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
5 Things to Do with… Tin Cans
Tin cans are like air—they’re all around us. Most families go through several cans each week, and some even use that many day in, day out. Instead of recycling every single one of those cans, put a few aside for some quick and easy DIY projects.
1. MAKE PLANTERS
Photo: designmisc.blogspot.com
Transform yesterday’s can of diced tomatoes into a colorful planter or vase—all you need to get the job done is spray paint. Use your creation to brighten a windowsill or to delight a friend, neighbor, or hostess with a gift from your garden. Really want to perk things up? Add stripes, polka dots, or stars!
2. CREATE LANTERNS
Photo: thegrnblog.wordpress.com
Add some evening ambiance to your outdoor living area. These lanterns come together in no time: Just use a hammer and nail to punch holes in the cans, then paint their outsides in a pleasing pastel. (Or skip the paint; it’s your choice.) Once you’ve added wire handles and tea lights, get ready to light up the night.
3. ORGANIZE CRAFTS SUPPLIES
Photo: bhg.com
You can easily convert tin cans into charming storage containers by wrapping the cylinders with pretty paper. Punch a hole in the back of each decorated can, making it so they can all be hung via S-hooks onto pegboard. It’s a stylish and practical way to organize nuts and bolts, paintbrushes and colored pencils.
4. CONSTRUCT A BIRD FEEDER
Photo: plumadorable.com
Your kids would have a great time making this simple bird feeder. All you need is a dowel, a glue gun, some colorful paint, and a ribbon or string for hanging—oh, and birdseed! Hang the feeder in your favorite tree and sit back to watch the show.
5. BUILD A WINE RACK
Photo: recyclart.org
Tin cans and glue: It doesn’t get much more basic. Combine those two ingredients with spray paint, and you’ve suddenly got a DIY wine rack, plus another reason to buy wine!
For more on repurposing, consider:
5 Things to Do with… Old Tires
13 Easy Ways to Repurpose Antique Armoires
5 Upcycled Pot Racks & Cookware Storage Ideas
5 Things to Do with… Old Tires
Walking through my Brooklyn neighborhood this past weekend, I spied an interesting structure on the sidewalk. Someone had lovingly converted an old rubber tire into an outdoor planter with undeniable charm.
That reminded me: With millions of cars on the road—and countless tires languishing in the corners of garages everywhere—it’s a good idea (environmentally, economically, and creatively) to reuse tires whenever possible. Here are five creative ways to incorporate them usefully into your home and landscaping.
1. CREATE BIKE STORAGE
Photo: lushome.com
This one applies whether you’re sharing a house with a handful of bike-loving housemates, or your children have a habit of carelessly leaving their bikes strewn in the garden. Take a cue from Lushome, and reuse tires to introduce organized bike storage for your friends’ and family members’ beloved two-wheelers.
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5 Things to Do with… Chopsticks
Every single drawer in your apartment is overflowing with chopsticks. Sure, you could toss a few pair in the trash. But not many things in life are free; why waste one of those rarities? If only chopsticks could be used for a purpose other than lifting lo mein….
Good news! You can repurpose chopsticks in a number of ways. Here are five favorites:
1. BREATHE EASIER
Photo: bakeat350.blogspot.com
Summertime, when the livin’ is—SNEEZE—just great. We all know that dust builds up within our oscillating fans and AC vents a little too quickly for comfort. No sweat: Use a rubber band to secure a paper towel around the tip of a chopstick, then soak the towel in cleaning solution. Now wipe away those dusty areas and restore your cooling apparatuses to factory-condition cleanliness.
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5 Things to Do with… Tin Ceiling Tiles
Many of us know tin ceiling tiles as the reasonably priced domestic cousin of European plasterwork. Ubiquitous in Victorian homes, these lightweight, fire-resistant, subtly decorative tiles are finding a variety of unexpected new uses today—and not just overhead. Here are five creative ways to repurpose this classic American material.
1. UPDATE YOUR CABINETS
Photo: Better Homes and Gardens
Take a page out of Better Homes and Gardens and try re-facing your kitchen cabinets with salvaged or store-bought tin ceiling tiles. So simple enough to be done in a weekend, this upgrade is transformative enough to impress guests for years to come.
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Bob Vila Radio: Painting the Front Door
There’s probably no simpler, less expensive way to give your home a quick facelift than to repaint the front door. A new color can make your home look more welcoming, more dramatic, more quirky, or more cozy—all for the cost of a quart of paint and half a day’s work.
Photo: inbetweenlaundry.blogspot.com
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Listen to BOB VILA ON PAINTING THE FRONT DOOR or read the text below:
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Photo: shutterstock.com
You bought a beautiful antique lamp but upon closer inspection, you notice there is damage to the sheathing, the plastic cover that protects the wires. (Over time, normal wear and tear causes a plastic cord to crack or fray, exposing the wires inside.) Don’t give up on your vintage find! Instead, rewire the lamp so that it shines like new. You only need a few basic tools and a lamp rewiring kit (containing cord, plug, and socket) to restore the fixture to working order.
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5 Things to Do with… Maps
Whether you’ve been bitten by the travel bug or merely want to give the impression of being well-traveled, maps lend decor a sense of far-flung sophistication. Be it an ancestral family town or a favorite vacation spot, metropolis or no man’s land, maps do more than show streets and landmarks—they connect us to another part of the world.
So browse these great map DIY projects and ponder where YOU might take the maps-as-decor concept:
1. PUT UP WALLPAPER
Photo: Bob Vila Nation
Whether you work with one large print or a mosaic of different maps, a little glue can help you translate your wanderlust into a room’s stunning focal point as wallpaper.
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5 Things to Do with… Old Silverware
Silverware is so much more than simply the source of your next bite. After all, if you tap a knife on a glass of champagne, people will start kissing, or if you rudely bang a fork on the table, someone will most likely bring over some food.
And now with a little ingenuity, your silverware can even be repurposed for non-culinary purposes! Yes, pay homage to everyone’s favorite plate-to-mouth delivery mechanism by working silverware into your home’s decor—one look and your guests will be shouting, “More, please!”
Fair warning: Only real silver utensils will be malleable enough to work with. Trying to hammer sterling silver will only leave your bones rattling and ears ringing!
1. MAKE WALL HOOKS
Photo: thesundaysparkle.com
Flatten your silver spoons or forks with a ball peen hammer, heat the utensil in boiling water, then bend it around a curved object. So long as the silver is thin enough, you can then drill the silver to a small plank (or use glue instead). The result? A charming set of wall hooks!
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7 DIY Bathroom Storage Projects
If your vanity and medicine cabinets are anything like mine, they’re (1) too small, (2) too cluttered, and (3) work just well enough that you can’t justify the mess and expense of a remodel. Instead, opt to add some smart and stylish DIY bathroom storage solutions to make better use of the bathroom you already have.
1. MASON JAR ORGANIZER
Photo: Liz Marie
Perfect for those little items, this easy and clever mason jar project makes for an attractive display while providing easy access to the bathroom products you use every day.
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