
Upcycling an old diffuser
18 April, 2021
Mini pallet coasters
2 May, 2021This week, I am upcycling IKEA jute basket from KALLAX (EXPEDIT) shelving system and creating a waterproof planter basket with an IKEA blue shopping bag and macrame cords.
Upcycling IKEA jute basket
For a planter basket project, I need an IKEA jute basket, a famous IKEA shopping bag, macrame cords and some tools.

First of all, I want to get rid of the handles from the IKEA jute basket. You might have noticed; I only have one handle already. Long story short, when my dog was a puppy, he chewed the other handle.
After that, I made the basket waterproof by using IKEA blue shopping bag. Did you know, those plastic bags were made of renewable material? They are durable and waterproof and will serve me as a perfect waterproof layer of the planter basket.
I have attached the shopping bag to the basket using a staple gun. At first, I made a mistake, and the staple went through the basket. You can easily avoid this by stapling 2 or 3 layers of the bag together.
When the waterproof layer was done, I continued with the decoration. I have used 3 colours of macrame cords: grey, dark green and white.

I measured 2 cords of each colour 3 meters long and made a node to attach 2 cords.
Then, I attached one end of each bunch to the side of the chair to make it comfortable to knit. I have knitted the cords using a simple technique, the same as you use for pigtails. I have made another one with 4 cords of each colour, but 1 meter long, which will be used for handles.
Using a hot glue gun, I attached the macrame cords to four edges of the basket and I cut the excessive cords.
Finally, I applied a generous amount of hot glue to attach the handles on the opposite sides of the basket.
I have placed the lemon tree inside my new planter basket and decorated it with small terracotta souvenirs from Colombia.



MY TOOLS
IKEA jute basket
IKEA shopping bag
Grey macrame cord (100m, 3mm)
Dark green macrame cord (100m, 3mm)
White macrame cord (100m, 3mm)
TACKLIFE hot glue gun (+50 sticks)