Open Concept Hall Tree Storage

Hey friends,

Homes with little to no storage are a pain in the butt, let me tell you. As someone who refuses to ever throw anything away, finding space for everything can be tough. Well, let me rephrase. Finding space for everything in a neat and organized way can be tough.

I love my house, I truly do, but I constantly have issues with my downstairs areas; the Kitchen, Dining Room, and Living Room. I’ll be focusing on the Kitchen and Dining Room later this year, but right now I’m working on my living room.

Because it’s the first room you see when you enter I’ve been putting more and more effort into getting it settled. I have almost everything I had in my last place, except a place to hang my coats. It’s not the biggest issue in the world, but girlfriend has a lot of coats for the ever changing seasons and they’re all in storage because I have no place to put them. Plus it’s not too classy when guests come over and I casually toss them over the banister.

I had a little room to work with behind my door and decided to maximize use of the space. Originally I was going to revamp an armoire my father had given me, but after creating my honeycomb accent wall I really didn’t want to cover it up with a large piece of furniture. Open shelving was the way to go! Don’t worry, armoire, you’ll get your makeover eventually.

I had an old shelf from Ikea that I used in my old place that I wasn’t using. I measured out 32″ (enough width to accommodate the rack, the brackets and the baskets on top) and cut off the excess.

I sanded the rough edges and applied two coats of white paint. Color’s up to you but I had it on hand and thought it would match well since I’m in the process of painting my trim (still a work in progress). Let dry.

While that was drying, I put together my rack using black steel pipe. I used two 12” pipes, two flanges, two 90^o elbows, and one connector, all at ½” diameter. Once your shelf is dry, find the middle of the front and place your pipe. The edge of my flange rested about ½” away from the edge of my shelf.

Once you’re happy with the placement, attach the rack and brackets using screws.

I wanted the shelf to sit at a standard height so I took my tape measure and measured out 6’ from the floor. Using a level I made sure it was straight and mounted to the wall.

While I could’ve gotten a boring old coat rack, I definitely wouldn’t have been as happy with the outcome. Now I have a place to hang my coats (once I bring them out of storage), store scarves and gloves, and a place underneath to keep my black boots, my black boots, my sneakers, and, oh yeah, my black boots. Notice a theme? ;)

What are some of your creative storage solutions? Let me know in the comments!

The parties I’m linking to are Think & Make Thursday, Show and Tell, That DIY Party, Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop, Mad Skills, Plucky’s Second Thought, Show and Share, Merry Monday, Do Tell Tuesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Work It Wednesday, The Makers, Making Monday, Tutorials & Tips, Simple & Sweet Fridays, and Pretty Preppy Party.