DIY Wooden Peg Coat Rack

So I learned the hard way that I can’t just screw hooks into the wall and hope for the best, even when I’m using specialty plaster anchors. These textured walls said HELL NO and so I was left with a swiss-cheesed wall and no hooks for our coats. Enter this handmade rack, fitted out with modern timber hooks from a surprising source.

The pegs are hanging planter hooks from Kmart. (I know; Kmart has already gotten some love on my blog. Kmart hacks are the new IKEA hacks!) I could have easily cut some dowel pieces, drilled holes and created these backing pieces (though maybe without the rounded edges), but for $10 I didn’t mind saving myself some time.

My materials list:

• 5 planter hooks
• 600mm x 6″ length of plywood, 12mm thick (NB: Mine differs – notes below.)
• 10x 6g button-head screws, 20mm
• Straight-edge ruler and pencil
• PVA glue
• Spackle filler (eg. Spakfilla)
• Primer, paint, brush and blue painter’s tape
• Drill, studfinder, and 75mm countersunk timber screws for screwing into the studs

Before doing anything else, I unscrewed the pegs from their backing, added a generous amount of PVA wood glue and then re-screwed them to the backing pieces. Some were solidly in place already, some were a little wobbly – this made sure that each peg wouldn’t budge. The tags rated them for a 3kg weight load, but with the extra glue, I’m even less worried about them.

Next, I took the plywood and drew five lines: 3″ (75mm) from the ends and 4.5″ (115mm) from each other.

(Important Note: My rack was on two pieces, because it wraps around a corner. I doubled the end spacing on each piece towards the corner, leaving 6″ free on either side in the corner. That way, the hooks and coats wouldn’t crowd out one another.)

I marked the midpoint of each of the five lines, and then marked the midpoint on each one of the hook backings as well. These registration marks let me exactly position each hook for gluing into place.

I put in some button-head screws to hold the hooks even more securely. (If I’m remembering right, these were 6g 20mm screws.) After those were in, I filled in the screw holes with Spakfilla.

I let the glue and fillers dry overnight, and then gave my board a coat of primer. Fresh timber doesn’t need primer, but if you’re reusing some wood that already had a varnish coating like this piece did, then it will.

I painted the backing board to match the wall, which is a warm light grey (Dulux Beige Royal, half-strength). The surrounding pieces (as well as the peg tips) were painted in the same white semi-gloss as the trims, Taubmans Winter Mood.

I attached the rack to the wall using a studfinder, a piece of painter’s tape to mark the studs (so I knew where to drill through the board), a drill and 75mm timber screws. I touched up the heads with filler and paint and hey presto, some pegs to hold my coats that WILL NOT fall down!

This little (and I do mean little) entryway hasn’t changed much in the past two years. Since that initial update – goodbye, blue carpet – we replaced the dated light fixture with a flush-mount LED light that had the thinnest profile I could find. Still have this secondhand mirror and the blackheart sassafras shelf I made myself, though.

If you’re wondering about the weird stripe on the ceiling: this room has a heavy pebble texture on the wall and ceilings, plus a low ceiling that stands around 7’4″. Adding ceiling trim didn’t feel right, and neither did painting right up to the edges. I read a trick on Apartment Therapy that claimed that painting 1-2 inches of the wall colour onto the ceiling border could make a low ceiling appear higher. I don’t know if it actually has that effect in reality, but I don’t mind the look of it.

The reason why I chose a mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis) for one of my upside-down air planters is because I’ve seen how hardy this one is. Two years later and HE LIVES. I’m so proud. It can get chilly by that door, but he manages to look after himself.

I might still have a to-do list as long as my arm, but at least I managed to fix something that should have been done correctly in the first place, and this wooden peg coat rack is pretty cute. Feels good man. There’s “doing it yourself,” and then there’s “doing it right.”