A Furniture Tassel How-To: DIY Gold Banded Tassels

Thirty years from now I’m sure that many of my furniture pieces will have come and gone but I have a few pieces that I can’t imagine ever parting with. One of them is the large china chest that was in the dining room in our old house:

and is in the living room in our new one:

It’s a huge piece and I went into total panic mode when I realized (at the exact time that the movers were hauling this sucker in…) that the ceilings in our new living room are about 6″ shy of the standard 8 feet. It barely, barely fit. 

One of the details that I love most about it is that the upper cabinet knobs are actually metal keys inserted into little keyholes. They aren’t very noticeable unless you’re get up close to it so I thought it would be fun to add something to make the keys stand out a bit. I decided on trying tassels but all the premade ones that I found looked like they belonged in the house of a cute little old lady who loves doilies and fake flowers. So I decided to make my own…with a little bling 🙂 Sooo easy. 

I chose embroidery floss for making my tassels because there are tons of colors to choose from, it’s cheap, and half the work in making a tassel is already done because it comes bunched in even loops. I made each tassel with three 99 cent packs of embroidery floss, an adjustable gold ring (I bought {this pack} from Michael’s that had three gold and three silver rings), and a wire cutter (which you can avoid needing if you luck into smaller rings!):

Take the paper sleeves off the embroidery floss and cut about two yards of floss off of one of the packs – set it aside to use later. Line up the three flosses and put all six of the loose ends toward the bottom. Cut off the three long loose ends to make them about even with the short ones.

Next, find something that’s a bit fatter than a pencil (I used a scrapbooking tool but you can use a wooden spoon, skinny magic marker, etc.) and stick it through the loops of floss at the top. Then cut off a piece of floss (about 18″) from the two yard piece you set aside and run it though the top loops, tie it in a knot, and cut off the excess at the top of the knot to create the tassel hanger. You can always shorten the length of the hanger later if needed.

While pulling the tassel hanger taut, use a small piece of embroidery floss to tie a knot as shown. Cut off the extra floss close to the knot.

Remove your round tool from the top loops and then snip the loop at the bottom with scissors:

Trim the bottom to the length that you want your tassel to be:

The only adjustable rings that I could find were a bit large, so I used wire cutters to cut a little over an inch off of the band before bending it around the tassel. Beware – once you cut the band, the cut edge will be sharp so handle carefully! If you have little ones who may be messing with your tassels, I would recommend filing the sharp end.

Finally, bend the adjustable ring in a circle around the tassel so that the ends overlap in the back (bend the cut end around the tassel first and then bend the finished end over top of it). 

or find a fun piece of cord or trim to wrap around it:

I love the little added touch of whimsy it brings to my china chest: