Weekend Project - Hat Rack

  Here's another quick weekend project we undertook. After having our hats laying around on chairs and coffee tables, I finally decided that it was time to give them a dedicated place. So we brainstormed some ideas, and thought it would be a neat idea to have a "his and hers" hat rack, or even better, a "Mr. and Mrs." hat rack.
  We picked up a pine sign plaque from a hobby store, and then some hooks from the local hardware store. After some quick staining, sealing, and screwing in the hardware (I opted for slightly smaller than the stock screws so they wouldn't go through the other side), the sign was ready for some customization.

Cutting out the stencil

  In an attempt to make nice clean text, I set down a layer of tape and then a print out of a nice font with above it. Tracing over the font with moderate pressure using an exact o-knife cut through the paper and the tape. As a tip, i would recommend not layering the tape on itself, this gave me some trouble later.

Trace the stencil with the knife again for easy removal

 After tracing with the knife and removing the stencil and tape, it was ready for a layer of paint. This is just a craft-acrylic paint laid down over the tape stencil.

Careful scraping can remove the stray paint.

  When removing the tape, I found it very useful to trace around the stencil with the exact o-knife again. This separated the paint on the wood from the paint on the tape. Hence, the tape was much less likely to peel up any paint with it (the 's' above suffered while I figured this out - but I'll just say it's an antique look).

The finished product!

It's practical too!

Here's the final product with all the tape removed and looking snazzy up on the wall. A couple of 1/4 inch drill holes in the back provide a recess for the nails. Just be careful not to go all the way through the board.




This was a pretty quick, cheap, and unique project that really adds some nice personality to the entrance by the door. Now for the usual breakdown:

Tools:

• Sandpaper, stain, sealant, acrylic paint.
• Screwdriver / drill

Price:

• Tools: Used our existing stock.
• Supplies: $8 (sign) $10 (hardware)
• Total: $18