Hanging Out

For a town home our house has a lot of storage, but the one thing it lacks is the unappreciated coat closet. Because of this, Chris and I have taken to throwing our coats on the stairs, or over a chair, making for a really organized looking home (and a really wrinkled jacket). 

Another thing our house has a lot of is blank wall space, and another thing it I lack is money. So I put my thinking cap on/searched pinterest for hours on end, and came up with the idea to MAKE a coat rack for the naked wall behind our front door.

So we headed to the hardware store to pick up our supplies: a piece of wood (26x7.5), and some coat hooks. 

The wood was only $6, the coat hooks on the other hand were $5 each. I'm sure you could find some cheaper (maybe even cuter) options at Hobby Lobby, but it was Sunday and I'm impatient.

We then figured out where we wanted the hooks to go and marked and drilled pilot holes so that we wouldn't have to drill after it was painted.

The next step was to sand the rough edges and do a quick sand over the whole piece before painting. For the base color I chose to use some leftover paint that we used for our walls. I figured a: this is a cheaper option and b: it would tie the rooms together. Its gray, but I couldn't tell ya the name.

I used a small foam roller for the front and small paintbrush for the sides. I painted several thin coats until I thought it looked completely covered. I then let it dry completely before I started my taping.

I knew I wanted to do a chevron pattern, and I had looked for a stencil but had no luck. I figured how hard could it be to just use painters tape to create the lines? The answer: REALLY HARD, and REALLY time consuming!

A good 3 hours later the floor and dog were  covered in painters tape but I had nice, straight and even (for the most part) lines.

I then used my foam roller and rolled on a few thin coats of white acrylic craft paint. I would suggest using a higher quality paint and/or using a trim brush to paint between the lines, but that was what I had on hand and I think we've already discussed that I'm impatient/cheap.

After I finished my last coat I started peeling off the tape right away before it dried hoping to help create crisper lines.

My lines weren't perfect, but for the most part they looked pretty good. I then used a small sponge brush to touch up any smudges.

After the whole piece was dry we hung it on the wall and installed the hardware. We just used 2 screws with anchors to hang it, hopefully that will be enough. 

 Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out, and how it fills in the space. 

Now just to decorate the other 95% of my house.

(PS- Sorry for the grainy iphone pics, I'll try to get some better shots in the daylight)