Upcycled Chevron Wood + Duck Hook Coat Rack

Hi! I hope that you had a great weekend! We spent ours relaxing and working on a few projects outside - the weather was SO pretty!

Today I'm sharing a mini sneak peek of our mudroom .. if you missed the original post at East Coast Creative, read on!

Our goal for our upcycle project was to cost zero, and source everything from the house. We succeeded! We found a few duck hooks in my office (image in our upstairs before house tour here) and extra oak hardwood floor found in the pit (used to work on cars) in the garage.

I'll spare you the before picture of pit (I don't want anyone loosing their breakfast) but it was disgusting!! VERY dirty and wet. Here's David working on his car (after cleaning it) ..

The wood was GROSS.

But, with a little vacuuming and wiping it down with vinegar, it wasn't too bad. 

After letting it dry in the sun, David cut off the tongue and groove with the table saw. Then I cut them in ~20" sections on the chop saw so they would be easier to handle. Next, using the table saw, David ripped it in half lengthwise and then turned it on the skinny end and ripped them in half lengthwise (make sure to keep your hands from the blade at all times and use a push stick when you're close to the blade) (p.s. we recently purchased a used commercial table saw through a government liquidation site, a definite upgrade from our $15 garage sale table saw that we sold before leaving California)  

As David was cutting the boards down on the table saw I started cutting the angles.

I set the chop saw to 60 degrees, cut off the end and slide the board to the first metal stop (no measuring!) and cut again.

Since we ripped the wood down the middle, we were able to use the interior for the face of the chevron pattern. So our pieces had a front and back. We cut half with the lighter (interior) side up and for the other half we cut with the darker (exterior) side up so that each side would be an interior piece.

We counted the rows needed (12) and stacked them to count so we knew exactly the amount we would need.

We had an extra piece of 1/8" plywood laying around, so we used that for the backing (note: 1/8" is thin for a backer board, but since we added a frame and screwed it to the wall, we're hoping that will prevent any potential warping)

Using wood glue, we laid out our chevron pattern (we let it dry overnight with stacks of tile on top, so it would dry flat).

Then, David cut off the excess on the table saw so that it was straight. We applied painters tape on top to cut through it, this helped prevent the wood from chipping.

Then we ripped down the remaining wood to make a frame.

We gave it a quick sand with a sanding block and attached the ducks! (prior to attaching the ducks, I cleaned them by soaking them in white vinegar and water for about 1 hour and the wiped them with a paper towel.)

I LOVE it!! We're currently updating our mudroom and this is the perfect addition. 

This has a similar look to our herringbone driftwood table, but A LOT less work! Since this wood was stored in a semi - wet location for ~30 years, it had a similar treatment to getting tossed around in the ocean like driftwood. 

Total cost was ZERO!! and I couldn't be happier with the finished result! 

Looking at these photos makes me miss our MD house. I can't wait to get there to finish the mudroom!! Hopefully at the mid to end of May. We're planning to be home next for the Spring "treasure sale"(where we found our last dresser) Mom just has to confirm the date! CAN'T WAIT! :)

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and if you missed it on Friday .. 

I've decided to truncate my posts the day after they've posted. If you're unfamiliar, truncated posts will have an image and intro text then a link >> CLICK TO READ THE REST OF THE POST to view the rest of the post. 

 I know that a lot of people strongly dislike truncated posts, hopefully truncating the day after posting will help with that. I've decided to truncate for two reasons: 1. Protect my content from site scrapers more info here 2. For a cleaner home page.

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