Shabby Chic Coat Rack Makeover

Just before we moved to Madison, WI, I made a coat rack from 2 planks of wood, which I glue together, then screwed together, painted it a darkish green color then distressed it a little. Then on one of my many shopping trips to Hobby Lobby, I found some wonderful Cast Iron Hooks.

This is what it looked like before.

Not great but okay.

I REALLY don't like the ugly fugly, brown one underneath, but I can't take it off. I think the student housing must have used industrial strength to stick it to the wall as well as screws. So now with the winter here and our coats new place of residence, you can't see much of that brown one - yeah!

This is what I did to make over the green color.

First I, unscrewed the hooks, then lightly sanded over the wood, to take off the finishing wax.

I have wanted to try my hand at the crackling paint technique, but I didn't want to have to buy the special paint to do so. Then I remembered - Elmer's glue :)

Then using Elmer's Glue I painted all over the wood ( oops forgot that picture) Leave to dry, but only until it is TACKY.

Then using white paint, I Loaded my brush and painted over the tacky glue, in one direction -

Don't go back over what you've painted. Just keep painting till you have covered the wood.

Don't worry if in some parts the paint is thicker than others, you're going for a distressed look.

Then watch in awe, as within 5 minutes see the paint crack !

Now I did use a scraper after the paint had completely dried, just to scrape off little bits of paint here and there.

Screw you hooks back in place and then I hung the coat rack back up.

Now I love how it looks, the Cast Iron Hooks, really pop!

My Shabby Chic Coat Rack Makeover.

Ah...much better, don't you think.

I know I do!

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Bathroom Shelf.

A Rustic, Shabby Chic Bathroom Shelf.














Our towel rail was plain and boring, and our bathroom had little appeal to it and needed some help. With being limited to what I can do, in our student housing..... I tried to work with what I had.

I had picked up some timber from our local 'Ace Hardware' store, with the intention to make an extra shelf to store our toothbrushes and the items we used the most.

I started by measuring how big, I wanted the shelf to be, and it had to be small enough to be able to close the bathroom door, without it getting in the way.

I measured the wood & made my cuts, Three equal lengths to make the sides & bottom, Then sanded down the edges, but not too much as I wanted it to look aged and weathered.

Here is the wood pieces, making sure they were the right fit.

Next I turned them over,  lined them up and pre-drilled holes for the screws.

Next I cut my pieces  & sanded that will go inside of the shelf, to make the dividers and the two end pieces.

The edges are quite rough, but I will sand them down with my electric sander. You can see in the picture below the dividers ready to have a dry test run.

They fit perfectly. I took them out and set them to the side.

Flipping the whole shelf so that the bottom faced up, I nailed through where I wanted the dividers to go.

Here you can see the nail poking through, then I placed the divider over the nail, pushing it down hard, then flipped the shelf back over & hammered the nail all the way in.







Next, I nailed the sides to hold the dividers in place - doing it on both sides.

I sanded the whole shelf, but not too much,

 As I wanted to keep the roughness to it. I wanted the weathered look.

Next I had, some cheaper $1 white & black spray paints from Walmart. I used this as my primer. Giving it three coats of black first, then once that had dried, then did the same using the white paint. ( I somehow lost the picture of the black paint on the shelf)

In this you can see the black peeking through. I sanded it lightly around the edges.

I'd purchased a towel rail from Walmart for $10 - I laid the template down on the underside of my shelf & made the marks where the rail was to go.

Measured to make sure the bar fit perfectly, then I drilled the fixings in place.

Make sure you screw the tightening screw to hold the ends in place, otherwise you'll have a wobbly towel rail.

I added some D-Rings on the back to hang it up. 

Here I had some matching Drawer handles left over from making my Clock Wall Hanging, I used 3 on my shelf.

Here is our, new Bathroom Shelf with Towel Rail !!! I love the finished project.

Now we have a place to hold our toothbrushes, without knocking them off the sink the whole time. I love how it turned out. It matches the Wall Clocking Hanging.

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