30 Unique Ways to DIY Your Hula Hoop

So you’ve got yourself a hula hoop -- maybe it’s a heart-warming reminder of your childhood that you play with from time to time, a toy for your own children, or your favorite workout tool. But did you know that in addition to using a hula hoop for its intended purpose, you can use a hula hoop in a host of other fun and practical ways? What’s more -- you can build this all at home using some creativity and your best DIY skills.

Tents & Canopies

One of the most obvious uses for a hula hoop is a base for a tent, tent bed, or canopy. Its firm, round shape provides an excellent base for draping fabric to create a hanging tent. Whether you want to build a play tent for your kids or a beautiful canopy for your bedroom, the possibilities are endless.

Be sure to choose a fabric that is lightweight enough for the hoop--options include 100% cotton, jersey, and more whimsical fabrics like tulle if you’re looking for something more playful or feminine. Some projects advise that you use pre-sewn curtains, which is an excellent option to find fabric that naturally drapes and hangs well. You could even select two fabrics--one for the side drapes and one for the top piece to mix and match your hula hoop creation. Another way to spruce up your canopy is to select a fabric that is embroidered or features embellishments, whether it be fake flowers or small stars that glow in the dark. You can add lights to your creation yourself by buying tubed lights and fastening them to the core base of the hula hoop.

Here are a few ideas to get your creativity flowing:

#1. The No-Sew Kids Canopy Play Tent

#2. Kids Hideout or Reading Nook

#3. Dorm Bed Canopy

Light Fixtures

Hula Hoops also make an ideal base for signature light fixtures, particularly hanging ones like chandeliers. Possibilities range from the extremely simple fix of hanging strands of Christmas lights from a hula hoop to the much more ornate approach of building a chandelier using a hula hoop, lights, tulle, beads, and more.

If you want a more permanent, every-day fixture, use a hoop with more carefully arranged Christmas lights or tea lights to create a beautiful chandelier to hang over your dining table. Or you can really go all out -- using the hoop not only as a base for central lights, but as a focal point from which to stretch strands of lights across the entire room. Hula hoops create a natural base to hang and attach lights, as well as to attach strings, chains, etc. to hang a light fixture from the ceiling.

Ready to string up a chandelier on a hula hoop? Try out these light fixture styles:

#4. Christmas Light Chandelier

#5. Garden Lanterns

#6. Light Ball with Four Hula Hoops

Dreamcatchers

Dreamcatchers make beautiful decorations for your home, and for many, they hold spiritual meaning as protection against evil spirits and negative energy. If you want to create a truly unique (and oversized) dreamcatcher, a hula hoop is the perfect base.

You will need yarn or twine, beads, feathers, and more to create your dreamcatcher--let your imagination run wild and pick feathers and beads in bright colors and outlandish shapes. You’ll want to shape the core of the dreamcatcher by winding twine around the hoop to form unique shapes across the center. If you really want to go DIY, forgo the feathers and beads all together and create the hanging decorations for your dreamcatcher with strips of colorful fabric. You can even combine ideas and create a dreamcatcher chandelier, as the hula hoop provides a strong enough base from which to hang feathers and lights.

Check out these unique dreamcatcher designs:

#7. Flower Design Hula Hoop Dreamcatcher

#8. Crochet Dreamcatcher

#9. Rainbow Dreamcatcher

Baby Items

If you’re welcoming a new baby to your home, you’ll want to have everything just so and a hula hoop can be the perfect base for creating several personalized items for your child. Many love to hang mobiles above their baby’s cribs to entertain, distract, and soothe their child -- hula hoops are the perfect base with endless options for a DIY mobile, whether you hang ribbons, small animals, or paper butterflies from the hoop.

If you cut a hula hoop in half, you can create a baby activity gym/mobile using some fabric, a glue gun, and soft stuffed toys. Or a hula hoop also provides an excellent base for a toy/oversized rattle -- decorate the hoop with tulle, small toys, and materials of varying textures to create the perfect sensory toy for your baby. If you want to get really fancy, you can even use a hula hoop to create a homemade hanging cradle for your child.

Here are some of the most popular ideas for baby DIY:

#10. Ribbon Chandelier

#11. Butterfly Mobile

#12. Baby Activity Gym

#13. Baby Sensory Toy

#14. Crochet Cradle

Wreaths

Being a perfect circle, you can make a wreath with a hula hoop for any time of year. Naturally, you could make a traditional Christmas wreath by covering your hoop with greenery and baubles or an assortment of ornamental balls. If you want to make a wreath for the holiday season that’s a bit more chic, consider using eucalyptus branches instead of pine, and creating a decorative centerpiece for your wreath like the word “Joy” placed on twine.

You can also use a hoop to make wreaths for anytime of year--simply select fabrics and ornamental decorations that accompany the proper season--perhaps black and orange garland with spiders for halloween or pink and blue fabric with Easter eggs for the spring. A hoop can be a wreath for any occasion. You can even turn it into a floral wreath or floral peace sign to be a year-round decoration.

Start decorating today with these great wreath ideas:

#15. Green Christmas Wreath

#16. Ornament Wreath

#17. Eucalyptus “Joy” Wreath

#18. Floral Peace Sign Wreath

Holiday Decoration

While wreaths are the most obvious holiday decoration you can create with a hula hoop, the possibilities are endless. For Halloween, create a hanging decoration with cut-out bats (you could adapt this for any holiday, using snowflakes for winter, hearts for Valentine’s Day, shamrocks for St. Patrick’s day, or American flags for the Fourth of July).

Another great Halloween idea is to use a hoop to create an oversized spiderweb to hang as decoration. Other Christmas ideas abound--one of the most fun is to use a series of hoops to create a unique and environmentally friendly Christmas tree. Or, you can use a single hoop as the base for an outdoor tree made entirely of lights and a central stick or pole.

We love these unique decorations created by some talented DIY-ers:

#19. Hanging Bat Decoration

#20. Spider Web

#21. Hula Hoop Christmas Tree

#22. Outdoor Christmas Tree

Swings

Hula Hoops also make wonderful swings for the backyard. While you can certainly buy a custom hoop swing, those are pricey and a worthwhile investment primarily for those looking to use the hoop for training, aerial performance, and more. If you merely want a backyard swing for your small children, but don’t have a spare tire to make a tire swing, consider a DIY hoop swing. All you need is a rope, a hula hoop, and something to hang the swing from, such as a post or a tree. Pick a colorful hoop or rope to add an extra playful touch to your new backyard plaything.

Check out this cool hoop swing:

#23. Hoop Swing

Rugs

With their round shape and sturdy build, hula hoops are a natural base for homemade area rugs. There are a lot of options for making a rug from scratch with a hula hoop base. Perhaps the more complicated and more intricate method is to hand finger-knit a rug using the ball of yarn of your choice (nowadays, yarn comes in multicolored and color-shifting balls, so feel free to pick something totally off-the-wall). If you want to repurpose more than just a hula hoop, you can also make a rag rug out of the strips of old t-shirts. It’s a great way to clean out your closet and create a memorable piece for your home.

Get inspired with these unique hula hoop rug designs:

#24. Finger-Knit Rug

#25. Rag Rug

Showers

Do you need to make an outdoor shower? Perhaps for washing the dog? Or maybe you just want a space for the kids to rinse their feet off before coming inside? Or maybe you just need to build a shower in a small space, like your trailer or motorhome? A hula hoop is the perfect base for building an outdoor shower and hanging a curtain around the perimeter of the hoop. Simply hang the hoop, run a hose with a wide nozzle over the top of it, and string a curtain or fabric from the hoop to create privacy. Alternatively, you can place the hoop above a plastic bucket to help capture water for reuse later.

Here are a few examples of outdoor showers for you to try:

#26. Outdoor Shower

#27. Trailer Shower

Wedding and Home Decor

Hula hoops can be used for a variety of home decor, as well as potential wedding decorations. Want to create a decorative wall-hanging or wind chime--hoops are a great base from which to hang anything, including starfish and seashells if you’re going for a beach theme. If you’re planning your wedding, think above the table when it comes to your centerpieces. Hula Hoops covered in greenery with hanging flowers and petals are a striking alternative to plain bouquet on a table. String lights around hula hoops and hang them in your garden to give your yard a romantic gleam after dark. Or cover a hoop in rocks to create unique statues for your garden that will offset your flora and fauna beautifully.

These beautiful designs have been shared over and over on Pinterest boards:

#28. Seashell Windchime

#29. Hanging Centerpieces

#30. Decorative Rock Formation

When it comes to DIY projects with a hula hoop, the possibilities are endless. Go out there and turn your hoop into a thing of beauty.