First I’ll show you some before and after pictures.Those are always fun!

Although the bureau was very functional (the drawers held returns and items that were left by visitors which needed to be returned), the piece was very dark and since my entry tends to be a little dark anyways, I wanted to brighten it up. The basket to the right of the bureau holds the kids’ shoes that they wear every day.

I typically only allow 1 coat per household member on the coat rack but sometimes they sneak in a few others.

My walls are currently painted a nice warm yellow but I didn’t like the looks of the finished coat rack on the yellow wall, so I decided to paint the wall white. I’m a little unsure of myself when it comes to making these kinds of decisions, so I only painted the one wall. I think I would like to paint the rest of the house white but I’m still thinking it through and that makes my husband happy because 1) he really wants to keep the yellow, 2) he hates painting and 3) it will be pretty expensive to hire out if he doesn’t do it. (I’m not sure I’m up to the task either!)

The next picture shows the wall white but no rustic coat rack yet.

I bought 3 baskets and placed them under a bench that I already owned and moved to the entryway. The baskets are now holding shoes and returns. It’s a necessity since the shoes need a place to go when the kids come in the door. It helps keep things clutter free, too and that’s always a plus!

Once the wall was painted we could hang our new coat rack up. My hubby did a splendid job.

If you would like to make one here’s what you need to purchase and the directions to make your own.

Supplies Needed

• 1×4 boards
• wood glue
• screw gun w/ screws
• paint
• 1×8 board (for shelf)
• 2 brackets to support shelf
• wood stain
• knobs

Step 1 – Cut your 1×4 boards the length that you want your coat rack to be, then lay them together as the picture shows.

Step 2 -Cut 2 boards the height of your coat rack to use for the backing that will hold all the boards together. (See picture)

Step 3 – Glue the backing boards on using wood glue.

Next you will screw it down.

To keep all the boards tightly together so there would not be big gaps, we used a clamp to hold the boards in place.

Step 4 – Pre-drill your screw holes so your wood won’t split when screwing the screws in, then once you have pre-drilled them, go ahead and screw them in all the way.

Step 5 – Paint your coat rack.

Step 6 – Add knobs. I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby and waited until they had them at 50% off.

Step 7 – I then cut a 1x8x5 board the width of the coat rack and then stained it. (Sorry, no pictures of this step.)

Step 8 – Then my handy husband screwed the brackets onto the coat rack, screwed the hole thing to the wall and lastly, mounted the shelf and screwed it on. The screws that went into the wall are hidden behind the shelf.

Thank you to my husband, Russell for helping me on this project. I couldn’t have did it without him… or at least it wouldn’t have looked near as good!

When I saw this entry way coat rack at Liz Marie Blog I fell in love with it and was especially excited because I knew I could make my own.

The coat rack on the right had to stay. The family is so used to hanging their winter  coats there during the winter season, that they I had a revolt on my hands when I attempted to take it away. I’d rather they hang their coats their than start throwing it on the bench!

Next time, I’ll show you the before and after of the entryway and how you can make this entry way coat rack, too.

Save

This is the night of his highschool graduation celebration in 2008. Seth and his grandma (my mom) – and she is sitting in the chair he had made.

It was showing wear even then so I’m not sure when he actually built it. But fast forward to 2013 and the arm of the chair broke in half. Me being the sentimental girl that I am thought we should save the chair and try to repair it but since that never happened an executive decision was made by Seth that we needed to get rid of it. So it was taken to the burn pile where it was to be chopped into tiny pieces (sniff, sniff).

I just knew we needed to do something with the chair and one day inspiration struck. I went and took off one of the long boards on the back of the chair and decided to make it into a decorative piece with knobs. I have no idea what to call it since it’s not meant to hold coats but that’s probably the closest description I can think of. A coat hook.

I removed the piece of wood and after that the project became my husbands. haha

First he measured where the knobs would go.

Drilled holes…

…countersunk the screws on the back so they wouldn’t scratch and rub into the wall.

And after doing some measuring on the wall, the coat hook was screwed into the wall.

I found the knobs at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

I purchased a clipboard from the dollar store, added a piece of scrapbook paper to fit and printed out an inspirational quote to hang from the clip.

I’m not done in this space but I am excited to see some progress being made!

Linking up with:

Remodelaholic

Raising Homemakers

For Emily’s wedding  I had bought the commercial plastic wrap for all the little mini desserts I made and transported to the reception hall.  I didn’t use very much of the wrap but it served its purpose well.  I knew I wanted to have the plastic wrap somewhere where I could access it easily in the future but where.  My pantry was quite full already and there was not room for this large box of wrap.

This is my appliance center which holds my grain mill, juicer and bread machine.  The bread machine gets used very infrequently but I’m still hoping that if I have it setting right there, easy to get to, that I’ll use it!

You can tell that this area has started accumulating a few extra items that really don’t belong here.

So, I was thinking and thinking about where could I put this plastic wrap so that it would be convenient for future use… and then it hit me.  Why not put another shelf above the grain mill counter?

I opened the lid of my bread machine so that I could get an idea of how low I could go with my shelf.  Yes!  There’s plenty of room for another shelf.  It’s interesting to note that for 16 years I had never thought about another shelf, but when I needed one, the creative wheels started turning and inspiration struck.

First I had to measure the previous shelf’s cleats (my husband tells me that’s what they’re called), since I wanted this shelf to be the same as the one above it.

Measure the cleat across the back as well.

Purchase your 1×2 mdf strips as well as your shelving material.  I bought a shelf with a rounded front.  I had Home Depot cut my shelf to the length I needed.  I cut the 1×2 strips here at home.

Paint them.  This step took the longest of the whole project.

At this point, Russell couldn’t not get involved.  He was worried that I would do something wrong which I probably would have. lol  I had never operated a finish nail gun so who knows what would have happened.

He located the studs with a stud finder and then used the finish nail gun to nail in the cleats.

Place the shelf onto the cleats and nail in place.  In my case, the nail gun wouldn’t fit into the area so we used caulking glue.  You place the caulking glue on the top part of the cleat, place your shelf on top of this and push down so that it can adhere.

All finished and in use!

Things looks a little better here now.

So, I’m curious.  Do you wish you had a bigger pantry or is yours just the size you need?  AND… do you have and use a bread machine?

Joining up with:

Funky Junk Interiors

Home Savvy A-Z

DIY Home Sweet Home

Keeping It Simple

Kammy’s Korner

Not Just a Housewife

Domestically Speaking