Budget Decorating Idea: The Ten Dollar Pot Rack

 

Actually, it was less than ten dollars, but close enough. Here’s what we bought at the nearest Lowe’s hardware store:

1 piece of 4 foot re-bar, 1 package of black chair tips, 1 can of el cheapo black spray paint, 1 package of eye hooks, 2 packages of s-hooks and a little bit of duct tape.

First, screw in two eye hooks to the beam or ceiling stud where you wish to hang the “rack”.  Space them so that when the metal bar is hanging there, each eye hook will be 2-3 inches in from the end.

Next, spread out some old newspapers on the grass. Spray the bar with a couple of coats of paint and let it dry.

Hang one s-hook through each of the eye hooks, taking care that they are facing in the right direction. Wrap a bit of duct tape around each end of the pole to take up the extra space when you press on the chair leg tip covers. This will also help them stay on.

Hang the pole on the s-hooks and then hang the rest of the s-hooks on the pole, which is where you’ll hang your pots, pans, baskets, garlic ropes, etc. We had extra chair tips, eye hooks, paint, duct tape and s-hooks from this project. So really, if you picked up an extra length of re-bar you could have two pot racks for under 12 dollars . . . less than six bucks a piece. You could also experiment with stainless steel or copper pipe and different color chair tips or decorative ends. This design is great for extra small places.

In our last house where we had a bit more kitchen space, I made a pot rack for closer to 20 dollars (still dirt cheap) that had all our company commenting on it. It was a small section of iron gate that I got at the salvage yard for 5 bucks. I sprayed it with textured black spray paint, got black s-hooks from Ikea, black and gold chain from Ace hardware, and 4 eye hooks. We then used a stud finder to locate the beams behind the drywall in the ceiling. Since there were lots of grate sections, we had tons of space to hang pots, dried chilies, garlic strands and bread baskets. It looked much more unique and decorative than those boring steel ones in the kitchen catalogues for hundreds of dollars. I’ve also seen ladders used . . . very cute as well!