Coat Rack made from an Old Door

We have a great mudroom area in our house, but when we moved in we didn’t have anywhere to store our shoes, and all we had to hang our coats on were a few peg hooks behind the door. Not very efficient or attractive in my opinion. (Especially when my toddler filled the pegs with shoes. Do you think he was trying to tell me something? Let’s talk about this Coat Rack made from an Old Door.

But, soon, we had more storage for coats and shoes! Let’s take a look at how I built this beauty:

I started planning out the storage bench and coat rack at the same time. The coat rack was definitely the less involved project. Below is a picture as I was laying out the project.

I started with a beautiful old antique door that had recessed panels. I cut the panels out with my jigsaw (if you have never cut out an interior shape, you always start by drilling a hole large enough to fit your jig saw blade in. Drill your hole in a corner, then insert your jigsaw and cut the rest of your shape.

Next, I used my router to get rid of the edge of the recessed panels on the back side. As you can see in the Sketch Up drawing below, I left the edge on the front side to support the mirror.

Then I could measure my opening and cut the mirror pieces to fit into the panels. I have a great resource for inexpensive mirror glass. I buy those cheap full length mirrors at discount stores like Target, Kmart or Walmart. Then I rip off the thin plastic frame and the paper backing. Use a glass cutter to score the front of the mirror and then snap the mirror in two pieces. Then continue to cut until it is down to the size needed.

If you have never cut glass before, here is a short 1 minute video tutorial:

Next I sanded some of the silver off the back of the mirror to try to distress it. It took a while to do, and I’m not exactly thrilled with the distressing. Recently I stumbled across a few posts where paint stripper was used to distress mirrors. I would definitely use this route next time.

After all the mirror panels were cut to size, I laid them in the recess panel holes from the back and then used a thick bead of caulk around the edges to hold the mirror in place.

Next I had to build the shelf that the door would rest on. I recently bought two wall shelfs and brackets from a yard sale. I used one 7″ deep shelf for the vertical edge (or backer board for the hooks to attach to.) I ripped the other shelf down to 5″ inches (on a table saw) and used that to rest on top of the other shelf. To attach the two I simply screwed down through the horizontal shelf and into the backer board every 2 feet or more.

Then I added some decorative moulding using finish nails to secure them. You can see the different pieces on the edge.

I scoured eBay for a week until I found the perfect antique coat hooks. They are adorable and can hold many coats with the three prongs.

After everything was assembled, I located the studs in our mudroom wall and drilled holes into the backer board, then drove 3″ screws into the wall studs.

The antique door rests slightly on the shelf, but it is also held secure by four L brackets that are mounted on the top and bottom.

Be sure that your coat rack is safely secured to the wall for safety reasons.

For this project I don’t recommend using wall anchors.

Take the time to find the studs, you will thank me four years from now when your coat rack is still holding up to children who can and will climb on anything!

I used Minwax Brazillian Rosewood gel stain to stain the bench and shelves. This was the stain color that matched the color of the antique door.

And there you have it! An antique coat rack to match my shoe storage bench.

I just love these eBay hooks! And the detailed moulding makes me happy.

Plus, they allow space for decorating during the holidays!

Holiday Home Tour 2016 | Pretty Handy Girl

Plenty of storage for coats for a family of four or more!

Learn how to build the mudroom shoe storage bench here.

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Thea says:

May 2, 2014 at 8:50 am

I am so excited about all the projects. I live in a very small house and we will be adding a wee person in December, so storage, storage, storage. If you can’t build out, build up! Thank you.

sue says:

May 10, 2012 at 2:51 pm

I too would like the answer to this :)….Was the door solid, or do you think you could use a hollow door?

http://www.homedepot.com/Doors-Windows-Interior-Doors/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbuhvZ12l1/R-202505842/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Brittany (aka Pretty Handy Girl) says:
May 10, 2012 at 3:02 pm

Sue, the door was solid. You could certainly use a hollow door, but you wouldn’t be able to cut out the panels. Instead you could glue mirrors on top of the panels.

LG says:

August 22, 2011 at 7:54 pm

Was the door solid, or do you think you could use a hollow door?

Korrie@RedHenHome says:

August 28, 2010 at 2:54 pm

SO pretty!

Funky Junk Interiors says:

August 28, 2010 at 2:13 am

Fabulous! The outcome is so high end and elegant. Wow! And your install instructions are so awesome. I really appreciated all the info.

I've put you on this weekend's SNS sidebar. 🙂

Donna

Ginger says:

August 20, 2010 at 9:28 am

I am drooling! I LOVE it! Great job! It looks like a very expensive set!

A Pretty Pastime says:

August 9, 2010 at 6:47 am

Absolutely stunning! and a great tutorial 🙂 I found you through One Pretty Thing and have become your newest follower.

Katy

Meg says:

August 8, 2010 at 9:11 pm

Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! I have a deep love of power tools, but I'm working my way up to your level. I don't want to build things badly, you know? This is awesome.

Just Beachy says:

August 8, 2010 at 8:59 am

Great project , I love your philosophy I think more girls should get down and dirty with their projects its good clean fun .

Karen says:

August 6, 2010 at 8:26 pm

Wow! That coat hanger is gorgeous. I really like it. You are very talented and I hope to get up the courage to try something like that sometime! Enjoyed your blog-
Saw you on New Friends Friday. Stop by if you get a chance:

http://www.karismaheartsavannah.blogspot.com