Repurposing Antiques: Yardsticks

 Anyone remember THIS POST where I showed you all the free loot that my sister-in-law found on Craigslist? She kindly shoved some of it my way. Including these 5 antique, wooded yard sticks. Aww yeeaaa. I just had to figure out what the heck to do with them.

They had been sitting in my spare bedroom for a few weeks when I finally decided to make a coat rack out of them. But the 5 yard sticks she gave me wouldn't be tall enough (when stacked on top of each other) to fit my already purchased coat hangers so I snagged a 6th stick from Mitch's workbench in the garage. It was there when we moved in and had the perfect weathered & worn look I was going for. (More details on that in a bit)

I wanted it to be super strong so I went to Home Depot and purchased a small sheet of wood. Then I brought it home and hubby cut it in half, length wise.

 You can see where the cut is right here in the middle...

I put the thicker sticks at the top and bottom which allowed my coat hangers to lie flat on the middle sticks.

You can see here that the bottom yard stick was a bit thicker than the others...

See the stick that's one up from the bottom? The one that says "La Mesa Furniture"? That's the one I snagged from our garage. It had been nailed to the side of the work bench and broke in two pieces when I pulled it off.

Here's the same stick flipped over to show that side that had been against the bench for years and years. I was really surprised to see that the back side was still the original neon yellow.

Once I found a layout that I liked, I went in search of something to hold all the pieces together.

We had a left over tube of Liquid Nails (or Liquid Snails, as we like to call it) from our window re-framing project so I used that instead of nailing each stick to the wood backing.

I just ran a bead across each stick...

...and attached each piece to the wood. My lovely assistant demonstrates the 'push down and wiggle' method. Please excuse the big black box. He thinks he's funny. He's wrong.

To really get those babies to lay flat we used some bricks from our side yard and clamps to keep even pressure on all the sticks.

When the whole thing was dry, (I left it alone for a day) I pulled out my collection of coat hangers and found an arrangement that I liked.

Once I decided on their locations, we drilled pilot holes in the yard sticks so the wood wouldn't splinter when we put the screws in. Once we attached the coat hangers I pulled out my craft paint to cover up the silver screw heads.

Nothing fancy here. I just pulled out a few q-tips and dipped them into the paint. A little dab will do ya.

The craft paint I used (Delta's Ivory) was a perfect match for the creamy white crown.

The almost blend with in with the 'beads' on the bottom row of the crown.

This round ceramic hanger came from World Market.

I bought it about a month or two ago for about $3.

I've had this one for a few years now.

I bought 2 of them from Big Lots for about $10.

The crown was a recent purchase form an antiques mall in Ocean Beach, San Diego. It was the most expensive at $9. But is a super heavy duty iron hanger, so I think it's worth the extra few bucks.

Now I'm headed off for another Home Depot run for some molding to frame the whole piece. I was thinking of just painting the wooden backer piece black, but I think it will look more 'finished' with the molding.

Once that's done, I'll post updated pics and show you where it will be living till I change my mind again and switch things up for the 9,120 time.

Linking this post to:

Nicolette's Thirsty Thursday's: momnivores-dilemma.com

Cassity's Remodelaholic's Anonymous: remodelaholic.com

Donna's Saturday Night Special: funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com

Courtney's Fethered Next Fridays at French Country Cottage

Carrie's Amaze me Mondays at  Dittle Dattle

Layla & Kevin's How To's Day at  The Lettered Cottage

Michelle's Watever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts

Kate's Flaut it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring
Ashley's beautiful blog  Eisy Morgan

Roeshel's DIY Showoff: thediyshowoff.blogspot.com

 Anyone remember THIS POST where I showed you all the free loot that my sister-in-law found on Craigslist? She kindly shoved some of it my way. Including these 5 antique, wooded yard sticks. Aww yeeaaa. I just had to figure out what the heck to do with them.

They had been sitting in my spare bedroom for a few weeks when I finally decided to make a coat rack out of them. But the 5 yard sticks she gave me wouldn't be tall enough (when stacked on top of each other) to fit my already purchased coat hangers so I snagged a 6th stick from Mitch's workbench in the garage. It was there when we moved in and had the perfect weathered & worn look I was going for. (More details on that in a bit)

I wanted it to be super strong so I went to Home Depot and purchased a small sheet of wood. Then I brought it home and hubby cut it in half, length wise.

 You can see where the cut is right here in the middle...

I put the thicker sticks at the top and bottom which allowed my coat hangers to lie flat on the middle sticks.

You can see here that the bottom yard stick was a bit thicker than the others...

See the stick that's one up from the bottom? The one that says "La Mesa Furniture"? That's the one I snagged from our garage. It had been nailed to the side of the work bench and broke in two pieces when I pulled it off.

Here's the same stick flipped over to show that side that had been against the bench for years and years. I was really surprised to see that the back side was still the original neon yellow.

Once I found a layout that I liked, I went in search of something to hold all the pieces together.

We had a left over tube of Liquid Nails (or Liquid Snails, as we like to call it) from our window re-framing project so I used that instead of nailing each stick to the wood backing.

I just ran a bead across each stick...

...and attached each piece to the wood. My lovely assistant demonstrates the 'push down and wiggle' method. Please excuse the big black box. He thinks he's funny. He's wrong.

To really get those babies to lay flat we used some bricks from our side yard and clamps to keep even pressure on all the sticks.

When the whole thing was dry, (I left it alone for a day) I pulled out my collection of coat hangers and found an arrangement that I liked.

Once I decided on their locations, we drilled pilot holes in the yard sticks so the wood wouldn't splinter when we put the screws in. Once we attached the coat hangers I pulled out my craft paint to cover up the silver screw heads.

Nothing fancy here. I just pulled out a few q-tips and dipped them into the paint. A little dab will do ya.

The craft paint I used (Delta's Ivory) was a perfect match for the creamy white crown.

The almost blend with in with the 'beads' on the bottom row of the crown.

This round ceramic hanger came from World Market.

I bought it about a month or two ago for about $3.

I've had this one for a few years now.

I bought 2 of them from Big Lots for about $10.

The crown was a recent purchase form an antiques mall in Ocean Beach, San Diego. It was the most expensive at $9. But is a super heavy duty iron hanger, so I think it's worth the extra few bucks.

Now I'm headed off for another Home Depot run for some molding to frame the whole piece. I was thinking of just painting the wooden backer piece black, but I think it will look more 'finished' with the molding.

Once that's done, I'll post updated pics and show you where it will be living till I change my mind again and switch things up for the 9,120 time.

Linking this post to:

Nicolette's Thirsty Thursday's: momnivores-dilemma.com

Cassity's Remodelaholic's Anonymous: remodelaholic.com

Donna's Saturday Night Special: funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com

Courtney's Fethered Next Fridays at French Country Cottage

Carrie's Amaze me Mondays at  Dittle Dattle

Layla & Kevin's How To's Day at  The Lettered Cottage

Michelle's Watever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts

Kate's Flaut it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring
Ashley's beautiful blog  Eisy Morgan

Roeshel's DIY Showoff: thediyshowoff.blogspot.com