Create a metal coat rack from basic plumbing supplies. Use plumbing pipes and fittings to create an industrial standing coat rack that is anything but ordinary.

Industrial décor, like a metal coat rack made from steel plumbing parts, can be used right alongside both modern pieces and antiques. Made from parts found in the majority of homes and buildings, such décor can easily be used to accent a variety of homes and buildings.

What is industrial décor? Go to your local hardware store, pick up some supplies, and turn them into furniture or art. Create your own industrial home décor. Think of new ways in which the supplies can be used. A pipe does not have to be used for water. Think of what else it can be used for. For instance, branch out into the plumbing aisle at Home Depot and pick up the pieces to make a steel pipe coat rack.

Such a unique piece would cost a pocketful in a boutique, yet you can make your own with ease, using only plumbing pipes and fittings, available at practically any home store that carries plumbing supplies. And once made, your homemade coat and hat rack can be used both to display bags, hats, coats, umbrellas, etc., as well as to organize them.

Here are the supplies that you need to make your own plumbing pipe coat rack:

• eight 90° elbows

• seven tees

• five plugs

• three ¾” long nipples

• six 4” long nipples

• four 3” long nipples

• one 4’ galvanized pipe

These can be found at your local home superstore in the plumbing department. Steel or copper pipes and fittings ranging from ¾” up to 1 ½” can be used – it is, however, very important that all the pieces are of the same size. A 1” pipe, for instance, must be paired with 1”fittings. All of the pieces must fit together.

To put it simply, rather than delicately, this standing coar rack project requires a lot of screwing. No outside tools are needed, except, perhaps, a wrench or a mallet for tightening.

Remove the tags from all of the pieces. If the pieces feel greasy or sticky, use a cleaning product like Simple Green and a cloth to clean them (you may want to save this step until the end – a little grease on the threads can make it easier to screw the pieces together).

Start out by creating the base. Four of the 90° elbows make up the feet (to prevent scratching the floor, felt pads may be attached). A 3” nipple must be screwed into each of the “feet.” Take two of these feet and attach them to a tee in a vertical line. Do the same with the other two. Make sure that they are all tight and even – it is important that the feet lay flat on the floor. A wrench or even a mallet can be used to twist or bang on the pipe to put it in place.

Take two of the 4” nipples and screw them into the perpendicular sides of each tee of the legs. Now it is time to attach to the two legs to each others with a third tee. It is very important that this tee is as tight as possible – if it is not, the whole rack will tilt easily. The perpendicular end of the tee must stick up straight into the air, perpendicular to the floor. And the feet must all lay flat. Screw in the galvanized pipe to the upward end of the tee.

It is now time to make the arms of coat rack. First, take a tee and screw in the pipe, then screw one of the small nipples into the other vertical end of it, screw another tee into that, then another small nipple, etc. While these tees should be tight, it is alright if they are loose enough to push back and forth a bit, allowing the direction of the arms to change. Screw a plug into the very top.

Out of each perpendicular end of the tees, screw in the remaining 4” nipples. Screw the remaining elbows onto each of these nipples, making sure that the opposite end faces up, perpendicular to the floor. And finish off the rack with a plug in the top of each of the arms.

The entire project should cost around $50-60 and should take around an hour, and the end result is so much more intriguing than either a wooden coat rack or a wall coat rack. Making your own interior decor is a great way to decorate on a budget.