I Made Three Potted Plant Holders in One Go — And They Double as Coasters (Plus You Can Make Them Any Size)

There’s a particular kind of satisfaction that comes from finishing a craft project and realizing it does more than you expected. That’s exactly what happened the day I sat down to make a simple set of potted plant holders and walked away with three finished pieces, a new favorite coaster design, and a pattern flexible enough to scale up into something truly dramatic. If you’ve been looking for a project that delivers maximum results with a single focused session of work, this might be exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

Let me walk you through everything — the materials, the method, the sizing logic, and all the little decisions that turned a single crafting afternoon into something I’m genuinely proud of.

How This Project Started

I’d been staring at a cluster of small succulent pots on my windowsill for weeks, feeling mildly annoyed that they had no real home. They sat directly on the painted wood of the sill, leaving faint rings, sliding around when I watered them, and looking a little sad without any visual grounding beneath them. I wanted something that would hold each pot in place, protect the surface underneath, look intentional, and not take me three separate crafting sessions to make.

The coaster idea came a bit later, when I held up one of the finished pieces and thought, “this would look incredible under a glass of iced tea on the patio table.” And then the scaling idea came when my neighbor, who was watching me work, asked if I could make something big enough to hold her massive terracotta planter. The answer turned out to be yes — with basically no change to the core method.

What You’ll Need

Before diving into the steps, here’s a rundown of the materials I used. I’ll note where you can substitute freely and where it actually matters.

For the base material, I used thick rope — specifically a 5mm natural cotton macramé cord. You could use jute, hemp, or even a recycled twine in a heavier weight. The key is that the cord has enough body to hold its coiled shape without flopping over. Thin string won’t work here; you need something with structure.

You’ll also need a strong adhesive. I used a hot glue gun for speed, which worked very well. Fabric glue or E6000 adhesive would give you a more flexible, washable result if that matters to you. If you’re making these as plant holders that might get wet regularly, I’d lean toward a waterproof adhesive.

A flat, heat-resistant work surface is helpful — especially if you’re using hot glue. I worked on a silicone mat, which made everything much easier.

Optionally, you can use a piece of cork sheet, felt, or thin foam to back the bottom of each holder. This is especially useful if you’re using these as coasters, since it protects your table surface and keeps everything from sliding around.

For decoration, I added a few dried flower heads tucked into the coil on two of the three holders, and left the third plain for a cleaner look. You could also use paint, fabric scraps, shells, beads, or leave the natural texture completely unadorned — it’s beautiful on its own.

Making All Three at Once: The Batching Strategy

The reason I was able to finish three of these in a single session is that I approached the project in batches rather than completing one item at a time. This is a small but genuinely useful workflow shift that I recommend for any repetitive craft project.

Instead of coiling, gluing, and finishing one holder before moving on to the next, I did all my measuring and cutting first, then all my coiling, then all my gluing. By the time I was in the rhythm of gluing, my hands knew exactly what to do and I moved through all three pieces quickly without losing momentum to restarts.

I cut my cord lengths all at once before beginning. For a holder that fits a small to medium pot — roughly 3 to 4 inches in diameter — I cut lengths totaling about 15 to 18 feet of cord per holder. That sounds like a lot, but remember you’re coiling tightly, and the cord disappears quickly. I cut three sets, labeled them loosely with small pieces of tape, and set them aside.

Step-by-Step: Building the Coiled Holder

Start with the very end of your cord and begin coiling it flat on your work surface, holding the center with one finger. The first few rotations are the trickiest because there’s nothing to hold the center in place. Once you have a coil about the diameter of a coin, apply your first small dot of hot glue to bind the inner coils together, then press firmly and hold for a few seconds.

From there, it’s a matter of continuing to coil outward, adding a small dot of glue every inch or so to keep each new layer connected to the one inside it. Don’t apply so much glue that it pools visibly — a little goes a long way, and too much makes the surface look messy and can bleed through the cord.

Keep your coil as flat as possible during this phase. You’re building the base of the holder, and flatness is important both for stability and for the coaster function. I checked mine periodically by setting it on the table and pressing gently across the surface to make sure nothing was warping upward.

Once your flat base is the size you want — I aimed for just slightly smaller than the bottom diameter of the pot it would hold — you start the transition to the sides. This is where a lot of people get confused, so let me be specific: to build up the walls of the holder, you simply begin placing each new coil layer on top of the outer edge of the previous one, rather than beside it. The angle is subtle at first, but you’ll see the form naturally start to cup upward.

How high you build the walls depends on the pot you’re fitting. For small succulents, I brought the walls up about half an inch to an inch — just enough to cradle the base of the pot and keep it from sliding out. For a larger, heavier pot, you’d want more height and therefore more cord.

When you reach the end of your cord, tuck the tail end under the final coil and secure it firmly with glue. Once dried, trim any frayed ends with sharp scissors. If the end is still visible, a tiny additional piece of cord glued over it will hide it completely.

The Coaster Double Duty

Now here’s the part that genuinely delighted me. When you make a holder with a completely flat base — which you will if you pay attention during the base-building phase — the flat side is a perfectly functional, quite beautiful coaster.

Simply flip the holder over. The smooth, densely coiled bottom sits flat on any surface, and the slight walls that form the inside of the plant holder when right-side-up become a shallow raised rim when inverted — which is actually ideal for a coaster, since it catches condensation and keeps your glass from sliding.

For a holder intended specifically to double as a coaster, I’d suggest making the base especially dense and keeping the walls modest (around half an inch). This gives you the best of both shapes. You can also back the flat side with a circle of cork or felt for extra grip and surface protection. I cut circles of cork sheet using the bottom of the holder as a tracing template, then glued them on once everything else was fully dry.

The texture of the natural cotton cord is wonderful on a table. It has the warm, tactile quality of something handmade without looking rustic in a kitschy way. Several people who came over and saw them on my coffee table asked where I bought them before I told them I’d made them.

Scaling Up: From Coaster-Sized to Statement-Sized

One of the most satisfying things about this design is how seamlessly it scales. The underlying logic — flat coiled base, walls built by layering upward — works whether you’re making something the size of a tea light or something large enough to hold a substantial floor planter.

To scale up, you simply need more cord and more patience. But the technique doesn’t change at all.

For a medium pot holder, say one meant for a 6-inch pot, I’d estimate you need roughly 30 to 40 feet of the same 5mm cord. For a large statement piece meant for a 10 to 12-inch planter, you could easily use 80 to 100 feet, depending on how tall you build the walls.

You might also consider scaling up the cord itself. For a very large holder, moving to an 8mm or even 10mm rope dramatically reduces the time to completion while giving you a bolder, chunkier visual texture. Large-scale versions made with thick rope and intended to sit on a deck or patio have an almost architectural quality. They look intentional and substantial in a way that a purchased plastic pot saucer simply never will.

When working at a larger scale, the glue gun still works, but I’d recommend switching to E6000 or another flexible adhesive for anything that will live outdoors or hold a genuinely heavy pot. Hot glue can soften in high heat and may not hold under sustained weight as reliably as a purpose-made craft adhesive.

One more scaling tip: for very large pieces, you may want to use a lazy Susan or turntable to rotate the work as you add each new coil layer. Leaning over a large piece to reach the far side repeatedly gets awkward, and a turntable keeps the work comfortable and even.

Customization Ideas

The basic coiled holder is lovely on its own, but there are endless ways to make it your own.

Dyeing the cord before you begin is one of the easiest ways to add color. Natural cotton cord takes fiber-reactive dye beautifully, and you can achieve everything from soft botanical tones to deep jewel colors. A set of three holders in graduating shades of the same color — say a pale sage, a mid-tone eucalyptus, and a deep forest green — would be genuinely stunning.

You can also incorporate multiple cord colors into a single piece by switching to a new color mid-coil. The transition creates a natural stripe that feels deliberate and refined rather than scrappy.

Adding texture by knotting sections of cord before coiling creates a raised, bumpy pattern across the surface. Simple overhand knots spaced evenly along the cord before you begin coiling will appear as regular small bumps in the finished surface. This is subtle but adds a lot of visual interest when seen up close.

For a coastal or beachy aesthetic, working in pieces of natural seagrass cord alongside the cotton, or adding small shells and dried sea glass pressed into the still-warm glue before it sets, creates something genuinely beautiful.

For a more minimal, modern look, a single color of undyed natural cord with clean lines and no embellishment is honestly perfect. It pairs beautifully with simple white or terracotta pots and looks at home in any style of interior.

Caring for Your Holders

Natural fiber holders like these are not waterproof, so if you’re using them for real plants, be mindful of watering habits. Watering your plants in a sink and allowing them to drain before setting them back in the holder is the easiest way to keep everything looking good. If you do get water on the holder, set it somewhere with good air circulation to dry completely — trapped moisture in natural fiber can eventually lead to mildew.

If you’re using the holders purely as coasters, condensation from glasses is generally fine since it’s a small amount that dries quickly. For outdoor use, I’d suggest storing the holders inside during extended wet weather.

Over time, natural cotton and jute will soften and develop a slight patina that most people find even more beautiful than the original crispness. If you want to maintain the brightness of the cord, a light spray of fabric protector can help.

Why This Project Is Worth Your Time

There are a lot of craft projects out there that promise simplicity and deliver frustration. This isn’t one of them. The coiled holder technique is genuinely forgiving — mistakes get hidden in subsequent coils, minor unevenness reads as handmade character rather than error, and the materials are inexpensive enough that starting over if you really don’t like your first attempt costs almost nothing.

More importantly, the finished result is something you’ll actually use. It holds a plant. It protects a surface. It can grow from something that fits in your palm to something that anchors a corner of your living room. And if you batch the work the way I described, you’ll finish three of them in an afternoon and feel unreasonably accomplished about it.

That’s the kind of project I keep coming back to — the kind that produces something genuinely useful, scales with your ambition, and teaches you a technique you’ll want to use again. I’ve since made a set of six matching coasters for my dining table, two large holders for the plants flanking my front door, and a truly enormous floor piece that took an entire spool of rope and now holds a fiddle-leaf fig that previously had absolutely nothing beautiful to stand in.

If you try this project, I’d genuinely love to see what you make. The variations people come up with always surprise me, and there’s something wonderful about a simple technique that produces so many different results in so many different hands.