A Place To Hang Your Hat...or Coat

Now that the basement is getting closer to completion, I focused on sprucing up the staircase leading downstairs.  It only took about an hour (and about $17) to create this coat rack. 

Not only does it provide extra space to hang dog leashes and a towel to wipe off wet paws as the dogs come in from outside, it will also serve as a guest coat rack.  I have a coat closet and shoe closet upstairs that I use on a regular basis, so it's not likely that this will get much use from me.  Regardless of how often it gets used, it does spruce up the joint...

The stairwell was looking a little bare prior to this update.  And it's looked like this for a year.  Shakes head in disgust of herself. 

And, just in case you want to see what a little bit of paint and trim can do, here is what the staircase looked like prior to my makeover....

Eesh... it wasn't a good entrance, and it became a meeting place for the spider-kind.  When I first bought this house, this hallway was a tunnel of blue and gray-blue... All I did was update with paint, trim and a little bit of carpet from the basement remodel (which you can't see in any of these pictures).  I removed the old blue carpet from the stairwell and only had the carpet in the basement installed up to the landing.  This area of the house just gets too much use to have carpet.  I had the installers leave me a piece of carpet large enough to cover this area (should I list the house), but in the meantime, the dogs bring in too much snow, leaves and dirt for there to be carpet here.  And from the landing to the kitchen, I removed the carpet (and 3 layers of linoleum underneath) and painted the wood with some floor paint. 

Okay, back to the coat rack...

I had a scrap piece of 1x4 trim that I removed from the basement (and then replaced with new 1x4).  This would work perfectly for what I was looking to do.  I picked up 5 flat black coat hooks from Lowe's - for about $3.25 each.  The scrap piece of trim was pretty gouged and scratched, so first I filled all the holes and gouges and sanded it.

Then I laid out the hooks on the trim and measured where I wanted them to go.  I pre-drilled two holes for each hook, and then pre-drilled one larger hole in the center of each hook placement.  This would allow me to mount the coat rack on the wall with 5 screws that will be hidden once the hooks are drilled into place.  I also wouldn't have to countersink screws or have mounting brackets showing once the coat rack was complete.

 

Because I'm working with plaster walls, it's difficult to just drive a screw into the wall.  So I placed the coat rack where I wanted it to be on the wall and drilled a pilot hole through the very center hole and through the wall behind  This allowed me to hang the trim piece by one screw, level it, then drill the remaining pilot holes.  I then placed a screw in each remaining pre-drilled hole on the trim and screwed them in one at a time.  This allowed me to easily make adjustments if the trim piece was unlevel. 

I used a bead of paintable silicone caulk to close up the gaps between the trim and the wall and brushed on a final coat of white paint (the same semi-gloss Ultra White I have used for the rest of the trim in the house). 

Then, using the smaller pre-drilled holes as a guide, I screwed each hook into place hiding the mounting screws. 

The whole process took less than an hour, and it really added some interest to the wall. 

Now, when you come and hang out in "Justin's" basement, atleast you'll have somewhere to hang your coat. 

 Not bad for $17!

 

What have you created out of scrap wood lately? I love the feeling of knowing I saved a little bit of scrap from going into the trash. 

 

Thank you for reading!

Mary