Coat Rack made from an Old Door

We have a great mudroom area in our house, but when we moved in we didn't have anywhere to store our shoes, and all we had to hang our coats on were a few peg hooks behind the door. Not very efficient or attractive in my opinion.

I started planning out the storage bench and coat rack at the same time. The coat rack was definitely the less involved project. Below is a picture as I was laying out the project.

I started with a beautiful old antique door that had recessed panels. I cut the panels out with my jigsaw (if you have never cut out an interior shape, you always start by drilling a hole large enough to fit your jig saw blade in. Drill your hole in a corner, then insert your jigsaw and cut the rest of your shape.

Next, I used my router to get rid of the edge of the recessed panels on the back side. As you can see in the Sketch Up drawing below, I left the edge on the front side to support the mirror.

Then I could measure my opening and cut the mirror pieces to fit into the panels. I have a great resource for inexpensive mirror glass. I buy those cheap full length mirrors at discount stores like Target, Kmart or Walmart. Then I rip off the thin plastic frame and the paper backing. Use a glass cutter to score the front of the mirror and then snap the mirror in two pieces.  Then continue to cut until it is down to the size needed.

If you have never cut glass before, here is a short 1 minute video tutorial:

Next I sanded some of the silver off the back of the mirror to try to distress it. It took a while to do, and I'm not exactly thrilled with the distressing. Recently I stumbled across a few posts where paint stripper was used to distress mirrors. I would definitely use this route next time.

After all the mirror panels were cut to size, I laid them in the recess panel holes from the back and then used a thick bead of caulk around the edges to hold the mirror in place.

Next I had to build the shelf that the door would rest on. I recently bought two wall shelfs and brackets from a yard sale. I used one 7" deep shelf for the vertical edge (or backer board for the hooks to attach to.) I ripped the other shelf down to 5" inches (on a table saw) and used that to rest on top of the other shelf. To attach the two I simply screwed down through the horizontal shelf and into the backer board every 2 feet or more.

Then I added some decorative moulding using finish nails to secure them. You can see the different pieces on the edge.

I scoured eBay for a week until I found the perfect antique coat hooks. They are adorable and can hold many coats with the three prongs.

After everything was assembled, I located the studs in our mudroom wall and drilled holes into the backer board, then drove 3" screws into the wall studs.

The antique door rests slightly on the shelf, but it is also held secure by four L brackets that are mounted on the top and bottom.

Be sure that your coat rack is safely secured to the wall for safety reasons.

For this project I don't recommend using wall anchors. 

Take the time to find the studs, you will thank me four years from now when your coat rack is still holding up to children who can and will climb on anything!

I used Minwax Brazillian Rosewood gel stain to stain the bench and shelves. This was the stain color that matched the color of the antique door.

And there you have it! An antique coat rack to match my shoe storage bench.

I just love these eBay hooks! And the detailed moulding makes me happy.

Plenty of storage for coats for a family of four or more!

Learn how to build the mudroom shoe storage bench here.