How to Make a Rustic Mudroom Coat Rack Shelf - Quick and Easy DIY

When I first moved in with my fiancé, his house was EMPTY. It echoed. There wasn't a single nail or screw hole in the wall. Not a single piece of art or a clock. There was furniture and... um, nope - just furniture. And very little of that.

I am a maker, a collector of cool stuff, and an artist. Pair these with my tendency to use a house, and it's no surprise that the empty abode is a thing of the past. A week never goes by when I don't put at least one hole in a wall. Several of those holes are for shelving.

Which brings us to this Instructable how-to... How to Make a Rustic* Mudroom Coat Rack and Shelf (which isn't for my mudroom, because I don't have one. but the back door situation gets a little muddy, soo...) It was super quick and easy to build. I maybe have 20 minutes into this one, if you don't count my walk into the woods to get a branch.

In fact, it's so easy that you probably don't even need instructions. I'm writing this shelf-ible mostly as encouragement to think outside the proverbial box and use what you have to make stuff. Screw a branch into the wall? Yep. Go right ahead.

*side note: the word rustic really bugs me, kind of like the word patina. Overused, and usually describing something that's been made that way by some crafty technique instead of nature. Blech. Buuut... rustic is the hotness on a few sites at the moment, so I'm selling out for the sake of making this -ible findable. Not proud of it.

Tools

• chop saw
• drill with countersink and hex bits
• pencil
• mini sledge
• vise
• level

Materials

• branch
• 1x board from something I previously tore apart and saved the wood from
• 1 1/2", 2", and 4" screws
• dinner spoons

Cut wood for the shelf. Mine were 8x10ish and 8x4ish. Fasten the shelf floor to its backstop.

Clean up the branch. Cut it to desired length.

Decide how you want your branch oriented on the wall. It is easiest if you choose the flattest side to butt up against the wall. Cut away any protruding knots and deep bends from the wall side.

Predrill holes 16" apart in the branch. My branch was about 4" diameter, so I countersunk to a 2" depth to leave me enough screw to anchor in the wall.

Locate studs in your wall. Fasten branch to the wall at studs.

Using a level, determine position for your shelf. Mark on wall. Countersink and fasten shelf to branch. I had some pretty coarse-threaded screws and won't be putting a ton of weight on the shelf portion, so I just used the screw body as a spacer and fastened to desired depth to make it level. If you'd like, you cut use sleeves or wood for spacers/shims.

Using a hammer or small sledge, pound your spoon bowls flat. Place in vise. Bend to desired hook shape. Drill a hole in each flattened bowl. Fasten at even intervals along branch.

• Clean all the sawdust off the floor before anyone gets home
• Paint or stain shelf
• Paint the flattened spoon bowls to look like leaves
• Hang coats, gloves, hats
• Take a photo for your "stuff I made" file (my dog gets in all my "stuff I made" photos. This project was no exception. That's cool... he is my best helper)

Now admire your creation and pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Great work! Although with your mad DIY skills, I am hardly surprised...

Keep making stuff awesome!