How To Make A “Real” Coat Tree

I care deeply about the Earth, I love to repurpose things and use the natural resources around us.  It’s funny, even though our house has many closets, my children and husband leave their coats and backpacks all over our kitchen chairs.  This drives me crazy! Since closets and wall racks did not work, I thought maybe a coat tree placed in the side hall would. The coat tree would be prominent, they could easily hang their coats, hats and backpacks as they walked by.  I choose my battles, and would rather have the coats on a coat tree in the side hall than on my kitchen chairs.

When I started researching coat trees, all I saw were flimsy or unattractive designs.  I looked further and found some really unique looking coat trees made out of TREES!  Can you imagine?  After seeing that, and living on acres of wooded property…I think you can imagine my thoughts.

I called out to my husband  and showed him my idea, he was all for it. We couldn’t have picked a better time, many trees were recently cut by the town because they were too close to electric wires.  We gathered our tree supplies and started the process of assembly.

For the base my husband split a large log in half. Then he used a chainsaw and chisel to make a hole in the top of the base for the tree trunk.  He also hollowed out the underside of the log right beneath the hole on the top. Hollowing the bottom made it possible to get the screw/bolt used to attach the trunk to the base, deeper into the trunk. We wanted to make sure the base was very safe and secure.

We also put wood glue around the base before attaching it.  Then my husband cut the coat pegs from long lengths of tree branches. After that, he drilled holes in the tree trunk for the coat pegs.  He put wood glue on the base of the branch pegs, then placed them in the holes and knocked them into place with a 2 pound sledge hammer.  Right now, we have three branch pegs on the bottom for the little kids, and three on the top for adults, but we plan to add a few more.

We are going to take the coat tree outside and seal and protect it with marine varnish.  We are really impressed with just how amazing our unique coat tree turned out, and have more projects in mind that we will share with you in the upcoming weeks.

We’re happy we were able to utilize the natural resources on our property to make something we needed.  In the end, we have something we’re proud of and best of al. it was made in the USA by us! You know what else I love? Coat free kitchen chairs around my table! Yippee for small but gratifying victories! Let me know what you think of this natural project in the comments.