A few years back I decided I wanted a clothes dry rack in my laundry room. Monte travels a lot or did before covid 19 disrupted our routine. When he isn’t traveling he works from home and 11 months of the year wears shorts and t shirts. The weeks that he is traveling he is in dress pants, button up shirt, tie and sport jacket. I have found that hanging his work clothes to dry helps them last and look better.
For some weird reason I like to see our nicer clothes drying on our dry rack and I get a lot of satisfaction ironing. Ironing isn’t something I need to do with Monte’s work attire because he folds and puts them in a suitcase and irons them each night for the next days meetings. But I don’t like to see wrinkled clothes hanging in the closet. I enjoy smoothing out the wrinkles.
Monte thinks hanging the clothes is a little crazy since we have a dryer. Thankfully he is easy going and doesn’t mind helping me make and create the items I picture in my mind. Even if he thinks it is a little crazy. When we built the dry rack we were in a different house and had a much larger laundry room. Our current laundry room is quite small but by some miracle the dry rack barely fit.
Design
Like everything I wanted it to be cute and fit the decor in our home. I decided to us bead board on the back and then frame it. I wanted to have knobs to hang shirts on that were super pretty. Most of the designs I make and create need to be charming, fit my style but also be functional.
Supplies
This is a pretty easy and quick project that doesn’t require a lot of supplies. We were able to purchase a 3’x4′ bead board so that is the size we made the dry rack. If you want it larger buy the 4’x8′ bead board and cut to a size that works best for you.
You will need 4 doweling the ones we used are 58″. You will also need two 3 1/2″ moldings, one 2 1/2″ moldings and three 1 1/2″ moldings. For hardware you will need two flat L brackets, two hinges to attach the rack to the frame and two scissor hinges, one left and one right to open the rack. I also used five knobs to hang the shirts. You can purchase knobs or hooks at Home Depot but I purchased super cute ones at Hobby Lobby.
Creating
The dry rack is essentially two pieces. We start by building the frame the same size as the bead board you are using. To make is pretty we used the 3 1/2″ wide molding on the top and bottom of the frame and the 2 1/2″ for the sides. The top and bottom run the full length and the sides cut to fit inside the frame. We then attach the bead board on the back. We use wood glue and then nail all the pieces together.
This is the part of the frame that the rack portion fits in. For additional support we add a 1 1/2″ molding to the interior top and bottom of the frame.
We now need to add a piece along the bottom to attach the knobs or hooks. To create the portion where the knobs attach we use another piece of 3 1/2″ molding cut to the length of the frame. It is glued and attached to the front then add side pieces for support. We also added a small piece on the underside.
It was a little frustrating that this piece of wood split after being nailed. Since it was on the underside it wasn’t a big deal because caulk and paint fixed it right up.
Creating the rack
Building the rack isn’t terribly tricky. It needs to fit inside the frame you just built. Be sure to leave space for the hinges. Monte has a habit of making things super tight. We’ve had to take a couple of the racks we’ve built apart and cut them down. If you make it an inch smaller then the interior of the frame you build it will work perfectly after you paint and add the hardware.
Before you put the rack frame together you need to drill holes in the 2 side pieces for the doweling. Monte likes to drill the two pieces at the same time so they end up exactly the same.
We then nail and glue the 4 pieces together with the doweling. For additional strength we add a small L bracket to the interior top corners for the rack. To open the rack you will grab the top.
Painting
After the two pieces are created Monte took a few minutes and caulked all the seams so it would look professional. This is the perfect time to paint, it is much easier to paint the rack before the two pieces are attached. Since most of the wood is primed it only takes a couple coats of paint. The four doweling pieces paint easily with a small roller. Be sure to sand between the coats of paint so they smooth. You don’t want your clothes sticking to a rough piece of wood. I also lightly sand the rest of the frame so it ends up super smooth.
Putting it all together
After you have painted and allowed it to dry for awhile you are now ready to attach the two pieces. We used two hinges. If you are making a larger rack consider adding an additional hinge. Because you are drilling directly into wood you can add the hinges any where that works.
Its now time to add the scissor hinges. We attached ours about 16″ from the top of the frame and dry rack.
You can now add the knobs or hooks you picked. I find five knobs work perfectly for this size of rack. You want them to spaced so there is enough room to hang your shirts by the collar.
After the knobs are attached you are ready to hang the rack. We used a couple large screws then covered them with some wood plugs that are painted so they are less obvious. Because it is slightly heavy you need to make sure it is screwed into studs or a good quality hollow wall fastener. Deciding where you want to hang the dry rack and the location of the studs will dictate where you drill the screws into the dry rack.
This is a fun project that looks super cute and serves a great purpose. It is also pretty inexpensive. The wood supplies and hinges are about $50. The knobs add to the cost but I was able to pick mine up at Hobby Lobby on a 50% off sale so they were only $3 a piece.
