Coat Rack

After only just noticing that me and my partner have an ever increasing pile of coats laid across the top of our shoe chest in our hallway I thought the time has come to make a coat rack. I wanted to make something quick, simple, different and interesting. It didn't take me long to cut and shape something out. I chose a dried 30mm thick oak board with an attractive grain pattern. I shaped the corners different from each other also for something unusual. This is what I came up with:

Once sanded smooth I decided on only oiling the raised face side of the oak and the outside edge. A clear wax coat for the rest of it. The idea being a darker warm coloured face sitting on a lighter back. As if the front has been fixed on after.

I had this finished and waiting to go for a good few weeks while trying to find some hooks to use with it. I didn't want to go for new, bright and shiny hooks in a light finish. I was more looking for old, patina, worn, dull. At the start I was thinking a distressed bronze but after seeing a few examples I thought the golden bronze would not suit the look I was going for.

So a darker finish was the way forward. Many charity shop visits and car boot sales later nothing seemed to appear.

I had a massive stroke of luck when speaking with my partners mum about the hooks. She had an old coat rack in the shed with hooks matching what I was trying to find.  They were perfect. I could finally finish this small project that I though would take maybe two days to make, find hooks and put up. It was more like 6 weeks.

I gave the hooks a little scrub in some warm soapy water and dried them off thoroughly before mounting them. I decided on placing the hooks unevenly again for something different. And finally the finished project (before fixing to the wall) photographed by my partner Louise. (See her blog here http://www.dearestjackdaw.com/ )