Rope knot doorstop - a Ballard Design knock off

I have hoped to find an attractive doorstop (at a reasonable price tag) for our office for quite a while...well actually I wish for them ever time I open windows in our house. We have beautiful double french doors leading into our office, that unfortunately slam shut every time we open the windows.

After dreaming about many beautiful things on Ballard Designs website, I stumbled upon a great rope knot doorstop that was ridiculously priced at $45. I thought it didn't not look too difficult to make, so I recruited my husband to create two of them for me.

Source Ballard Design ($45)

As I was still sick and on the couch when I was dreaming of these, my amazingly wonderful husband ran to Home Depot and bought the rope for under $10 (20 feet of 3/4 inch was enough for 2) and then found some videos on YouTube detailing how to make the knot. The key to this was to find instruction on how to create a 'monkey fist knot'.  It took a while for us to figure out the name of the knot but once we did, a simple google search produced many different instructions.

 

My hubby practiced with some plastic rope from the dollar store and after about 5 minutes was ready to give the real thing a shot. At first we tried a rock as the weight in the middle, but the shape wasn't perfect. So while I was outside looking for a perfectly round stone in the garden, I found a tennis ball our dog had left behind. I knew it would be exact shape I wanted but it needed some weight. With my husbands advice, I cut a slit in the tennis ball open with a sharp knife and filled it with little stones from the garden. The stones gave the tennis ball enough weight to hold the door open while being the perfect shape.

After 10 minutes of twisting and tightening the rope knot, my husband produced the perfect doorstop that even had a convenient loop so we can hang the stop on the door handle when we close the doors.

Now I just need him to make 2 more for our master bedroom!

What do you think?

Stephanie
Linking to some great parties including: Story of A2Z, Thrifty Home