repurposed faucet handle coat racks & tool racks

This project is one that combines several things that have been popping up on Pinterest lately: chalk paint, old cupboard doors/drawers, and old faucet handles used as hooks. Luckily for me, the two local rebuilding stores and a free paint coupon from Benjamin Moore made this project (which resulted in two coat/tool racks) really inexpensive.

An old cupboard door and drawer front, for example, cost $1 and $1.20 from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.

In addition to the boards, I bought a leftover box of unsanded grout at the Re-Store for $1.50. The box also contained a pint of grout sealer and some little square slate tiles, which I'll have to find a project for later. The grout is one of two ingredients in Martha Stewart's chalkboard paint recipe.

Basically, stir 2 Tbsp. unsanded grout into a cup of flat paint. My paint came free with a Benjamin Moore Facebook coupon a couple of months ago. I mixed up a half-recipe (since this project is pretty small), making sure to get rid of as many lumps as possible while stirring.

Most of the directions I've seen for using chalk or chalkboard paint on various blogs say that you don't have to sand down your surface first; I did a brief sanding with 100-grit, because frankly, "no sanding" sounds a little too good to be true.

I let it dry overnight, then sanded the surface with 150 grit sandpaper. The edges got special attention, so that some amount of wood showed there to assist in the "rustic cottage industrial" look I was aiming for.

On the longer of the two racks, I drilled two holes for hanging. Because most modern construction standards require wall studs to be 16 inches apart (on center), and because this rack is for my mom's recently-built house (Happy late Mother's Day, Mom!), the two holes are 16 inches apart.

You can see how, on the back, there is a little splintering from the drill. I knocked down the sharp edges with a bit of sandpaper. You can paint over the exposed wood too, if you want, but I chose not to worry about it, since this is meant to be a rustic piece anyway, and the splintering is on the back.

And these are the "hooks". These faucet handles were 25-cents to 50-cents each at BRING. If you find them still attached to their heavy brass bases, you can expect to pay between $2 and $5 apiece for them (a couple that I bought for the second rack were in this price range, though I went on a sale day and got them for half off). The nuts, with original paint, were $2 a pound, as is most hardware at BRING. (Portland also has a wealth of rebuilding stores, and I know Habitat for Humanity has Re-Stores in most states; check around!)

Beginning assembly. You'll need wood screws between 1.5 and 1.75 inches long, depending on the depth of your handles and nuts, and the thickness of your board. Mark your spots, pre-drill the holes, stack your pieces, and screw everything together.

I prefer that all the handles be different, for the look of something that's been collected and assembled over time. But if you can't find these pieces used for a price you like, you can also buy new outdoor faucet handles for a couple of bucks apiece at the hardware store (at Jerry's here locally, they're $2-3 each).

I also added a layer of beeswax over the top of the paint, since I don't plan to actually use chalk on the chalkboard paint. Also, there was a little more chipping than I like (maybe because I didn't thoroughly sand first?) and I thought the beeswax would probably help seal the finish. I've read some people use paste furniture wax, but I preferred not to buy a can because it's expensive, and I'm not sure I'd use it all before it went bad. The beeswax is something I had on hand.

Cost Breakdown:

(2) boards (an old cupboard door and drawer front); $2.20 total

(8) faucet handles; $6.50 total

(8) large, paint-covered nuts; $2 total

(8) screws; 10 cents ($2 per pound) total

unsanded grout; $1.50 total (with a bunch leftover, plus spare tiles and sealer)

8 oz. paint sample; free, with half leftover

beeswax; $1, if you don't already have some

Total for two coat/tool racks: $13.30, with leftover grout, paint, etc.

Here's a similar project on Apartment Therapy using indoor faucet handles to make a bathroom towel rack/shelf combo.

Here's another from the Our Vintage Home Love blog, in which she uses dowels and rubber gaskets.

And one more from My RePurposed Life, with new handles on the side of a shed.

Thanks for reading! When I find a permanent home for the one we're keeping, I'll post a little blog about it for you. Until then, I'd love to see links for your own repurposing/upcycling projects in the comments section below.

Enjoy your holiday!


(p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.)


Linking up to:

Sherry, Katie, Kate, and Michelle

Simple Design's Thrift Haul

Catch as Catch Can at My RePurposed Life

Nifty Thrifty Sundays

The CSI Project

stenciled key nook make-over

Time for another Pinterest-inspired project! This one is a quick little project I got moving on thanks to a little boot in the rear from the winter edition of The Pinterest Challenge. Scroll to the bottom of this post for links to the Challenge sponsors. If you happen to be here visiting from one of the sponsor blogs, welcome! Pull up a chair!

This time, I was looking for a stenciling idea for my little hallway key nook which used to be a phone nook, back in the day.

I found several neat stencil projects, but this one:



from A Sense of Design, is the one I decided to go with. Simple to replicate with household materials, elegant, and easily adaptable to a small space.

I scoured her blog for the reference image, but came up empty-handed, so I'm not really sure if it's original to A Sense of Design, or if there's a tutorial to go with it, or anything really, so I apologize if the pin is originally from a different source.

Without further adieu, here's a little before and after for y'all.

From non-descript little door-less cupboard . . .




to bright, cute little niche to hold keys, spare change, and cell phones.




A quatrefoil is a pretty easy little design to turn into a stencil. You can probably figure it out just by looking at this photo, but I'll drop a little tutorial on you after the image.




To make the stencils, cut out three identical squares. Leave one whole, and cut the other two in half. Round each of the four halves into an identical semi-circle, then attach to the whole square. Voila! Quatrefoil! Trace onto cardstock, then trace out about a half-inch border around it, and cut along that line. I eyeballed that part, but you could get fancy with rulers or a seam tracer.

Two coats of zero VOC primer. I used Dutch Boy Zero VOC Multiple Purpose Interior Primer/Sealer.




Start laying in the background color. I have been using two Dutch Boy colors (Gilded Shores and Honey Bear) on my living room and hallway walls. The background color in the cupboard is the darker of the two, Gilded Shores. The color is actually mixed in a paint called Acro Pure by Miller paint.




And here's the full base color with some very light stenciled pencil marks over the top.




This is a close-up of the pencil marks, since you really can't see them in that last photo.




And then I hand-painted inside the pencil lines, using a small paintbrush and Honey Bear.




You could do this differently. You could cut a large, multi-quatrefoil stencil and paint directly on the wall with the darker paint on top of the lighter paint (here's an instructional on that method on the Creative Chaos blog). I would recommend using waterproof stencil paper if you're going to try this method (I think she uses a commercial stencil in that tutorial). For me, working with such a small area, the time it would take to cut the stencil was more than doing it the other way.




And here it is, outfitted with the key rack (photo is courtesy my sister), some pieces from my wood type collection, and the copper piggy bank from my babyhood.




The key rack is attached using Command adhesive picture-hanging strips to minimize damage to the walls. But since I had those on hand, as well as all the other materials, this nifty make-over didn't count against our budget.

What do you think?




(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

Linking up to:

Young House Love, Bower Power, The Great Indoors, and Hi Sugarplum, who are all co-sponsoring the winter Pinterest Challenge! (I'm borrowing their graphic:)