The wall cleat and rope system.

My wife and I love hammocks, and I had an idea… Lets put one inside.

At first, my wife was like “you’re crazy, but if you can do it so that it looks really nice, go for it.” So I did.

I put a lot of thought into where it would go and how it would hang and how to adjust it and how to make it so you can get it out of the way easily. Here’s what I’ve got:

Required Parts

• Rope
• Pulley
• Carabiners
• Dock Cleat
• Lag Eye Screws
• Quick Link
• Miscellaneous

I used about 20′ of rope, but your needs will vary based on the size of your room, height of your ceiling, and length of your hammock. I recommend getting a thick climbing rope of a neutral color that will look good hanging from your wall and ceiling. It’s one of the most noticeable parts of this build so pick a nice quality one. You also want strength so that it can hold the weight of you and, likely, another person who will inevitably jump on you. SGT KNOTS 3/8 inch Utility Rope Made in USA – Several Colors – 50, 100, 300, or 600 Feet (Black – 100 feet)

The Pulley is optional. I actually didn’t use one and instead opted to connect a second quick link to the ceiling eye screw, but pulleys look better. Pulley – BQLZR M25 25mm Swivel Stainless Steel 304 Wire Rope Single-sheaved Pulley Block

You’ll need two carabiners. One for each side of the hammock. Secure these to the ropes with climbing knots. Carabiners – Hunter Safety System Recon Pro High-Strength Locking Carabiners, Rated up to 5600 lbs (2-PACK )

This is your wall cleat for wrapping up extra rope. You’ll want to have extra rope so that you can swap out hammocks and adjust hammock tension. Some people like the hammock more “let out” Shoreline Marine Galvanized Cleat, 8-Inch, Cast Iron

One lag screw will go in the ceiling to hold the pulley or quick link, and the other will go into the opposite wall stud for the foot of the hammock. 2x Lag Screws – National Hardware V2151 3/8″ x 4-1/2″ Lag Screw Eye in Stainless Steel

If you forgo the pulley, you’ll need two of these. They keep the two vertical ropes together for a cleaner look and provide extra tension. Quick Link – Stanley National Hardware 3150BC 3/16″ Zinc Plated Quick Link

You will also need a few other things: Bronze Spray Paint. Two normal lag bolts (~4″) for attaching the boat cleat to the wall. A few knots for securing the rope to the pulleys and boat cleat. Figure 8 retraced is a good one. I recommend climbing knots.

How to Build

On one side, there is just a large hook lag bolt into a stud on the wall, about 5′ up. The hook is spray painted bronze to make it look nice, and its kind of hidden behind some books on a shelf, so you have to look for it to notice it.

On the other side, there is a system of loops and hooks and tie-offs to make the hammock adjustable. (because people prefer different tension and we have multiple sizes of hammock.)

The path is the following: carabiner, loop of rope tied with a climbing knot, then through the quick link, up to a quicklink/pulley attached to a lag eye bolt in the ceiling joist, and then back down through the first quick link to wrap around the boat cleat attached to the wall with two lag screws into another wall 2×4. Kinda complicated, but it looks cool and easily allows you to a)disperse the weight between the wall and ceiling and b) adjust the height of the hammock by wrapping more, or less, rope around the boat cleat.

When its all set up, you can just chill and watch tv or play games on the playstation, and when you need it out of the way, you just unclip from the wall by the tv and reclip to the other sides carabiner and it just hangs in the corner, ready to be pulled out.

My wife was surprised at how much she liked it, and many, many people have slept in this thing already. It’s quite comfy.

Nothing like having a hammock inside…

If you want to build your own, here are some closeups of how I did the connections:

• Ceiling Connection
• Ropes and Carabiners
• Boat Cleat