The other day, I was scrolling through reels, and I came across a beautiful hallway makeover. It caught my attention because the “after” had white wainscoting and a blue-green grasscloth on the walls. It was very “me”. But as I watched it for the fourth or fifth time, I noticed a beautiful brass wall-mounted coat rack. I scrolled through the comments to see if a source was given, and I found that it was from Rejuvenation.
I get asked on a fairly regular basis if we have a coat closet for guests. We don’t, so I thought that this wall-mounted coat rack would be perfect for the narrow wall space to the right of our front door. So I immediately looked up this coat rack, but found that it only had three double hooks. I really wanted a larger one with more hooks. They actually did have one, but it was $199, and that seemed like a lot of money for a brass wall-mounted coat rack.
I looked up others, but none of them seemed as nice as the Rejuvenation coat rack. And the only one that I did like just as much as the one from Rejuvenation was too wide for my wall space. So I got the clever idea to just make my own. I had this vision of a walnut backing with gold hooks on it. I found some really pretty hooks on Amazon (affiliate link), so when they came yesterday, I thought this project would be the perfect diversion from the dreadful storage closet project. (Yes, I’m procrastinating.)
I have plenty of scrap plywood, so I used my table saw to cut a piece to the right width for my wall space.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-1-1200x900.jpg)
And then I determined how I wanted my hooks arranged to determine how tall the plywood needed to be.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-2-1200x900.jpg)
Once determined, I cut it down the right height.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-3-1200x900.jpg)
I also have quite a bit of leftover walnut veneer from past projects, so I cut a piece and used contact cement to attach it to the plywood.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-4-1200x900.jpg)
Once that was adhered to the plywood, I used a new, sharp razor blade to cut off the excess.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-5-1200x900.jpg)
For the edges, I decided instead of using veneer, I would use the gold tape that I used on my studio cabinets.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-6-900x1200.jpg)
Here’s how that looked once it was attached.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-7-1200x900.jpg)
I tried couple of different ways to put the walnut backing on the wall, but everything I tried (like a sawtooth picture hanger and other picture hangers) made it stand out from the wall. So I decided to just screw the board to the wall directly through all four corners.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-8-900x1200.jpg)
Here’s how that looked once it was fully attached to the wall.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-9-900x1200.jpg)
To cover those screw heads, I used these huge gold tacks that I found to hang my oversized calendar in the studio, and I used wire cutters to cut the point off so that I was just left with the big round gold head of the tack.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-10-900x1200.jpg)
And I hot glued those over the screw heads…
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-11-1200x900.jpg)
And then I started screwing on the hooks. After the first one was up, I started questioning this whole plan. I wasn’t loving it. But I decided to press on, and I put up the second one. It didn’t get any better for me.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-12-900x1200.jpg)
I was so disappointed. Sometimes, I envision something in my head, and it turns out just as good or even better than what I had envisioned. Sometimes things don’t turn out at all like what I had envisioned. And this one was definitely a swing and a miss for me.
The real bummer is that when I was taking it down and trying to disassemble it, I stripped one of the screws, and so I can’t get this one off of the backer boards.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-13-900x1200.jpg)
And then I tried to attach the hooks directly to the wall, and one of the screw heads twisted right off of the screw.
![](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wall-mount-coat-rack-14-900x1200.jpg)
So my idea didn’t work out at all. All I wanted to do was procrastinate on the project I really needed to be working on 😀 , and do something quick and fun, and have some almost immediate gratification with a pretty but useful finished project. But that didn’t happen. All I ended up doing was wasting a valuable day when I could have finished my storage closet, and poking some holes in my wall that now need to be repaired.
But that’s okay, right? We win some, we lose some. And I like to share my failed projects because (1) that’s the reality of DIYing. Every creative is going to have a fair share of fails. But also, (2) I think even my fails can possibly spark another creative idea, if not for me, then possibly for you. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve watched someone online create something that I had no interest in, or something that I thought was downright ugly, but their process or the products they used sparked a creative idea for me
I should have just done that in the first place. But I’ll find a use for the other hooks. I need a hook or two by the back studio doors, and I’m sure I can use the rest on my future closet. So at least they won’t go to waste. And I’m glad about that, because they really are pretty.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.