Remember the ship dresser I shared a couple years ago? I realized I never showed you how I attached the rope handles, and I wanted to share that with you today.
Often with smaller rope, you can just tie a knot in the back. But the rope I used for this dresser was so stiff and thick a knot wouldn’t have worked well.
At Lowe’s you can buy rope by the foot and I just bought the length I needed for all the drawers.
I used a drill bit to enlarge the existing holes in the drawers so the rope would fit. Tip: Starting on the inside of the drawer, drill about a quarter way through the drawer. Then move your drill to the outside of the drawer and drill all the way through. Making a starter hole on the inside helps prevent the wood from chipping. I may have learned this lesson the hard way.
I found these clamp connectors at Menard’s for around 30 cents each and they worked perfectly for attaching the rope to the drawer. You simply slide the rope through the clamp connector then screw it down to tighten it onto the rope.
I chose not to adhere the clamp to the inside of the drawer (meaning the rope is able to slide in and out of the hole a bit-see photo below). It doesn’t bother me, but if it does you it would be easy to adhere the clamp to the inside of the drawer with E6000 or something.
It might look like the clamp would get in the way when putting clothes in and out of the drawer but my kids have been using this dresser for a while and it hasn’t been an issue at all.
And that’s it! So simple I almost feel silly writing a post about it, but I figured if I struggled to find a way to attach the rope maybe someone else would be looking for ideas too. If you have other ideas for attaching rope handles to furniture I’d love for you to leave it in the comments below so others can find all our suggestions in one spot.
If you’d like to see the full before and after of this ship dresser and how I painted it, click here.
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The rope handles are such a perfect touch to this cute dresser! And easy to put on, too!
So clever and cute to use rope as drawer pulls! Love it!
This is brilliant! Used this technique on some planter barrels to add handles. The clamps are called electrical clamps at my hardware store! Thank you!
Great idea for the planters! I’m glad it worked well!
Thanks for such a great idea!
Thank you so much for posting this, it’s the only post I found on exactly what I need! I built an under bed storage, two very large drawers on wheels. My sis came up with the great idea of rope handles. Purchased big ropes at Hobby Lobby without thinking of how to attach them and this will work perfectly, thank you!!