DIY Rustic Coat Rack

by Jenn Marsh

3 Materials

$30

4 Hours

Easy

Without a proper mudroom, we needed an easy place to drop bags, coats and shoes. We had a small coat rack in the hallway outside the laundry room, but it was always packed full of jackets and coats. And anything else ended up on the floor. Using plywood and Ikea hooks, I DIY'd a new rustic coat rack and entry.

The first step was to empty the hallway and remove the current small coat rack.

Next, measured the length of the hallway and determined how long I needed the plank to be. From there, I divided the length to figure out how many hooks were needed. I ended up using 10 hooks. To ensure that the ends would be flush with the existing door frame, I measured the dept and determined any board I used needed to be 1/4 inch or less.

At Lowes, I purchased a 4x4 sheet of oak plywood and had it cut down into two planks to the length I measured earlier. This helped save some money as we could use a smaller size of wood. My piece of wood was 10 inches wide, but you could go wider or narrower depending on your hooks.

I stained the wood Dark Walnut by Minwax. After it dried, I added two coats of poly. While the stain was drying, I found the studs in the wall and marked with a chalk pencil so I knew where to hammer in the nails.

Once dry, we nailed the plank to the wall. While my husband held the plank, I hammered three nails into each stud to secure the plank to the wall. I ended up adding a few more where the planks met in the center to nail the edges down. This was by far the quickest part of the project.

Next, I hung the hooks. Ours ended up being about 8 inches apart. After measuring, I marked where each hook would go with painters tape. Then I measured again to double check that everything was evenly spaced. Tip: to save money, I re-used the hooks from the old coat rack and bought another rack from Ikea for a total of 10 hooks. With this save, I ended up spending $1.29/hook.

I also added a small bench to the hall, along with some fun vintage golf art. Now when I come home, bags and coats are hung, and shoes go in the basket. So much better than before!