Our New Coat Rack!

Here's the coatrack I mentioned in my last post- I got tired of having those big ol' boards taking up space in my shop, so I made a point of getting it assembled this week.


It stands 5'8", and is about 3 1/2' wide. After it's got it's finish coat of polyeurathane, I'll add the hooks. The top crosspiece in back will hold jackets for my wife and me, and the middle one will also get hooks for our daughter's jackets. The top is intended as a shelf for library books- I am forever forgetting where I left the things, and ending up with late fines. Hopefully, this will help with that :)


The sides and feet were made from old waterbed sides that I salvaged, and the crosspieces were ripped from an old pine tabletop that I found somewhere years ago. That table top has had several lives- first it was a table for someone, then I cut it down a bit to make a top for the kitchen island in our old house, and now I've made it into a coatrack. If that isn't recycling, I don't know what is!

Everything is held together with 2 1/2" self drilling pocket hole screws, which are a *very* effective method of mechanical joining. They also allow me to dissasemble if necessary. I bought the top of the line Kreg jig pocket hole kit several years ago, and it was a very worthwhile investment- I use that thing constantly!

Once the wife finishes with putting on the varnish, and I get the hooks on, I'll post a pic of this item in use. Oh, and by the way, I was planning to paint it- but Tina insists that she likes it just the way it is, so it's poly instead of paint for this one!