Photo: modern50.com
For the most part, free-standing coat racks are a thing of the past. They belong to a time when closets were only deep enough to hold a couple of suits or a few dresses. As the American home began to include closets of ever-increasing size, the coat rack went the way of the lunchtime martini.
Of course, it’s still possible to buy a new coat rack, but modern versions can be a bit bland. Hunting thrift stores and antique shops, however, you will find no shortage of architecturally interesting coat racks, often with attractive patinas.
In fact, some vintage coat racks are so eye-catching, the last thing you’ll want to do is hide their beauty under layers of clothing. If you are lucky enough to have a coat rack on hand, here are five unexpected ways you can use it:
1. In the Kitchen
It’s an all-too-common dance: the pot-and-pan shuffle. Limited cabinet space often prompts people to nest smaller cookware items within larger ones, making it more difficult to retrieve what you need later on. A good, sturdy cast-iron coat rack eliminates this difficulty, because you can hang your most frequently used skillets, woks, and steamers from the rack’s multiple arms. S-hooks facilitate hanging, and rubberized coating (like this from The Home Depot) protects both your coat rack and your kitchen equipment.
2. In the Kids’ Rooms
When your child has his heart set on playing with that one action figure, it’s always lost in the toy chest beneath a landslide of LEGOs, Hot Wheels, and Tonka trucks. Meanwhile, the closet floor is a colorful quicksand: Things disappear down there, never to be seen again. Here’s an idea: Keep your kids’ necessities neatly organized and easily accessible within heavy-duty mesh bags hung from the arms of a coat rack. Use bags of different colors to create a whimsical look or to establish a color-coded organizational scheme.
Related: 13 Easy Ways to Repurpose Antique Armoires
Photo: craftgossip.com
3. In the Bathroom
Instead of installing towel hooks or bars in the bathroom, simply stand a coat rack in the corner. Use one side for towels, the other for robes, and presto—you’ve engineered a distinctive alternative to wall storage. Because the coat rack will come into contact with moisture, consider painting or sealing the surface with a clear or colored enamel spray paint. For this purpose, try LeakSeal from Rust-Oleum. It produces a water-resistant rubberized coating that not only protects your coat rack from damage, but can also keep your towels from slipping.
4. In the Bedroom
After putting a coat rack in the bedroom, you might wonder how you ever managed to live without one. This is a great way to keep your comfy around-the-house clothes off the floor and close at hand. Perhaps the most visually appealing items to hang are men’s ties and women’s scarves. A coat rack lets you enjoy (and show off) these accessories’ rich patterns, colors, and textures, even as they’re tidily stored and kept wrinkle-free.
5. Outdoors
If properly sealed, a wooden or metal coat rack can be placed out in the garden, where a new world of possibilities opens up for it. Hang birdhouses from the rack’s various arms to create a mini condo development for your winged friends. Or string a series of solar lights for a unique outdoor floor lamp sure to make your visitors light up.
For more on repurposing, consider:
10 Ingenious IKEA Hacks
5 Things to Do with… Vintage Ladders
10 Inspired DIY Planters to Dress Up Your Garden
- Painting >
- For Every Hue, a Mood: Use Color to Make the Most of Every Room
For Every Hue, a Mood: Use Color to Make the Most of Every Room
Photo: hgtvremodels.com
We often choose colors we believe to be an expression of ourselves. But the science of color psychology suggests that we might successfully select paints based, not on who we actually are, but on who we want to be.
The practice of using color to influence health and moods dates back to ancient times, when it was thought that blue heals burns, yellow alleviates breathing problems, and red overcomes paralysis.
Though it doesn’t support the bold claims of our ancestors, modern research has proven that, indeed, color can have dramatic effects on our mind states. By applying color theory in each room of the house, you can ensure, not only that your colorful abode is visually appealing, but also that it makes you feel great!
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- Perk Up Your Pool: Resurfacing in Fiberglass or Plaster
Perk Up Your Pool: Resurfacing in Fiberglass or Plaster
Photo: backyardswimmingpools.net
Ah, pools. Whether humble aboveground 15-footers or elaborately designed in-ground beauties, swimming pools are refreshing oases in backyards everywhere. They can be exercise-inducers, playgrounds, or simply soothing surfaces on which you can float and soak up vitamin D.
Pools are even nice just to look at—except when they’re not. Perhaps more than any other landscaping feature, a neglected pool radiates an air of sadness. If yours has gotten rundown, you probably want to avoid it rather than dive right in.
Related: 10 “Dream Worthy” Swimming Pools
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Seeing the Light: New (and Improved) Skylights
"Fresh Air" Skylight from Velux
There once was a saying among contractors that went, “It’s not if your skylight will leak, it’s when it will leak.” Fortunately, advances in skylight design and installation practices have made this old saw as useless as… well… an old saw.
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Creative Outlets: 5 “Energy Smart” Options
There are 10 billion electrical outlets in North America, and over the last few years, inventors have been hard at work making them easier, safer, and more energy efficient than ever before. Here are our five favorite innovative “smart” outlets:
Belkin Conserve Socket
1. Conserve. According to the EPA’s Energy Star program, vampire power accounts for more than $10 billion per year in energy costs. While “vampire power” might sound like the latest anemic thriller from Hollywood, the term actually refers to the energy some devices use, when they are switched off but still plugged in. Belkin’s Conserve Socket helps battle the electricity-suckers in a simple and easy-to-use way (that doesn’t involve garlic). Simply plug one of these $10 devices into the wall, set the switch to one-half, three, or six hours, and press the start button. The socket shuts off all power after the programmed time. In addition to vanquishing vampire power drain, Conserve works great for an air conditioner or fan you don’t need to run all night, or for a curling iron or coffeemaker you’re afraid you might forget to turn off in the morning. In other words, both energy and stress are saved.
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- Keep Off the Grass: 5 Traditional Lawn Alternatives
Keep Off the Grass: 5 Traditional Lawn Alternatives
Grass. It’s easy to plant, covers most types of terrain, and feels good under bare feet in the summer. It’s also… kind of ordinary.
Photo: lawnshelp.com
NASA satellite imagery shows that in America, lawns occupy about fifty thousand square miles, an area roughly the size of New York State. All that green requires many homeowners to shell out “green” for maintenance. That’s because many yards are planted with non-native grass species in need of extensive upkeep, from mowing and fertilizing to weed-killing and watering. In fact, it’s estimated that one-third of all water usage in the U.S. goes toward landscaping.
So if you’re ready to turn your resource-stealing suburban savannah into a low-maintenance oasis filled with color, texture, and fragrance, consider planting one of these five grass alternatives:
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