DIY Pallet Coat Rack with Shelf and Towel Bar

I was telling my wife that we either need another coat rack or we’ll need to limit the kids to only 5 jackets each. And so, here we are building a new coat rack out of pallets.

Parts

1. A pallet. Not just because they’re free. They bring a certain unfinished charm to a project but free certainly is hard to beat.
2. Hanging hardware: heavy picture hangers, deck screws for studs, or wall anchors.
3. Some hooks. You could use drawer pulls, bolts, pipe elbows, nails, screws, or even spickets depending on how much and what character you want to boast.
4. Optional: If you want an integrated towel bar, galvanized pipe brings a bit of an industrial tone to this project. 2x elbows, 2x floor flanges, and a threaded pipe (about 30”).

Steps

We will have to cut the pallet across the studs to separate the portion we’re going to use for the rack. You will want at least two boards on one side and at least one on the other. I went with only one on the front. Having two would make it easier to mount things like drawer pulls as hooks that generally require nuts on the back.

For the top shelf, we have a choice. If you want a sort of cubby on top, you’ll have to cut one of your cross boards into two pieces to use as the floor of the cubby. If you simply want a shelf on the top, you can just remove one of the cross boards. For mine, I went with the cubby so here I cut the cross boards at each stud making them the perfect width to fit between the studs.

For the cubby, insert your boards between the studs and cross boards to form the cubby floor. For the top shelf option, place your cross board along the top of the rack. Attach the floor with screws, nails, or brads.

Now is a good time to sand down the rough surfaces. This particular pallet needed quite a bit of sanding.

All that’s left is to attach your hardware—the coat hooks and, optionally, the towel rack. When hanging your rack, some things to think about:

• How long are your coats?
• Are your kids going to be hanging jackets on this? How high can they reach?
• At what height is the top rack accessible?

There are a lot of ways you can hang the rack. You can use heavy picture hanging hooks, loops, etc. or you can put a couple screws through one or two of the cross boards. In my case, I used deck screws into the wall studs.