Transform a Farmhouse Ladder Into a Useful Coat Rack

INSIDE: Have a Farmhouse Ladder with no use? See how we transform a farmhouse ladder into a coat rack.

Have you seen these farmhouse ladders? It’s all the craze….and they are everywhere, used for millions of things. Well, I bought one and it has been sitting in our front room collecting dust and not being helpful at all…….UNTIL TODAY!

Apparently, most people like to hang blankets or towels on them?

Well, that isn’t my thing….BUT…….I like things that collect dust…..for no reason at all.

Enter problem #2 – I don’t have a coat rack. Every coat or jacket that comes in my house gets thrown on the back of the kitchen chairs. When they pile up, we move them to the dining room chairs….I know it is a horrible idea and honestly, I have NO IDEA how it got started.

When I made over the laundry room, I added a book bag/coat hanger and it fixed 1/2 the problem. Kids stuff.

It did not fix the adult problem.

After months of swirling around ideas we finally solved BOTH problems – use this ladder for a coat rack.

Makes sense once I say it right? So let’s check out how we transform a farmhouse ladder into a useful coat rack.

From a logistical standpoint, this could end up being a terrible idea. But I’m doing it anyway!

I had a few problems to think through:

• What will we use to hang the coats/jackets on?
• How will it stay upright with all the coats/jackets at the front?
• Can I stop it from slipping on my hardwood floors?
• How will it not ruin my walls when it gets knocked around?
• Where should I put it?

Let’s take a look at how I solved each one of these problems.

What will we use to hang the coats/jackets on?

I thought about towel hangers, over the door hangers, and even metal key hangers. But none of these were the look or the hold I wanted.

Then I thought about cutting dowels…..now I was getting to the style I wanted, but something was still off.

I decided to see what a Google search for ‘wooden dowels’ would produce. Man, I hit the mother load! This website popped up and I was in heaven!

I found these 3″ shaker pegs with #10 screws. It meant I literally needed to do NOTHING!!!! No sanding, no painting, no screws….NOTHING! I ordered 6 of them and got them for 90 cents a piece!!!

How will it stay upright with all the coats/jackets at the front?

I thought about adding a wide base to the bottom, but ultimately, I couldn’t figure out how that would look or work. We just needed to find a place that it could be leveled by the angle. I’ll show you what I mean in a minute.

Can I stop it from slipping on my hardwood floors?

We thought about rubber stoppers for kitchen chairs, but we couldn’t find the right size for the ladder.

We thought about gluing non-slip rug pads to the bottom….we weren’t sure if that would be strong enough.

But we were on the right track – so I went to the place where you can find JUST about anything you could ever need or want…..AMAZON!

I could cut them to fit the feet of the ladder, they came with adhesive already on them, AND I could probably use them somewhere else too. HMMMM…..

How will it not ruin my walls when it gets knocked around?

Ahhhhh haaaaaaaa…….I could put the afore mentioned product on the back of the top portion of the ladder and save my walls. PHEW! I love when I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone!

Where should I put it?

Don’t most people put coat racks by the front door?

Welllllll, we aren’t most people. We rarely use our front door and frankly, I think we would forget about the coat rack and go back to the chairs if I put it up there.

So – there is the weird little corner between the dining room and the stairs….across from the shoe closet from hell. It’s the perfect place….but would the ladder covered with all the coats/jackets be too cumbersome?

I didn’t want the feet to stick out and trip someone coming out of the dining room. I didn’t want it flat against the wall. If I turned it at an angle, it would fall over.

Now that the BIG problems have been solved, it was time to MAKE the coat rack!

Directions:

Using a drill bit, Kris pre-drilled holes for me. We decided on 2 pegs on the top 2 slats and 2 for the sides.

Once the holes were pre-drilled, it was easy to screw the pegs into the ladder slats.

Next, I applied the non-slip feet to the bottom and top of the legs.

The next step was probably the hardest. I needed to figure out what angle was going to keep the coat rack upright and not trip people.

Now we have our kitchen chairs back…or dining room table is not covered in outer wear….and I used my $7.99 farmhouse ladder in my own way. AND we have a Farmhouse Ladder Coat Rack!!!

What do you think? Did you use your farmhouse ladder for something other blankets? Let’s see what you’ve done!!!!

Happy Decorating,