DIY Coat Rack Shelf

The main issue I have with our new house is something that really only comes up around Christmas time. We have no mantel! When building our house we had the option to add a fireplace but since we have a townhome the placement was not ideal and it also took out one of our downstairs windows so in the end we decided against it. Now 11 months later I am struggling with where I’m going to hang our Christmas stockings come December.

I’ve gone back and forth between adding a temporary vintage fireplace mantel just for the holidays, floating shelves, vintage crates with added hooks, etc. etc. Finally I decided on a stained wood coat rack with a shelf. It seemed the most practical for year round purposes but then would still get the job done come December. We decided to build our own since I really needed to do some more projects with this baby on the way. Ha… kidding. We decided to build because 1) it’s cheaper and 2) we could make it the exact size we needed.

Here a list of all the supplies you’ll need:

• 10” x 1” x 6’ Wood plank (cut to size for the backing)
• 4” x 2” x 6’ Wood plank (cut to size for the shelf)
• Wood Glue
• Wood Stain
• 120 Grain Sand Paper
• Wood Screws
• French Cleat
• 6 hooks

 
First we cut our boards down to size (which for us was 42” long,) sanded and then stained them.

Second we used wood glue to attached the shelf piece to the backing and then used 6 screws to secure it through the back

Next we attached the 6 hooks using wood screws

And finally we added the French cleat to the back. Of course you could easily use another method to attach the rack to the wall. Since our piece was extra-long and I wanted to make sure it could hold a good amount of weight, we decided the French cleat would be easiest. In the end the project turned out exactly how I hoped! Now I just need to find some new stockings!