Turn Broken Karate Boards into a Coat Rack

Two kids taking Karate* for two years means a pretty hefty stack of broken boards and you know there's no way I can just throw them out. So while I waited for creative inspiration to strike the pile grew and grew. 

The best ideas are born out of necessity. We have no foyer, coat stand, or hall closet; so when people visit, or you know...it's coat season, jackets, bags, and coats get thrown over the back of chairs until our living room looks like Grandma's bed at Christmas! 

We'd just painted our hallway so all the pictures and mirrors had been taken down. Looking at it's stark whiteness inspiration finally hit! Obviously we needed coat racks, and since we had a hodge podge of hooks why not combine it with a hodge podge of wooded boards? 

Here's how we put it all together! 

To start off you'll need a stack of broken boards. 

If you're a puzzle kinda person this is a fun part! 

Try to fit the pieces as closely together as you can. When you get them how you want them be sure to number their backs so you'll remember how they go.

To mix things up we game some boards a coat of paint and others were stained.

Like I mentioned we used a mix of old and new hooks. 

Try to glue as many of the boards together as you can, it'll only help to make it more stable. 

You'll also want to add a bracing bar. Um, we used this piece of metal with holes in it - I completely admit I have no idea what it is called. 

Now it's time to figure out where your hooks will go and attach them. 

From here we simply screwed our rack directly onto the wall, in the studs of course. 

I don't know any other way you could hang it, easily, and keep it sturdy and stable. If you have any ideas PLEASE SHARE THEM so others (like me) can see and learn. 

That's it! Yay, we took care of part of our broken board stack AND the rogue coats!

*As any Martial Arts Mother knows, kids don't just take Karate this day. Two of my boys actually take Shingo-Ha Yoshukai styled Karate.