Yarn-Wrapped Rope Rainbow

I saw these on one of my favorite blogs a week ago and I was OBSESSED with them and with trying to make one.

If you remember my post about Guest Room Planning, I thought it would go great in my guest room, which is black and white, with fun pops of color, drawn from this sign I bought on from the Etsy Shop Just Add Sunshine..

Step 1 was finding the rope...which was a challenge.  I thought all home improvement stores would have it, but I searched online and they didn't.  It was available from online retailers, but I wanted to see it before buying because it's hard to picture rope diameter.  I ended up buying mine at Joann Fabric - in the crafting supply aisle, but it looks like it's no longer available online in their stores.  Here is some white rope I found on Amazon that looks like it would work well - I think I'd try the 5/8 inch and 50 feet.  

For this project you'll need:

white rope

yarn, in different colors and textures

scissors

hot glue gun/glue

needle and thread

blue tape (optional)

Step 2 - Lay out your rope to determine what length to cut each piece.  This took quite a while for me to readjust.  I think because of the limited selection in the store, I ended up with 16 feet, when I had been planning mentally, I was thinking I should get 24-30 feet.  Mine turned out a fine size, so I would say anywhere between 16 and 30 feet would work.  My rope measurements are: Red: 30 in., pink: 29.5 in., orange: 28 in., yellow: 26 in., green: 23 in., turquoise 1: 22.5  ____  

Step 3 - Cut the rope.  Once I had my rope laid out, with 8 rainbow arcs, I cut the ends, while it was in place like this.

Step 5 - start wrapping.  Part of the look is leaving some of the white rope hanging at the end of each arc, so I measured two inches on each end and taped them with blue tape and then that's where I started and ended my yarn.  It takes a while to wrap, but you'll get into a rhythm that works for you.  I found that rolling the rope towards me and keeping the yarn taut by holding it in between my arm and my body worked for me.  

I think I wrapped the orange too tightly, so it ended up longer than expected.  I have no idea what happened with turquoise 1 - why is it so long?! 

I LOVE seeing the progress - every step of the way I'm so crazy about this project!  Since the wrapping makes your rope end up different lengths, I just taped or tucked in the ends of the yarn at this point, and waited to hot glue until the end.  

Step 6 - I readjusted once everything was wrapped and removed some yarn and cut some extra length of rope and then I hot glued the beginning and end of each yarn piece.

Step 7 - on the back of your rainbow, use a needle and thread to stitch together each arc at spaced intervals.

Step 8 - Sew on a piece of yarn for hanging.

I love it SO MUCH!

To give you a perspective about how big it is:

I LOVE the colors and textures this wall art offers.

😍

Hadley's Playhouse Interior

Welcome to the BIG REVEAL of #HadleysPlayhouse!!

After months of planning and days of working - I got to the most fun part - styling!!

Here's how the playhouse looked on Wednesday:

Here is the playhouse cleaned out:

Wednesday Evening - Hadley and I started priming.

This is one coat of primer on the walls (at which point I ran out of primer and so I had to wait until morning to go to the local hardware store).

The days start to run together, but at some point, we finished two coats of primer and two coats of paint:  (I'm too tall to stand up in the playhouse so I took apart a desk chair to make a rolling stool and it was really invaluable!)  We painted everything - walls, ceiling, baseboards, built in shelf and decorative accents, metal door, etc.  Which really brightened the space and gave us a beautiful, bright blank canvas.

Hadley helped me every step of the way - here we are working on the flooring!  3/4 of the installation was very easy, but then when we got to the last two edges that required a lot of measuring, calculating, cutting and engineering.  

This is the type of flooring I used and I was very impressed with it! 

   

 The most difficult part was that the room wasn't a uniform square, the wall pictured kind of curves out, so I couldn't just cut a straight line, I had to cut it in place.

Then I had three pieces of IKEA furniture to put together and that took more time than I expected.  Also at this point I was really worried that all these pieces of furniture were not going to fit in the space or if they did, it would be too much.

Then I got shelves hung, pictures hung, chalkboard hung, the light put up and the curtains sewed. 

   

 Then we took a break for dinner and went to my favorite Mexican place in town.

 Then my sister Jordan kept Hadley busy by playing in their little pool because even though she had seen every step so far, I wanted her to be surprised and wowed at the final reveal.  At this point I felt like Joanna Gaines (from Fixer Upper) and it was the most fun thing ever.

And here it is - all done - all styled.  Jordan I and sewed the curtains, the fabric is from Hobby Lobby, as is the mini cake stand.  The table, chairs, storage bench, foxes and apron are from IKEA.  The bean bag chair and pillow are from Target.  The magnetic strip is from The Container Store.  You can see all about how I made the mini bunting here.

The picture frames are from Dollar Tree and the art is just free online printables I found.  The little side table is from Hobby Lobby and spray painted white.  Kitchen, dishes and felt vegetables are from IKEA.  

One of the themes running throughout the playhouse was alligators (other themes are pink and black & white stripes, modern) and here are two of the three.  The magnetic chalk board is from Walmart.  The alligator is named Cornelius and is from Kohls Cares.  The mix and match magnets are by DJeco and I got them on Amazon.  The felt ball garland is from a seller on Etsy - Simple Details Design and the seller was great to work with.

Cupcakes are from the local grocery store Thrifty King.  The little alphabet sign is from Target's dollar spot.

This would be SUPER CUTE in a playhouse! They're so much fun to decorate!

The little book on the side table is from Chatbooks and it has a bunch of my
Instagram photos of Hadley.

The three tins are from antique stores, because just like in decorating your own house - you don't want everything to be brand new.  Old things add depth and uniqueness to your design.  The little broom is from Hobby Lobby.  The cupcake rug is from Target's dollar spot.  Both shelves pictured are from IKEA.

For rainy days or after dusk - I got a paper lantern, light and remote from http://www.save-on-crafts.com/.  And it is just as fun to click on as you might expect.  ;)

Hadley walked in and said, "Wow!" and she moved to each area, taking it all in.  Then she got started playing.  It was a very happy moment.

Next week I'll blog about all the things I did to the exterior to give this playhouse some curb appeal!! In the comments below - tell me your favorite part of the playhouse.