Issues → March/April 2007 → Home & Garden →
Hammers as Coathooks: Home Projects
Mudroom solution from hand-hewn beam and old tools
by Polly Bannister
Project: Entryway Coat Hooks
Phil Kaplan, a successful Portland, Maine, architect, and his wife, Masey, a graphic designer, have built a home together in Falmouth where every detail is both practical and imaginative. Phil designed the house to look like a board-and-batten barn. The couple salvaged spruce and hemlock timbers from a client's 1760s barn for structural support and for a rustic look. It is one of these hand-hewn beams that the family uses as an ingenious coat rack, which complements what they call their "living barn."
Process
Masey is as creative as her husband. Her lively animal paintings cover the walls of their sons' bedrooms, and the fourth-floor loft is her fiber arts studio. It was she who came up with the idea to use farm implements as hooks.
After a trip to The Home Depot to pick up tools and rakes, Phil and Masey decided these objects were too new-looking. Masey suggested antique hammers and bought five on eBay for a total of $13.
Phil and a carpenter friend fastened the big 150-pound beam to the wall of the entryway using 8-inch TimberLock screws, predrilled into the studs. Using double-threaded steel lags (a standard hardware store item), the Kaplans screwed the handles into the beam, which was soft enough that getting all the hammers to face the same way was, in Phil's words, "a cinch."
Cost: $24.25
Seven TimberLock screws at $1.25 each; five lags at 50 cents each; and five hammers for $13.
What do you like most?
"I like the way the hammers create a sense of movement that leads from the front door through the entryway to the living space," Phil says. As for Masey, the hammers and beam, which are the first details one sees upon entering, resonate with the artistic simplicity of their home.
Resources for Creative Coat Hooks
Phil Kaplan Architects, Portland, ME. 207-842-2888; phil-kaplan.com
Wes Myer Construction, Windham, ME. 207-892-1020
Reader Comments
Comment from Joan Gleeson on March 6, 2008
Wow! Is this a welcome, or not? Not to my taste; if find the "hangers" intimidating. Also, I would imagine that they would be sharp and possibly tear the items of clothing.
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