How to Make Beaded Indoor Plant Hangers

Hanging planters offer gardeners with limited space a way to grow fresh herbs, produce and embellish their homes with colorful flowers. Though hanging plant systems can be expensive, you can easily create a lovely beaded plant hanger at home. You can personalize these hangers to match your decor and the plants they hold. Be sure to factor in the weight of the plant, pot and wet potting soil when selecting your beading thread.

Nylon beading thread

Scissors

Clipboard

8 to 10 mm beads: glass, wood, ceramic, any color or design

Two 16 mm round wooden beads

White school glue

3-inch jump ring

Measure the height of your pot and double the measurement. Double the resulting measurement and add 1 foot. Cut four pieces of nylon thread matching this length. For a pot 8 inches high, you'll need four nylon pieces 33 feet long. This seems long, but it's just right.

Fold each of your nylon pieces in half. Pinch the ends of each thread together and bend them down across the nylon thread, creating a loop. Push the ends through the loop and pull tight, creating a half-granny knot.

Clip the ends beyond your knots onto a clipboard. String about 4 inches of beads onto each folded thread, sliding them down to each knot. Make sure your first bead on each thread is small enough that it bumps into the knot and doesn't slide over it.

Gather all of the nylon threads together. Slide one 16 mm round wooden bead down over all the threads. Separate them again. String each nylon thread with a pattern of beads, stopping about 6 inches from the ends of the folds in the threads.

Gather the ends together and tie them in a large granny knot. Smear a little white school glue over the knot and slide your second large wooden bead over the knot. Let the glue dry overnight.

Open a 3-inch metal jump ring with your fingers and slide it through the loops at the tops of the threads. Squeeze the ring closed. Cut away the excess thread that lay pinned under your clipboard, making the hanger look neater. Slip your plant pot into the harness, centering it over the first wooden bead. Hang as desired.

If your crafting skills aren't advanced, make a simple hanger from wire clothes hangers. Cut out the straight part of three or four hangers. Bend 1/2 inch of the end of each wire and string your beads onto the wires. Twist the tops together and bend them into a hook. Drill holes in the edges of your pot and slip the ends of the wires through them.

Recycle magazines, wrapping paper and fabric scraps into rolled beads to embellish your hanger. This saves money and makes your hanging garden a "green" garden.