Upcycled Macrame Chair

My family likes to hang out on the patio in the backyard a lot, so we always have furniture out there. However, some furniture is more equipped to handle year round outdoor weather than others and most eventually succumb to the elements. These two chairs had initially been destroyed by the weather, but were perfect for an upcycling project. Reusing the frames and adding some macrame worked beautifully.

While they may seem flimsy or fragile, these chairs are very sturdy and the red one has been in my backyard for almost 2 years. It looks just as new as when I first finished it. I didn't even wipe it down for this photo. My husband sits in it daily and the seat has sagged only slightly.

While your frame shape may vary, this method is pretty versatile, so give it a try the next time you find that squirrels have attacked or you find a destroyed chair on the curb.

Chair Frame: I found the black chair on the curb while riding my bike around the neighborhood. I just strapped it to my bike with a bungee and took it home. The yellow one doesn't seem all that destroyed in this image, but the fabric in the seat has ripped out. Leaves and water would pool in it. I initially got it from a friend who had the same problem. I replaced the fabric, but it was destroyed again pretty quickly.

Rope: If your chair is going to be inside, then it likely doesn't matter what type of rope you use. However, if you're going to put this outside, it's very important that your rope be solid polyester. For the yellow chair, I bought this rope on Amazon. As you can see in the image, it has a white core, but it's made of the same material as the outside. You can tell by how it melts that it's plastic. For the black chair, I didn't want to wait for Amazon to ship and I found the white nylon rope at Walmart. It's a bit bigger and does not have a polyester core. You can see that it burns instead of melts. I'm far less confident in this chair's ability to withstand the weather. As stated before, the black polyester rope has been outside for almost 2 years and I don't see any signs of aging.

Lighter: For melting the ends to avoid fraying

Gloves and/or Hook: The poly/nylon ropes are very rough on your hands. You're going to be pulling really long ends through loops repeatedly during this process. It becomes very painful over time if you don't protect your hands. If you opt for gloves, make sure they're not so big that they hinder your ability to tie knots. I also found a hook to be useful. Instead of pulling the rope through with my fingers. I used one of these Ikea hooks.

Zip Ties: I think mine were about 8" but just about any length will work if you have enough of them. Longer is typically more useful but you can always chain them together to make them longer.

Spray Paint: If your frame is in bad shape, you'll want to give it a new coat of paint.

Strip the chair down to the frame. My frames were sad looking, so I painted them with a high quality paint. The ropes can rub the paint off if it's too thin, so be sure to give it a good couple coatings.

Cut pieces of rope that are 8 times as long as the space they will fill. In other words, measure from the top of the chair to the seat and from the back of the seat to the front of the seat. Add those two numbers together to get your length and multiply it by 8.

Make sure you have an even number of pieces and that they are no more than 2" apart.

The pieces on the far right and left will be wrapped more than the rest. While I did not need to add length to mine, you may want to add an extra foot or more to be safe, especially if the sides of your chair flare out.

Use your lighter to melt the ends.

Fold each piece of that rope in half and attach them to the top of the chair with a Lark's Head Knot as shown.

Take two ropes (with their 4 tails) and create a square knot.

1. Take the far right tail. Cross it over the middle two tails and under the far left tail. Hold that in place.
2. Take the far left tail (not the one you just moved). Cross is behind the middle two tails and pull it from the back to the front through the loop on the right.
3. Pull this first part of the knot up to the level that you want it. In this case, about an inch from the top.
4. Repeat this process in reverse.
5. Take the far left tail. Cross it over the middle two tails and under the far right tail. Hold that in place.
6. Take the far right tail (not the one you just moved). Cross is behind the middle two tails and pull it from the back to the front through the loop on the left.
7. Pull tight.

Repeat the square knot on each pair of lark's head knots.

Now you'll repeat that process but instead of using the four tails that are tied together, you'll take two from one knot and two from the knot next to it.

For the two tails leftover on each end, wrap them around the outside of the frame from front to back.

Now you'll repeat the square knot process again. On this row, you'll pick up the two tails you wrapped around the outside of the frame.

Keep going until the rows start to get bunched up.

As you add more rows, they tend to clump up. To keep the knots consistent in size, use zip ties to pull the knots down tight. My frame had a bar around the back that I was able to use early on.

Place a zip tie at the center of each knot on the bottom row and wrap it around the frame. Get all the zip ties in place before tightening them. I recommend using pliers to tighten them so they are as tight as possible.

Repeat the process until you get within a couple inches of the seat. Add additional rows of zip ties if necessary. It's too cluttered to have more than two rows of zip ties, so if you feel you need a third, remove the first row before adding an additional row.

Pull all the tails to the back.

Take a set of four tails that would be next if we were doing another square knot.

Take the far right tail and wrap it around itself from left to right.

Take the far left tail and wrap it around itself from right to left.

Cross the two center tails.

Wrap the new center right tail around the original right tail from left to right.

Wrap the new center left tail around the original left tail from right to left.

If there are two tails leftover on the outside edges. Wrap both tails around themselves.

My chair had an extra bar in the seat. I wasn't going to use it and didn't want it to show the way it was, so I covered it with a series of vertical lark's head knots.

You'll do the seat the same way as the back.

I had an extra bar in the front, but this will work without it.

Take four tails as though you were doing another square knot.

Pull the middle two tails behind the bar and keep the left and right tails on top.

Create a square knot.

Use an overhand knot to tie off the two left tails and the two right tails. Wrap both tails around your hand, pull the ends through and push the knot up to the top before pulling tight.

Trim off the excess rope and melt the ends with your lighter.

Cut off all the zip ties.