DIY Ideas with Rattan – Have fun building, gluing & crafting!

DIY Ideas with Rattan

Have fun building, gluing & crafting!

You’ll know this material from many pieces of furniture. Especially the Thonet chair celebrated our current favourite material: »RATTAN« also known as Viennese netting. The netting is made up out of six individual strands made from the trunk of the rattan palm to achieve a particularly stable texture.

After many years out of the spotlight, rattan is now staging a comeback which is why we went on the hunt for bloggers that use this special material for inspiring DIYs. Be surprised by the versatility of this material and have fun building, gluing and crafting!

DIY »Notebooks with Rattan«

from Idle Hands Awake

Materials:

• Plain notebooks with a smooth cover, like these Moleskines
• 1 or 2 sheets of cane webbing depending on the size of your project
• sharp scissors
• tacky glue (This is the only brand I’ve used and it’s great! Dries hard and clear)
• sponge brush for application

Instructions:

1. Using scissors, cut a piece of cane webbing that’s slightly larger than you need to cover the notebook. (To make the fringed notebook in the pictures above, simply use the edge of the cane webbing to cut your piece).

2. Squeeze some tacky glue onto a palette or scrap of cardboard, then use the sponge brush to coat the notebook in glue. You want to apply what I would call a “medium” coat of glue; not so thin that you can barely see it, but also not so thick that it’s just piled on there. Note that if it’s 98 degrees and you don’t have AC, the glue will dry REALLY FAST (fun).

3. Place the piece of cane webbing on top of the glue and press it down evenly, making sure that all the edges have contact with the glue. Weigh down the notebook with something heavy that covers the whole surface (I used my laptop!) And now we wait — always the hardest part of any DIY project, don’t you think?

4. The glue should be mostly dry in about 30 minutes, but I gave my notebook an hour before handling to be safe. Use the scissors to trim off the overhanging edges of rattan. And just to make sure the glue has totally cured, allow the notebook to sit overnight before using it! (You can see mine definitely needed longer before it was fully dry and clear!)

5. And that’s it! Enjoy your super stylish and totally unique DIY rattan notebooks.

DIY »Rattan Clock«

with Viennese netting

Materials:

• Lid of a wooden box or a disk of wood, diameter about 24cm
• Viennese Netting
• Clockwork and Hands
• Drill with 10mm attachment
• Scissors
• Wood glue and paintbrush

Instructions:

1. Mark the middle of your lid or circle and drill a hole. First use a smaller attachment and a piece of leftover wood underneath the hole to keep the wood from fraying.
2. Using the scissors, cut a piece of the woven cane that is slightly bigger than the diameter of your lid. Try by positioning the cane on the lid – if the cane covers your drilled hole, shift it slightly and adjust by carefully cutting the material to your needs.
3. Paint the wood glue onto on side of the netting and carefully place it onto your lid. As soon as it sits where you would like to, weigh everything down with books and let dry very well. Use a small pair of scissors to cut off excess cane and put in the clockwork.

MY TIP:

If you want the cane to be completely flat on the lid, dampen it and then press between a couple of heavy books. when it has dried completely, it will be nice and flat without rolling up.

DIY »Rattan-Cupboard«

Materials:

• Wooden planks / wooden battens for the substructure (you can pick the thickness you like, I went for 2cm width)
• Woven Cane / Rattan (around 6 m)
• Hinges (4x)
• Base plate
• Back (usually 2 chipboard panels)
• Shelves
• Angles
• Saw
• Hammer
• Battery powered drill
• Tape measure
• Sanding paper
• Scissors
• Iron
• Stapler

Instructions:

1. First, come up with a basic plan for your cupboard. Think about the measurements you want. I went for these: Width =110 CM | Height= 110 CM | Depth= 52 CM
2. Now determine the size of your doors and cut the battens accordingly (my measurements 52 X 96 CM). To make the doors, build a wooden frame by screwing together two shorter (top & bottom) and two longer (left & right) battens. Repeat this step for the second door.
3. Now build the frames for the sides and top, using the same technique as in step 2. Take care that the side parts have the same length as your doors – the width can vary. The top frame should have the length of the two doors and the same width as the side parts so your cupboard will have the right proportions.
4. After building the frames, you can now cover them. Cut your woven cane, always remembering to leave some extra material all around. Now cover the frames with your rattan. (Tip: Put a towel over the woven cane and iron it so it becomes softer). Then staple the rattan to the frame.
5. When the doors are done, put them on an even surface and build the body of the cupboard around the doors. If your cupboard is supposed to have feet now would be the time to make them. Then attach the doors to the body using the hinges.
6. Finish the body of the cupboard using screws and angles. When it’s done, you can put in the side panels and finally attach the lid.
7. The last step is to attach your back and the base panel. To do this, lay your chipboard panels onto the body and attach it with nails or screws. If you want, you can also add shelves and paint your cupboard.

TIP: Put a towel over the woven cane and iron it so it becomes softer.

IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN ALSO ADD SHELVES AND PAINT YOUR CUPBOARD.

DIY »Easy Rattan Hoop Earrings«

Materials:

• Gold earring posts– get a pair that has a hole or loop at the bottom (or back) on each post to connect with your jump ring. (I got mine on etsy)
• 32mm Rattan earring hoops (I got mine on etsy)
• Gold colored earring backs
• Gold colored jump rings (I used 2 for each earring)
• Jewelry making pliers (I used 2 for opening and closing the jump rings)

Instructions:

1. The rattan hoops may have some natural holes for your jump rings. If they do not, pierce a hole near the top in each hoop using something sharp (I used a hole reamer).

2. Open your jump rings with pliers – I used 2 sets of pliers (one in each hand) to twist (one side toward you, the other side away from you) each jump ring so that the ends opened forward and backward.

3. With the jump ring ends open, put the earring post on one end then connect with the 2 jump rings and the rattan hoop.

4. Close the jump rings with pliers.

5. Repeat for the other earring.

6. Add the earring backs to each earring.

DIY »Basket with Rattan«

Materials:

• Woven cane 45x50cm
• Holzspan: Bastelspan 1 Rolle
• Hot Glue Gun: Set with Glue Sticks
• Wooden disk: 6 pieces
• Leather strap or a piece of ribbon Leather strap 1 meter
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Take your Viennese netting and wrap it around your wooden disk once to gage the length you need.

2. Add around 1cm as area for the glue. Now cut your woven cane.

3. Use a hot glue gun to attach the bottom all the way around your disk. Trim off excess cane if necessary.

4. The base for your basket is already done! For a clean edge, take some wood shavings and glue them around the top rim using your hot glue gun.

5. Now for the lid: glue one smaller and one slightly bigger wooden disk on top of each other.

6. Then drill a hole into the middle of both disks.

7. Use a leather strap or a nice piece of ribbon and string it through the hole you just drilled. Simply glue the bottom ends to the inside of the lid.

There you have a small DIY basket made with Viennese netting! Fill it with pens, cosmetic products or anything else.