I put together this DIY tutorial for you to make these REALLY easy rope placemats – but please read all the way to the end for the step I forgot (but is VERY necessary).
Whenever you see photographs of patios with their gorgeous table settings and acoutrements, you will inevitably find a version that is showcasing “coastal”. Perhaps the plates have fish on them, or there is a conch shell on the table holding a candle – and more often than not, you’ll see a rope placemats or chargers.
Pottery Barn used to sell rope placemats, but don’t anymore – I believe they came in around $16 per.
My DIY sisal rope placemats on the other hand, came in at about $3 per – using some sisal rope from Home Depot.
It’s simple – all you need to do is start with a tight coil and use your hot glue gun to hold the rings in place at about every 3 inches or so.
Keep wrapping and glueing (making sure your rope is on a flat surface) until your rope placemats reach a diameter of 14″ (35.5cm).
Add a final bead of glue to the end point to hold in place and you’re done!
I think it took about 5 minutes per placemat.
30 feet of rope and about 4 gluesticks will make one 14″ rope charger.
Very easy, very nautical, very cute but….
if you plan to leave your rope placemats outside, or if they should get wet at all – they WARP!
Not a little warping – substantial, unusable warping.
And…… they smell.
Wet sisal or jute rope is not a ‘nice’ smell. I’d put it more in the arena of a wet sheep smell.
(Found this out after a rain storm).
The only way to keep your chargers from warping is to sew them into place. You’ll need to use a see-through thread – along the lines of fishing line – and sew in an out between the coils, and then back again to the outside, to hold the charger’s shape.
I’d suggest at least 4 rows of sewing from outer edge, through the centre, to the opposite edge (and back again to tie off), if you want your rope placemats to stay flat.
Or you could just make sure they don’t get wet.
I like them – they add texture and ambiance to the table, and they weren’t expensive or even time-consuming to make.
I’m glad I tried, and I like that I have them – but I do understand why Pottery Barn doesn’t carry them anymore.
Have a great one!
Linked to:
Great diy project! It came out just perfect…
Thank you so much! Sometimes it’s good to have a “learned the hard way” out there so others don’t make the same mistakes.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
I love these! You make it look so easy! I am going to give them a try!
Just be wary of moisture!
Have fun – and thanks for taking the time to comment!
Beautiful! I want to try this, but I have a quick question… I noticed that the rope comes in 50ft. length. You had mentioned that each placemat uses about 30ft. Is there some trick to getting use out of the other 20ft in the package or do we have to start with a new package of rope since the rope is not easily divided into increments of 30ft.? Thank you.
What about maybe making coasters or a smaller trivet for the table to keep the coastal theme going? Make sure you read to the bottom of the post – the placemats did not stand up to weather, so put them away in a dry place when not in use. Have fun!