Downsizing Days: Maximizing Your Closet Space/ DIY Coat Rack

 When we moved into our new loft, Ben of course saw potential while I saw one glaringly obvious problem: one closet! What was a bargain shopper to do? Oh the woes of the girl with 100 pairs of shoes. So, what did we do? We improvised. The one clothing closet just would not do. I immediately told Ben that would be my closet and the coat closet near the entrance would be his. Problem solved? No, not yet!

I'm a traditional girl. I need a place to hang my jacket. I need a hook for my purse. So the hubs and I put our minds together and came up with--what I believe is--our best invention yet! Not just a coat rack, but also a place for our shoes and a place to dry our clothes!

At first we were just going to make a coat rack. When we discussed new needs we would have for the new place, I also mentioned to Ben I wanted a clothes drying rack. That is when our clothes rack and coat rack duo was born. Pure inspiration, I tell ya! We use the coat rack side every day and the drying side all. the. time. When we aren't drying clothes, the rack folds up and lays nice and flush with the wall. Out of sight, out of mind, so to speak! Here's how we made it (note: I am by NO means a plumber or a carpenter so my terms may be slightly off. Whoopsie! :) )

 Supplies:

I attempted to make this diagram. I learn with visuals, so here you go!

2 10ft plumber's pipe (1/2 inch thick, black is the cheapest)
 *Note: have them cut it down at the hard ware store into 2 1ft pieces, 4 3ft pieces, 1 2ft piece and 1 4ft piece.
2 1/2 inch thick plumber's pipe elbows
3 1/2 thick plumber's pipe "T"
3 1/2 inch thick plumber's pipe floor phalange
5 feet of 2"x12" board
4 castors: 2 swivel and 2 regular
24ft of 1"x2" board
4ft of chain
10 1/4 inch wood dowel rods

2 hinges
1 hook latch

Tools:Pipe wrench
Nails/screws
Wood glue
Paint/paint brush

Step One:

Recruit your husband! Not joking.

Step Two:
Assemble the main frame of your pipe, leaving one side open so that you can slide your would drying rack frame onto the pipe.

Step Three:
Assemble your wood frame. We had ours cut to size right at the hardware, then came home and used wood glue and nails (the longer and thinner the nail, the less likely you will be to split the wood) and secure the 4 corners, making a frame. Before your last two corner are put into place, you will want to measure out each spot for your dowels and use a wood drill bit the size of your dowel to make holes.

Step Four:
Now fill in each dowel hole with wood glue and insert each dowel into the hole on one side. Once the first side is done, bring the other side of the frame together by placing wood glue in these holes and inserting the other end of the dowels into them. Now you can complete the wood frame with wood glue and nails and the last two corners.

Note: you will do the same process if you want another frame coming out away from the main frame, giving you more drying space.

Step Five:
If you have chosen to make two drying racks, one that folds out from the main one, you will want to bring the two together at the bottom with two hinges, using a drill. :) Also at the top, you will want to attach chain on both sides of the main frame and fold out frame, connecting the frames at the top as well, yet allowing them to fold apart from each other, maximizing your drying space.

Step Six:
Taking a 1 inch wood drill bit, drill holes in the top and bottom part of the main frame. These holes will be the ones you slide onto the plumber pipe, securing it down to the main rack.

Once you have made the holes, go ahead and slide the wood frame onto the pipe frame, finishing the rest of the plumber frame and completing the 'square'.

Note: if you know anything about plumber pipe, you must be wondering how we made a square because plumber pipe is threaded in one direction.That means you can easily attach three pieces in a 'U' shape, but getting that last piece in there is tricky, because the threading only goes one way. So we attached the bottom 3 feet on one side, assembled the rest of the 'square' then unthreaded the bottom piece, while threading its other end into the opposite corner at the same time. I hope this makes sense, because I have a headache just trying to explain it!

Step Seven:
Once the rest of your frame is assembled, attach the 3 floor phalanges at the bottom. Measure out on your baseboard where the phalanges will sit, then drill holes into the corresponding spots. Once you have done this, paint the whole board (or keep if bare for an ultra industrial look).

Now would also be a good time to paint the wood frame, if you are going to. We were stupid and painted it later. But whatever! We got it done with just a little bit of painter's tape!

Once the paint has dried, attach the castors on the bottom side and the rest of the frames into your previously drilled holes.

And viola! There you have it! This project is probably one of the hardest I have done so far for this blog. But I am super happy with the results! A place for my coat, a place for my shoes, a place for my purse and a place to dry clean clothes. What more could I ask for!?!

 Thanks for reading!
I'm so excited for the rest of the posts to come this week! I finally feel like I'm in the swing of things at work and can refocus more of my time back to this blog. I will be happy to be back! For now, have a great week!

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