Steampunk Wood Burned Hat Rack

I love it. I can hang it on the inside wall of the closet, I can add to it as his hat collection grows, & I had most of the items needed for this project already.

Supplies:

1x4 trimmed to 22 inches

Wooden dowel, 3/4 inch

Minwax Wood Stain, Special Walnut

Minwax Polycrylic

Acrylic paint

Set of curtain clips

Cup hooks

Wood burner

I decided to use a wood burner with this project. I love the look and so does Michael, which was something to keep in mind. The bedroom is a space for both you and your significant other and the decor should reflect both of your tastes. So I sketched out this idea, a little steampunk with the Day of the Dead skull, which he loves.

I took yet another plank from my horde of IKEA Malm bed slats (which is really a 1x4) and trimmed it up to 22 inches. I also grabbed this wooden dowel that was from a DVD holder someone gave us that I dismantled for parts. If you don't have something similar a 3/4 inch dowel from the craft store will work great and is pretty affordable. I trimmed up the dowel to the same length, then sanded both pieces down, painted the dowel black with acrylic paint and set it aside to dry. I then transferred my sketch on to the 14 by rubbing a pencil all over the back of my drawing, laying it over the wood, and tracing the lines with a stylus or pencil. If you are new to wood burning (or pyrography) or not very confident in your free hand (like me) I would recommend this. This was my first time wood burning since I was a girl scout, so I thought I would pass along some pointers that I muddled out. The wood burner that I picked up is a basic craft burner that came with 4 different tips. I recommend that before you start on your piece you take a piece of scrap wood and test out each tip and get a feel for it. I was surprised at how much the tips would catch on the wood grain, so this was very helpful to me in figuring out how slow to go, how much pressure to use, and what tip I thought would work best for me. In fact, each time I changed tips or took a break, I would run a couple lines and swirls on my practice block when I came back to reacquaint myself with the feel for it since I was a newbie. Also, don't be afraid to make a mistake. Most of my lines aren't perfect, but that's part of the craft. And if you are really don't like it, you don't have to live with it. I began burning in the upper left corner and after a bit I wasn't happy with it at all, so I hit it with the sander and erased it and started again.

So after I finished burning my design, I decided to stain the plank, but I wanted some parts to stand out. So I decided to apply the stain with a brush, leaving the cogs and skull unstained, then carefully busted out with a rag. The channels made from the wood burner helped keep the stain from spreading where I didn't want it to go.

After the stain had dried, I liked it, but it was still missing something. So I watered down some acrylic paint and added a little color to the leaves, around the eyes, and of course his top hat. (You know, cuz he is a sophisticated little French skull, with that curly mustache and dashing top hat). You don't have to water down the paint to apply it, I decided to because I wanted the wood grain to still show through. After the paint dried I added two coats of polycrylic to protect it.

After everything was dry, I screwed in 2 cup hooks into the bottom, about 3 inches in on each side. I slid on the curtain clips onto the dowel and slid the dowel through the hooks. I lucked out with these curtain clips too. I was going to pick them up at Wal Mart, where they are around $6 - $8 for a set. But first I swung into my local Goodwill to check for any furniture suitable for a makeover, and guess what I found? They had about 10 sets of these curtain clips, each set $1.99. Score! It's something to check in your area if you are collecting supplies for a similar project.

I am super happy with this hat rack. Michael really likes the design- it works for both our style aesthetics, I can hang up all his hats without taking up valuable closet space, I can add hooks to it as needed, and it was a very inexpensive project. A win win win win! My boys each want one of their own now, a pokemon theme in a fishing theme, respectively. And I'm really digging the fact that it's one more small step towards getting us organized. Only 1,247,384 more steps to go!

Always,

Caroline

likeaboss