Learn how to make a coat rack by your front door using this easy DIY tutorial. This idea involves a wall-mounted board with large decorative coat hooks. Having a coat rack makes it clear and easy for guests to see where they should hang up their jackets, purses and tote bags when they arrive for a visit. Plus it looks like beautiful rustic home decor or a farmhouse style accent for your entry way when it’s not in use too!
Disclosure: We want to give a big thanks to Hickory Hardware and HomeRight for sending us complimentary products to use for this DIY coat rack project. No other compensation was provided. This blog post also contains affiliate links for products or services we think you’ll like. This means if you make a purchase from one of these links, we’ll make a small commission at no additional cost to you so we can keep the great ideas for the home coming your way. All opinions expressed are our own, derived from our personal experience.
We love to entertain family and friends throughout the year. In fact this past year, I hosted a weekly women’s Bible study in our home. My friends and I would meet downstairs while the kids played upstairs with a baby sitter in the playroom. With six women and nearly that many kids here week after week, it quickly became apparent that we had a big problem in the entry way by our front door.
While there is a very large closet for coats just inside our front door, no one ever uses it. I mean EVER. As a general rule, I’ve come to realize that people just do not open other people’s closets in their homes. I’d noticed this issue before, but it became more obvious to me once we had the weekly group meeting here. As I’m welcoming folks or trying to keep Scruffy our dog from jumping up on them, I’m often not able to take and hang coats for everyone as they arrive. If I don’t take their coats, I’ve found no one opens the closet door to hang them up themselves. Instead coats and jackets get draped over furniture, tossed on the floor or hung over the railing to our downstairs.
It’s a friendly and familiar group so no one minds the clutter of coats and jackets everywhere, but I just knew there had to be a more elegant and welcoming solution. One of my friends has a beautiful decorative coat rack just inside her door for guests, so I thought that idea could work great in our home too. Fortunately, there is a large empty wall right across the entry way from the coat closet.
I decided we should create a long horizontal DIY coat rack to take up most of that wall space so there would be plenty of room for coats, sweaters, diaper bags, purses and whatever else people bring over when they visit.
I also wanted a coat rack that was simple to make, yet decorative so it would look pretty on the wall even when no one is here. Above the coat rack, I could hang framed 8 x 10″ school photos of our boys as well as a seasonal wreath that I could change whenever I update our fireplace mantel that’s just across the room.
I like the hooks you picked and how you decorated above it. I made one similar to this on a smaller scale and it was so easy!
Thanks, Mary! Amazing how quick and easy it is to make a coat rack like this, isn’t it?
This looks great in the entryway of your home! I love how simple but elegant it is. It’s so true; no guests ever use the front hall closet in our house either. 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing with #FamilyJoy Blog Linky Party!
Thanks for coming by to see us from your link party, Marisa! I’m glad I’m not the only one who has noticed no one uses the front hall closet.
What a great idea and that wall was perfect for it! I need one of these! Thanks so much for sharing your ideas with us at Share The Wealth Sunday!
Thanks, Lisa! I don’t know why we didn’t think to put something like that on the big wall sooner!
What a great coat rack! I made one very similar for my mud room area…and I love it! Your awesome post has been chosen to be featured at this weeks Wonderful Wednesday party! Hope to see you there! Hugs- Christine
Oh yay! I’m so thrilled you liked it enough to feature it this week, Christine. Thank you so much!
I love how it looks. The hooks you chose are very elegant. I don’t think I would want anyone to hang a coat on it and hide them. 🙂
Great point, Debra! I hadn’t thought about how they’d get hidden — just how pretty they look when people walk in the door!
I love racks like this – I actually have a few in my house! This hardware is lovely! Thanks for sharing with us at Throwback Thursday!!
Mollie
It’s always useful to have a hook to hang things on, isn’t it, Mollie? We have a few others in our home too.
My question is…… how to you mount this rack on the wall? I’ve made the coat rack, but don’t know how to attach/hang on the wall. Pls advise. Thanks so much……
Hi Deborah,
Great question! We used two screws to mount the coat rack on the wall. We made sure one of those two screws went into a wall stud so it would be held securely in place. Then we put the decorative coat hook hardware on top of these mounting screws to hide them.
You’ll see a photo of it under Step 5 on page 2 of this tutorial – https://www.kenarry.com/diy-coat-rack-tutorial/2/
Hope that helps! Let us know if you have any other questions. We’d also love to see a photo of how your coat rack turned out.
Have a great weekend!
Best wishes,
Carrie
Kenarry: Ideas for the Home