Jackets. So many jackets. So messy. We bought a nice little modern looking coat rack from Wayfair for $50 with 3 hooks on it thinking we could manage. The idea was simple, we’d hang our current in-play jacket, and then neatly tuck away the extras in our closet. What was we thinking? Within 24 hours, we had 2 layers of jackets, sweaters, scarves, etc on each hook, with a hat to cap it off. Incoming project idea.

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Materials

• Scrap piece of 1×4″ pine wood
• Cabinet door knobs of your choice (If you have the time)
• 5/8″ Forstner Bit
• Wood Stain of your choice
• Top coat of your choice (Polyurethane)

Tools

• Mitre Saw
• Orbital Sander
• Palm Router w/ roundover bit

Instructions

1. Cut your spare wood down to size. Chances are your home has 16 inches between studs. Knowing this, you can plan your holes accordingly. If you aren’t sure, run a stud finder along your drywall and measure the distance between hits. I wanted my screw holes to be centered on my coat rack. Hence I took a scrap piece of wood and cut it down to 28 inches wide. This gave me 4 inches between holes, with 2 holes centered at 6 inches from each side for mounting. For greater clarity, the coat hangers would be positioned at the 4 inch, 8 inch, 12 inch, 16 inch, 20 inch and 24 inch mark from one edge of the board. Mounting holes will be placed at 6 inch and 22 inches respectively. This leaves everything centered with 4 inches on each side.

2. Once complete, take your palm router with round over bit and run it along the 4 edges of the plank. Here’s what it should look like when complete.

3. Pre-drill all 8 holes through your board.
4. Use a forstner bit to create a recessed slot for your screws to be tucked in nicely. For the 6 hangers, drill from the back of the board. For the 2 mounting holes, drill from the front.

3. Once complete, choose the stain of your choice and apply. We used special walnut stain. Wait until dry and reapply as many times as you like until you get your desired colour. We used a rag to apply the finish, just make sure to wipe in the direction of the grain. We only applied 2 coats. Once dry, sand to the finish you like. We used 220 and then a 400 grit. This thing is smooth.
4. Apply the top coat. Totally up to you on the finish you want. I had some spare semi-gloss polyurethane, so that’s what we opted for. Wait until dry to touch and then reapply as many times as you like. We did 3 coats for this finish. Always a good idea to do a light sand before your last coat. Application wise, I apply my poly in the same manner as my wood stain (with a rag wiping in direction of the grain).

5. Take the cabinet door knobs of your choice and screw them into your hanger slots.

This project takes 2-3 hours to complete, followed by 2 days of staining and top coating. In hindsight I rushed the staining and top coating process. For any DIY’er, this is where you should be spending most of your time to achieve the desired professional finish you want. I’ll add more polished finishes down the road so you can see what I mean.

As a last optional step, I used two black round stickers to cover the screw holes. If you have nice screws it adds character to the board and can be left as is, but my screws weren’t even the same colour (ha). Anyways – once complete, put it up along two studs, hang some jackets on it and post on Instagram.

If you are looking for more weekend projects, hit up our weekend project category for more ideas. Thanks for following along!

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