Hang on! With this DIY hanging clothes rack

Decorating small rooms can be a challenge.  My daughter Anya’s bedroom is one of these rooms.  It’s small (around 10ft x 10ft) but we still needed to fit all the essentials like bed, wardrobe, storage etc. plus of course floor space for play.

Call me weird but for some reason I’m not a fan of wardrobes. They look bulky and take so much space. And most aren’t even beautiful to look at – to me they just look like oversized boxes.  So when we did our bedroom, we went for a diy open wardrobe which feels so light and minimal but still holds a lot.  We decided to do similar in Anya’s room but went for a smaller and simpler version. The result was this diy hanging clothes rack that hangs from the ceiling.

And do you know what? Having an open clothes rack instead of a closed wardrobe forces me to be tidy.  It makes it so much easier to hang the clothes back up each night, rather than throwing them on a chair, like I used to.  In Anya’s room, I am now also disciplined about getting rid of everything she’s outgrown because it’s always in sight and because there’s no room to keep clutter.  And finally, it looks good and costs a fraction of the price of a wardrobe so it’s a win win on every front!

DIY hanging clothes rack

Materials:
thick (minimum 1″) wooden dowel (UK readers find it here and US readers find similar here)
strong cord / rope (UK readers find it here)
2 x ceiling hooks
sandpaper
electric or hand saw
drill

1. Decide how long you want your clothing rack to be and cut your dowel down to this size. I went for 80cms / 31.5″. Sand any rough edges until completely smooth.
2. Drill a 5mm hole in to both the ends of the dowel – about 3cms (approx 1.2 inches) in from the edges. Sand around the holes if need be.
3. Now it’s time to get your ceiling hooks in, using regular wall fixings (called rawl plugs in the UK and anchors in the US). Remember to note precisely where the holes are in your dowel and space the ceiling hooks at exactly the same distance.
4. Decide how high you want the rail to be. I went for 1.68m (approx 66 inches) above the floor. I went on the higher side as I wanted to place a chest of drawers under to complete the ‘wardrobe’ and also because I have very high ceilings. But if you’re not placing anything under or have low ceilngs, you can go lower.
5. Cut 2 pieces of rope to the desired length – this will depend on the height of your ceiling and at what height you want the clothes rack to hang. Make sure to leave extra rope as you don’t want to be short. The extra can always be trimmed later.
6. At the top of the rope, make a loop and double knot it tightly. String the other end through the dowel and double knot again. Hang it up, trim any excess rope and you’re done. I actually left a bit of extra rope hanging under the dowel, rather than trimming it off.

It’s worth mentioning that this rack can hold much more than I’ve pictured – probably easily 3-4 times that amount of clothes.

This diy hanging clothes rack isn’t just for a kids room.  I would happily use it in a guest bedroom or in the entryway to hang coats.  In fact, if I didn’t have a coat closet in my entryway, I would definitely opt for this as a coat hanger as it saves space and looks great.  And if you do use it in a bedroom, you too can pair it with a chest of drawers underneath to make a simple but practical wardrobe with lots of storage.

Do you think you’ll make one for your home? Which room would you have it in?

P.S. Check out the diy open wardrobe I went for in my bedroom.