Freestanding coat rack with shelves

You don’t need to have a fancy mudroom or a lot of space to keep kids’ gear organized and tidy for back-to-school… this freestanding coat rack with shelves (I’m so excited about the shelves) offers a lot of storage on a very small footprint and the best part is you can build it really inexpensively with these free building plans!

Anyone else geek-out over back-to-school?

I got into my girls’ desks this morning and sharpened all of their pencil crayons and pencils and organized their drawers so that all of their supplies were neat and tidy. Got me wiggling in my seat I was so pumped lol! Wait, is it the fresh/new school supplies, or the idea of them leaving that has me giddy?

I never liked the learning part of school, but I loved back-to-school supplies and shopping for new sneakers etc. It’s the geek in me, what can I say?

With that in mind, you’ll probably see pretty quickly why this freestanding coat rack with shelves from Ashley over on Handmade Haven made my heart go pitter-pat.

Originally built as a plant stand I loved it, but after Ashley added hooks to turn it into a freestanding coat rack WITH SHELVES all I could think of was back-to-school backpacks, sneakers, coats and hats.

This thing is PERFECT!

Small enough to fit just about anywhere, and with so much storage (and decorative) potential!

For full building plans head over to DIY Coat Rack on Handmade Haven.

I’m going to show my version, because I changed it up ever-so-slightly…

The 2″x 2″ boards I picked up at my local home improvement store were so warped it was ridonculous. But, as you know, beggars can’t be choosers in this time of Covid and we have to work with what’s available. It made assembly a tad more difficult, but nothing that swearing, kicking, sitting-on and finally a rubber mallet couldn’t handle.

This would be gorgeous stained, but my plans were to build this for Miss Maddie’s bedroom and her theme is black and white. (which frankly made the build even cheaper because didn’t have to find matching ply to go with the frame – I was able to use up a few bits I had leftover from something or another.)

I filled what I could, sanded it all smooth and then added two coats of primer to my freestanding coat rack with shelves.

I actually built this about a month ago, when it was disgustingly humid, so I opted for a sundress as my painting gear – fewer layers and the fan could “Marilyn Monroe” me all it wanted as long as the air was moving. (No one wants SWASS – Sweaty ASS) lol

What do you think?!

Not the outfit with the fancy Crocs – the build.

Looks awesome right?

Room for a couple of blankets at the bottom, backpacks on the next shelf up, her “diva” purses above that, and hooks for hats, belts, purses, jackets… anything and everything!

Are you wondering what change I made to my freestanding coat rack that is NOT in Ashley’s DIY Coat Rack plans?

I added a mirror to one side!

An inexpensive Ikea mirror that is held in place at the bottom with mirror clips and then siliconed the rest of the way up the frame to keep it safely in place.

Brilliant? Okay, maybe I didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s kinda perfect for a teenage girl.. or boy. (Mom rocks once again!)

The mirror photos freak me out a bit because you catch the reflection of the French doors in the glass.

I built this freestanding coat rack with the intention of tucking it in a corner in her room, so I only put coat hooks on the two sides that face into the room.

Should we/she decide to move it elsewhere, another couple of hooks are easily added. These are from Liberty Hardware and actually came in a brushed nickel, but I painted them out with a little Rust-Oleum in gloss black.

I guess I envisioned the bottom shelf holding a couple/few pairs of shoes or cleats.

And the top shelf holding her Google mini so she could blast her music (she’s in the basement so we really don’t hear it), or using it as a charging station for her screens. She decided to use it to show off her fancy-schmancy purses (ahem that may or may not be real lol)

Once she’s got her glam-on, she can check out the gorgeous view in her almost-full-length mirror!

Once school resumes, I fully expect that backpacks, textbooks and binders will be the main accoutrements on her freestanding coat rack (with shelves!!), but for now she’s pretty happy with the extra storage and small space to display her style.

Thank you Ashley for the awesome building plans!

Time to go wash pencil cases and fill binders with fresh lined paper lol.

Have a great one!