Cute-ing up the coat rack

We have an ugly laundry room, with ugly old brown cabinets and an ugly hollow-core door which we have a coat rack on. Well, the coat rack fell down one too many times which prompted my dear, sweet husband to put a 2X4 on the door and then screw the coat rack into the door. Up to this point I had been able to ignore the ugliness...but that was the straw that broke the camel's back! So, I took on the task of making the laundry room, and primarily, the door with the wooden coat rack abomination...CUTE! Yes, I painted, but that's not the cute part. I made a fabric-wrapped coat rack. I reused the old hook system, because I don't believe in throwing away perfectly good stuff just because it's not "perfect" for the project. But, if you don't already have a coat rack...you could definitely take the cuteness factor up a notch with a better looking hook system!

Here's what you'll need:

-2X4, cut to fit the space

-white fabric

-cute fabric

-hook system for coats

-screws

-buttons

-drill, for driving in screws

-Hot glue gun and glue to match

Here's how I did it:

1. Cut a 2X4 to fit your door or area. If you're doing it for the inside of a door, like mine, make sure you allow space on either side for the door to close! Typically about an inch on each side.

2. Lay the wood down on the white fabric and cut basically like you would to measure wrapping paper for a present, only it doesn't have to wrap the back all the way. PS--If your are using a completely opaque, thicker fabric you don't need the white...I was using a pretty thin cotton so I used white as my "base" so the super ugly stuff on the wood wouldn't show through!

3. Cut the cute fabric the same size as your white fabric.

4. Using a staple gun, staple the white fabric to the "back" of the wood going down one long side and then pulling taut and stapling down the other long side.
5. For the ends, fold them like you would to wrap a present and staple it down. (There are LOTS of different ways to do this...I just chose this one this time)

*When I stapled the cute one on ALL the staples were on the back...none on the sides as I did with the white fab in this pic.

6. Repeat for the cute fabric.

7. Using a drill, screw in two screws on each of the short sides of your now beautifully wrapped piece of wood and into the wall or door behind it. (Your fabric will probably twist a bit, but it looks intentional because of Step 8!)

8. Then screw in the hook system you chose.

9. Hot glue some sweet little buttons over the four screws you can see on the short sides of the wood.

No more hideous piece of raw wood with hooks on it. Now, a gorgeous, fabric wrapped, buttoned-up piece of art that also happens to hold your coats! Ahhh...much better! (Ignore the many nail holes in the door still, it's a work in progress...)