DIY Coat Rack!

Our home is older and just plain sucks with the lack of closets and other places to put things and keep things organized. With 2 kids we definitely need more closet space for coats, hats and anything you can imagine.  I saw some really cute inspiration pieces on Pinterest and decided to make my own wall mounted coat rack to put behind the door in the kids room. The door opens in to a corner type cubby so I figured it would be the perfect pace to make a useful space.  Now that the coat rack is finished, I'm not sure if I want to put it behind the door b/c it is SO cute! lol It was actually pretty easy over all, I took some basic pics as I went for guidance if you feel inspired to make your own. After making this I really want to make a mini fabric covered hook thing for the front door to hang keys and all. Especially since we don't have an entry way, I think it would be cute to hang under the light switches.

I chose damask fabric (big surprise). Which doesn't exactly match either of the kids themes but I figured it's the colors I needed and it'll look cute and "eclectic" if anything. lol The room is mainly turquoise. The wood is a espresso so I thought the two would pop on the walls. Brayden's wall still needs to be painted. His wall will have the turquoise with white and darker turquoise horizontal stripes. It'll be cute when it's finished. Just finding a time to paint so his room can air out has been harder than we anticipated. 

I started with a long piece of wood. You can do different shapes, widths ext. to fit what you're looking for. I needed something about 20-24 inches wide that was narrower and wanted 4 knobs. I drew on my wood (since I was covering it) to figure out the spacing for the hooks. We did the 6" standard spacing b/w knobs and 2.5" extra space on the sides.  

You'll also need:

- saw to cut the wood to length

- sandpaper to soften the edges

- dill with bits to pre-drill screw holes

- fabric in desired print to fit wood size you selected 

- modge podge or spray ahdesive (i prefer modge podge b/c i have more control over it vs a spray)

- screw driver

- # knobs or hooks to fit the look you're going for (I did 2 girly and 2 boyish knobs)

- Optional* construction staple gun. ( i found it was easier to wrap and finish off the ends with the stapler and secure the fabric after it was glued around the edges on the back to make sure it wasn't going anywhere)

- mountable triangle hooks for the back to hang it on the wall. ( i still need to do this part)

- exacto knife or blade

Pre-drill the holes for the knobs or screw holes for your hooks so you won't ruin your fabric when you attach them.  

Next, cut fabric to the size needed, allowing extra to wrap around to the back and to be able to fold over the edges.  I then spread a thin layer of modge podge on the front of the coat rack and laid out my fabric. If you're using a pattern fabric it can be a little tricky to make sure the pattern is straight. That's why i only use a thin coat of the glue so its just sticky and you can pull the fabric up and reposition it as needed.  

Follow the same procedure of glueing and laying the fabric over the edges and on to the back.  For the ends, I messed around with folding the fabric to get the look I desired. I then used the staple gun to tack it down since glue would of been a pain. I also took the staple gun and did a few staples close to the edge, down the wood to make sure the fabric wouldn't go anywhere.  Make sure when u wrap the fabric you don't cover the holes on the BACK if you're using knobs so u can feed the screw through. 

After everything was glues and tacked in to place I used my exacto knife to poke thru the fabric where I pre-drilled my screw holes. This way I could feed the screws through the back to the front to screw the knobs on.  

All that is left to do is put your mounting hooks on. Depending on what you are hanging on here you could still use wall anchor screws or just nails to hang it when you're done.  Mount your triangle hooks toward the ends of your rack  on the back. Make sure you put them far enough down so that you don't see them when the rack is hanging on the wall.  I still need to do this part so I don't have pictures but hopefully you get the point.  

You can embellish and decorate your rack any way you like at this point! Enjoy!