The coat rack

When I was living in England I quickly became aware of the humble coat-rack. Every house I visited seemed to have one near or around the front door. Some were free standing, others were nailed to the wall but all had a collections of ‘water-proofs’, down filled puffers or boiled wool pea coats, ready and waiting for whenever you left the house…

In Australia you only need a coat for a few months every year… in some places you don’t even need one at all, so to me a coat rack has never really been a necessity. After spending time in the northern hemisphere though, I can understand why it’s important to always have a coat  within easy reach, no matter what the season.

Adam and I have been talking about having a coat rack in our house, ever since we arrived back in the country.  Adam’s always had one and I’d become accustomed to have somewhere to hang those often damp outer layers.  So this weekend past, we trundled off to the hardware store and picked up supplies – a length of pine, 10 hooks, screws, and some putty.

Instead of installing our coat rack at the front door we chose to put ours in the laundry as it connects to the garage and that’s the way we walk into the house almost 99 per cent of the time.

Adam measured up, cut the wood length and then nailed it to the wall. He gave it two coats of paint (using a left-over pot the same colour as our walls the painter left when the house was being built), then screwed the hooks in.  In the space of 12 hours or so, we had a customised coat -rack.

It’s given the laundry a new lease of life.  We’ve finally got somewhere to hang clothes waiting to be ironed, a place to store extra coat hangers, there’s room for my big canvas tote bag that I use for picnics and market shopping days, and of course coats. Suddenly, a room we often shut the door to seemed a little more stylish and not just a place for dirty clothes and muddy boots.

Have a wonderful week. x

PS – The daffodils are in full bloom at the moment… I couldn’t help but cut one stem off to brighten up the house.