Hanging shelves are a great way to add interest to a blank wall, bring plants indoors, and to display the trinkets you want to show off.

Before you start banging away with a hammer and start drilling holes, it’s worth spending some time Googling different designs for hanging shelves and decide on what materials you’ll need for your particular desired look.

Unless you are an experienced handyman/woman, and even if you are, survey the wall for the position of power cables, wall joists and anything else out of sight.

For something similar to the image above, you can follow these steps and tweak it to how you see fit.

You’ll need..

– A length of wood
– Sturdy rope
– Drill
– 2 large hook screws
– Paint, stain or gloss (optional)
-Trinkets for decoration

The process will depend on the type of wall but here’s the basic rundown:

1. Depending on the size of your rope, drill four holes in each corner of the piece of wood. For example, if you decide on 8mm rope, drill 10mm holes so it’s easy enough to feed the rope through.

2. If you are painting or treating the wood with a gloss, do so now. Otherwise, feel free to leave it bare for a rustic feel.

3. Drill two holes in the wall for the screw hooks. It’s safest to use larger screw hooks since they’ll be taking the weight of the shelf.

4. Cut the rope into four equal lengths (to whatever length you desire) and feed each length through the holes. Once it’s all fed through, tie four knots underneath to support the shelf. Give it a hard tug to test before hanging it on the wall.

5. Tie the two other ends of the rope into a knot and hang them over the two screw hooks to finish.

6. Place your trinkets on your new shelf, keeping in mind how much they weigh. Little potted plants, crystals and photo frames will compliment your new shelf terrifically but remember to use self-watering or sealed pots to avoid leakage onto the floor.