DIY Tutorial: Affordable Pot Rack

Finding the perfect pot rack for Jill’s house was a challenge because I didn’t want to spend $250.00. I was pretty surprised that pot racks cost that much. Wow. So, I decided that I was going to make it, and when I found a saweeeeeet coffee table at the local thrift story for only $15.00, I was pretty pumped.
The coffee table was super heavy, and when I bought it, I wanted to hang the entire thing upside down as the pot rack. Well, after deliberating with the boss of installation (my hubby), we quickly realized that it was much too heavy to install safely. Our plans always have to adjust and adapt during our DIY projects. I have a knack for coming up with ideas, and my husband has a knack for helping me with the nitty gritty details of it all. I’m lucky to have him. (Sidenote: what are you getting your hubby for Christmas? I’m struggling this year). I might have Adult ADD….Ok, back to what I should be talking about. Ha ha.
Step 1: Buy a coffee table at the thrift store, at a yard sale, or at a flea market. Just make sure that it is sturdy and is strong enough to hold the pots safely. Like I mentioned above, mine cost $15.00. Booo-ya.
Step 2: Paint the bad boy. I used Krylon Dual for this project. I love this product. It works great on metal, and it doesn’t need a primer since it is a paint and primer in one. Just make sure the wait until the paint is completely dry before you repeat your coats.

Step 3: Distress the edges of your painted pot rack. I took some 220 grit sand paper and took my electric sander and went to town on the bad boy. I distressed the rack for two reasons: #1: I wanted to create an older look to the pot rack, and #2: I didn’t want to worry if our pots and hardware chipped off the paint in the future. If you distress the rack, the paint won’t need to be perfect in the long run. You are bound to scratch and scrape the paint as you remove pots over time. 
This picture below isn’t that great since you are seeing the side of the rack that is intended to face the ceiling. Don’t be critical of my paint job. It looks much better on the side that faces down (which is the side that is visible now that the rack is hung). You can see the hardware in the picture above though. The next step is to buy the hardware to hang your rack. Remember that you are going to have to adapt to whatever kind of coffee table you bought originally. Depending on the weight and design of your coffee table and design of your space, you are going to have to make some choices as to how you want your rack to hang. I chose thick rope to hang my rack because I have been to Pottery Barn a lot lately, and they ALWAYS use rope to hang their ceiling elements in their show rooms. I LOVE IT. I think it adds an industrial touch to the pot rack. We even used thick bailing wire to secure the rope through the eye hooks.  We bought the rope at Lowe’s for about 25 cents a foot.
Hang your pot rack (with the help of a professional who knows what he/she is doing. The rack MUST be able to withstand a lot of weight. Here is Dan and Matt (Jill’s husband) installing the hardware in the ceiling to hold our rack. They were finding studs to make sure that the rack was safe and secure.   After the Studs successfully found the studs in the ceiling and measured to center the pot rack over the island, they installed large eye hooks into the ceiling.

 
Then they ran the rope back through the ceiling hardware and secured it with more bailing wire.
We hung the pots with S hooks that we bought at Lowes. I’m thrilled with the result. I LOVE IT. I love that it only cost me $15.00 plus the cost of the hardware and hanging materials! Yay for an inexpensive pot rack idea! Plus, I like this pot rack better than the $300.00 ones that we almost bought.
Don’t forget to tell me what you are getting your hubby for Christmas. I need ideas. 🙂 xoxo, Brooke