Header coat rack

Several years ago, we bought an old baseboard at an architectural salvage firm. That was our planned purchase. We also bought two old headers, some drawer pulls and a couple wooden door knobs. I had seen a coat rack made from those materials and wanted one for our house. When we returned home, I found that the place I had intended to hang them wasn’t suitable.

We put everything into storage until I could decide what to do with them.

Finally, the light came on. My sister-in-love loves architecture as much as I do. And my dad could sure use a coat rack. So I made one for each of them.

Since I was making two coat racks instead of one, I needed two more knobs. Marilyn and I had salvaged a bunch of brass doorknobs from a trash pile. I had intended to use them on a door, but they didn’t work. I threw them into my father-in-law’s recycle bin and he had taken them away. But I had inadvertently kept one of the knobs. (Apparently, I should never throw anything away!) I disassembled the doorknob set, retaining only the exterior parts. The interior went into the recycling bin.

My woodworking friend Darrell suggested that I drill holes 18 inches apart so the rack could be attached to the studs. I did that first.

Then I arranged the knobs to suit me. I drilled holes for them and screwed them on. I had to use dowels to attach the brass doorknobs. These holes required a spade bit. I had never used a spade bit before, so was rather intimidated. All went well. The dowel I inserted into the doorknobs was too big to insert into the exterior lock parts. I cut the big dowel a bit short of the full length of the doorknobs' hole and glued it to the handle of an old foam paintbrush cut to size. I topped the paintbrush handle with the exterior lock parts.

Project took a couple hours and was fun to do. Hopefully I can salvage the next boards and knobs myself.