look of the Christmas tree and that is totally fine. If so, check out the tutorial below or if you want to see how we salvaged it, hang with me and you can see how it turned out in the end. 😉

Supplies for a macrame Christmas tree wall hanging

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use. If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase. I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.

• Macrame core (4mm)
• Scissors
• 19 inch steel ring
• Tape measure

How to make a DIY macrame wall hanging

Don’t want to read all the instructions? I have included a video in this post showing you how to make this DIY macrame wall hanging. If you can’t see the video, turn off your ad blocker. If you want more detailed instructions, continue reading.

So initially, I made a smaller trial version of this on a 10 inch ring with the 4mm macrame cord. Because the cord is thicker, the knots on the ring only allowed for bigger spacing, so pretty much the same thing happened where I could not see the design. However, I thought if I used a smaller diameter cord, the cords would be more dense, and it would show up better. I guess it was wishful thinking. Ha! 

Since I already had the 4 mm cord and I was running out of time before Christmas, I decided to just split the 4mm cord in half. That is my first tip to you… buy a smaller diameter cord like this 2 mm cord. Unless you really like the twisted look of the cord that results from splitting it. I do think it looks cool, but I would take the saved time!

I used 111 cords on the macrame wall hanging so I cut 56 pieces of 4mm cord to a length of 26 inches. The 56 pieces were then split in half. To do this, just split the end until you have two cords of two strands each. Then twirl the cord around unwinding the twist in the cord. At the end, just turn it in your fingers the opposite way to untwist it.

Start by tying on 29 vertical pieces of cord to the ring. You will use a double half hitch knot to do this. 

How to make a double half hitch knot

Lay the end of your cord under the ring, then bring the end up over the ring and behind the cord. Next, bring the end under the ring again and wrap it around the ring coming out the opposite side.

Pull the end tight to finish the knot. 

After you have both sides of the vertical cords tied on and pulled tight, turn the ring by 90 degrees. Now start tying on the horizontal cords. Only tie them to one side first, so you can weave the Christmas tree shape. I found it easier to start in the middle and work my way out.

Start weaving your Christmas tree shape

To weave the design, move all the horizontal cords behind the vertical cords. Now just bring the individual cords over the vertical cords where you want the design to show up. I used 76 pieces of macrame cord for my Christmas tree but you may use less depending on your tree design.

That leads me to another thing I would change about this project. I decided to “wing it” on my tree making it more random and not so uniform. After all, trees in real life are not perfect, right? I wanted my tree to have jagged edges. It started out that way looking fantastic but by the end, it looked too uniform. LOL! That is what I get for trying to be not symmetrical! 😉

In hind sight, I would have used a template printed out or drawn on the cords to help keep the shape looking better. When you get the tree done, start tying the loose sides of the horizontal cords. You may need to add more cords at the top and bottom.

At this point, things were looking pretty good! You can even see the design. Two thumbs up!

Fray and cut the fringe

I did not take pictures of this process, but you can see it in the video. I trimmed the fringe first to a more manageable length. Then I used a rat tail comb to separate the strands and comb the fringe out. In order to cut the fringe evenly, I measured 1.25 inches out from the ring and made small cuts into the fringe about every 3 inches. Then using those cuts as a guide, I cut the fringe to that length. It is not perfect, but it works. 🙂

And you all know the rest of the story, I hung it up… yadda, yadda, yadda, and I cried myself to sleep after putting in all that work. LOL Not really but it was frustrating!!

Highlight the Christmas tree

So onto the savior of the day, Mr. Wonderful! I told him all about my woes and he suggested that I watercolor paint over the tree to highlight it. I was like, that is GENIUS!! So that is what I did!

To paint it, I used acrylic paint (Apple Barrel Mossy Green and Nutmeg Brown) and water. Using a small paintbrush, I painted each individual cord while holding it taut. I applied paint first to a small section then immediately dipped my brush in water and went over the paint. This soaked the paint into cord, making it look more like stained cord.

Although remember my not so perfect tree? It is now highlighted too. Hahahaha! Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

So in the end, while I don’t LOVE it, I am happy with the Christmas DIY macrame wall hanging even though it may not sound like it. I would have loved it how it was initially, if you could see it better. If anyone knows of anything I could change to help that, let me know! I would definitely change the things I mentioned if I had to do it again. All these macrame posts took longer than I planned on, so I am finally getting to my Christmas decor next week. Just in the nick of time!