The Repurposed Keys to Love Wall Hanging

I got a whole jar of keys at a garage sale last weekend and wanted to try to make an artsy wall hanging.

 

I picked out 20 keys for each color and placed them on Scrabble boards and gave them a good coat of spray paint in each color.  Yellow, orange, red, violet, and blue.

 

After the keys are completely dry and the paint is not sticky, tie on a piece of cotton twine in a double knot.  After you tie the knot give a good tug and it will “set” the knot.

I made all the strings too long.  It is easier to make the string too long and have lots of room to tie the keys on to the macramé ring and snip the extra off with scissors. After I tied each string on the macramé ring I covered the knot with Aleene’s Tacky Glue.

 

This is how the wall hanging looks from the front. I originally wanted to make a rainbow but I forgot to start with red!  Plan B was an ombre look starting with yellow keys, then orange, red, lavender, and blue.

 

This is how the wall hanging looks from the back before I dyed the strings ombre.

 

I soaked the strings with water in the kitchen and “painted” food color starting with yellow, then orange and red and finishing with blue.  I hung the wall hanging on a kitchen cupboard knob with a cake pan catching the drips.  It took a while to color all the strings but it added another fun colorful dimension to the wall hanging.

 

I took 16 gauge black annealed wire and twisted it in a free form of the word “love” and wrapped it around the outside rims of the macramé ring and added a few more pieces of wire underneath it.

Right until the end I didn’t know which color I would finally paint the ring.  I covered all the strings and keys with aluminum foil and decided to use red spray paint and I love how it turned out!

I can’t imagine how long it took to fill that jar that I bought at the garage sale with all those keys.  I used 100 of them in this wall hanging and still have half a jar left. It sure is fun to make something artsy and useful with something as humble as a key….. another unexpected craft supply!