Handmade Stone Coat Hooks

Finally! I have completed another step in my coat nook. I first started posting about this problem area right at the beginning of my blogging as I described my mitten dilemma. It has taken years but the functioning of this area has improved dramatically and it really didn't cost much or take much time. The latest addition has been stone coat hooks.

I had successfully solved the mitten problem with the ladder of baskets but we were still using a coat tree in the corner. Even though it was a beautiful handcrafted coat tree, the spacing was too tight and it didn't function well. The coat tree was moved to David's studio and we made a series of coat hooks from smooth ocean stones we'd collected from the Rhode Island shore.

This isn't an original idea but it is a perfect one for our home which combines nature with the decor in many interesting ways. This was just a natural addition. I epoxied a T nut on the back of each rock and screwed them onto their matching bolt inserted through piece of clear pine.

And I am thrilled with how much better the space functions. Now that the coat tree is out of the corner, I can center the mitten/hat ladder. Its side hooks work wonderfully for David's hat collection.

We have been using the mitten ladder for a year now. (Construction post here). It has been an excellent solution to storing and finding mittens, gloves and knit hats. One of the critical design elements is that the baskets are wire mesh so at a glance, you can see what is in the basket without having to dig through.  And it is easy to put your gloves away right as you take them off. 

Still need to cover the white cushion on the bench. Always another thing on the to-do list!

©2015 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Mitten Dilemma - Solved! A Creative Storage Solution

If you have been following my blog since the beginning (and very, very few of you have) you'll know that one of the first design challenges I presented as needing a solution in our home is the Mitten Dilemma. We live in the snowy northeast and the mess of winter outer-clothes is an annual nusiance. And on snowy winters, it is a problem for weeks and even months on end. I blogged about this issue back in my very first month of blogging in January of 2011. It has taken me only three years to finally take the time to solve this issue. Yesterday I finished building our new mitten and hat rack and today it got photographed!

Here, in the corner of our family room and main entry is our version of a mudroom in a house with no mudroom. Into the end of it I have added a ladder with baskets for holding winter gear.

The ladder is a leaning ladder and it was sized to fit five wire baskets I purchased at the Home Store. I purchased five baskets because that was all that would fit in the space and I designed the ladder proportions for these specific baskets.  Is it enough storage? No, but it is enough storage for our most used items, and it keeps them in a place that is easy to find items, and easy to return them to.

David and I have split the baskets. There is one for his hats, and one for my hats. There is one for his mittens and gloves, and one for my mittens and gloves. And, at the top, is one for scarves and neck turtles. We share that one.

These baskets came with burlap fabric liners which I removed. Although they looked good, part of making these functional is being able to see at a glance what is in the basket. I can quickly see my hot pink turtle is in the top basket.  I don't need to dig through it to see what is on the bottom.

I constructed the ladder so that the rungs extend 4.25" on each side providing extra quick storage for bags or a drying place for wet gloves.

The plan going forward is to create some funky hooks along the left wall for coats and hats. I have saved some ideas in my Pinterest boards. I can then relocate the beautiful handcrafted coat tree (located in the back left) and add a more functional hanging solution to this tiny, yet so necessary a space. The closet to the right is our coat closet but there is also extensive storage in there for the assorted specialty hats and gloves that only get used for special occasions - like all the blaze orange hats we need to wear during hunting season!

Snow has been a major factor in many parts of the USA this winter season, not just the northeast. Others of you might be interested in building one of these yourselves. Here are a few of the basic steps I followed. It is a general tutorial not a specific one. The entire project was based around the baskets. If you decide to try it, your ladder will need to based off your baskets so buy the baskets first!

Other Ladder Ideas:

I like using ladders as a display or storage base in decor and have blogged about other ideas before. Here are links to some other inspiring posts for ladder solutions:

• Ladder Inspirations • Series Overview
• A Year of Ladders • DIY Ideas

Mitten Storage Ladder Tutorial:

Supplies

• 5 wire baskets- I used 2 different sizes
• 4 1"x4"x8' clear pine
• 5 piece wooden closet pole ranging 25" to 30"
• 5 large cup hooks ( must fit over basket handle)
• Pine stain
• black spray paint
• wood glue
• wood screws
• woodworking tools

Process:

Glue the pine boards together in pairs. I wanted the side rails to have some visual heft so each is made of two pine boards glued together. I used Titebond wood glue and clamped them while they dried.

Layout the spacing of your rungs. This step is a combination of personal preference and the size of your baskets. I have 2 larger and 3 smaller baskets so I wanted my side rails to lean in. I also wanted my rungs to be as close together as possible.  That way the top most basket would still be within reach. I laid everything out on the workbench and carefully measured the spacing.  The rungs are not equally spaced because my baskets are different sizes. You will need to space yours according to your baskets.

Using a drill press and a large bit we drilled holes in the side rails for the rungs. Because I wanted the side rails to angle in, the holes needed to be drilled at and angle of 2.5º. David helped with several steps including this one because it takes two to both drill the holes and hold the long boards in place.

Turn's out I should have purchased a bit larger than the 1 1/4" diameter of the closet pole. The fit was too tight and we needed to sand them out larger. Because I was planning to screw the rungs in place it was fine to have a lose fit.

I assembled the ladder and labeled everything. At this point the rungs were individually fitted to each hole. I decided I wanted the rungs to extend 4.25" outside of the rails. I like that design element in the ladder plus it provides the extra hooks for hat/bag hanging.

Once I had everything fitting, I cut all the rungs using a miter saw which I forgot to photograph.

I didn't worry about the edges from gluing two boards together until this point and then I used a belt sander to even those edges out. The ladder is together but not permanently assembled here.

I sanded all the parts using an orbital sander. I went through several grits of sand paper from 80 to 150 and finished up with 220.

I finished the side rails and the rungs separately. The rails got one coat of MinWax Puritan Pine stain. That matches the woodwork in my family room.

I used flat black spray paint to paint all the rungs. I didn't want a paint build up on them because I wanted them to easily slide into the holes.

Once everything was dry, I positioned the rungs, making sure everything fit together. I then drilled a pilot hole through the back of the rail and into the rung.

 And each rung was screwed in place.

Once the ladder was completely assembled, I applied 2 coats of polyurethane with a light sanding in between coats.

Once dry, it is all set for the baskets to be placed and to sort the mittens and hats and put them in their new homes.

Now let's see if this will be a solution to the Mitten Dilemma!

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© 2014 Marji Roy, Ashbee Design

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Organizing David • Part 4 • The Templates

When I started this series of posts about organizing my husband David I explained that his storage needs were unique in many ways. The fact that he needs easy access to nearly 100 (and growing) different mounting templates is one of those unique needs. The templates are created so customers can easily mount his kinetic sculptures at the correct angle. And they take up a lot of space in this workshop.

Here is the before photo......

All those sheets of masonite leaning against the wall are the templates.  I suggested storing them vertically under one of the workbenches. The particular workbench in mind didn't make the cut and was sent to the transfer station in pieces. But then David suggested creating a new "packing table" and incorporating the templates in there.  After a series of design changes what evolved was a key element in the reorganization of his shop.

Here is the new packing table...

The back side is divided into storage slots. Each template has been given a colorful tab label which extends off the short end. The templates are arranged alphabetically, and just like at the dentists' office, the colors are aligned with the alphabet. This allows one to know at a glance if something is misfiled. There is extra space designed in for future templates and see that brown envelope? That has the supplies for additional labels in all colors to easily continue the system.

This took care of the template issue but as David worked on the idea of the packing table, he started adopting my philosophy of storing supplies and tools near the place you use them. He designed in a removable top under which the packing paper is stored.

When he is packing, the box goes on top and he can quickly pull out packing paper and crumple it up to fill air space. In the previous shop setup, the packing paper was always occupying 6 square feet of the prime workbench. Excellent solution!

And then he attached some peg board baskets to the end of the bench to hold the various tools needed for packing....

These had no home before, and now they do so we can always find them! Such an improvement.

Interested in why anyone would need all these templates? Here is a sample set of kinetic sculpture instructions showing the template behind the sculpture. It is our technique for helping customers correctly location their sculpture.

And here is a video of the sculpture in motion.

White Water by David C. Roy

Previous Posts of Interest

• Organizing David - Part 1
• Organizing David • Part 2
• Organizing David • Part 3 • Rolling Storage
• Wood That Works
• Wood That works Photography
• Wood That Works Sign

© 2013 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

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Organizing David • Part 3 • Rolling Storage

We have done lots of different things to improve organization in David's workshop. Rolling carts are one thing that has made a huge difference in productivity for David. It all started with one short cart. He had mentioned sometime ago that it would help if he had a moving surface to roll along with him as he completed tasks on each of his sculptures.

A quick Amazon search yielded this very functional cart. He added the plywood top surface.

David set this up and moved the items he uses ALL THE TIME into it. That is now their permanent home and he spends much less time hunting for them. Also, he can wheel this collection to whatever part of the shop he is working in.  Side benefit - I can find things when I share his work space for my projects!

I have been buying a huge stock of Sterilite clip containers from our area Walmarts and we have been improving on the organization with these multi-sized containers. David added a grouping to his cart for additional organization.

I tell you, we probably should have purchased stock in Sterilite before we started this re-org. I keep going back to the store for more.

After the original short cart, David decided to try a tall cart for holding his parts in production. He went back on line and ordered this one. He was especially pleased with the quality and the large wheels.

This one also worked well. He found his shop was better organized as he stored his ongoing projects on rolling shelves. He rolled the pieces to the tools and started seeing savings in time. His flat surfaces were also less cluttered because pieces in progress weren't collecting there. Less time was wasted moving parts and clearing surfaces.

David now has 5 carts on wheels, the one short one and four matching tall ones. We design cart "parking spaces" in various locations around the studio.

Talk about organized! Huge improvement! (Note- more Sterilite containers.)

Previous Posts of Interest

• Organizing David - Part 1
• Organizing David • Part 2
• Wood That Works
• Wood That works Photography
• Wood That Works Sign

© 2013 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

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Organizing David • Part 2

This story started here with an overview of David's studio and the project we embarked upon together.

Because David needed to keep working while reorganization was under way, we selected our tasks based on areas of his studio not being used much by the current task at hand. We identified the back storage corner as the first area to tackle. We figured that organizing this space would help free up some center floor space to allow additional moves. The back corner had become a no man's land.

This corner is a storage area. David stores boxed sculptures, supplies for new sculptures, packing supplies and the generator in this corner.  Much of it is either very large or awkward in shape. I recommended building shelving units designed to fit boxes in two layers. The advantage of this would be easier access plus maximizing space. It always seemed we needed the box at the bottom of the pile in his original storage stack. With this plan, David has direct access to any box.

Once we laid out the space, we realized two layers of boxes would fit plus an added smaller shelf for odd items. This is a workshop so the shelving units were constructed simply out of 2x4s and plywood. The result is strong and functional.

David built two storage units in this corner. The back one includes a "garage" for our generator. The generator is wheeled outside when we have power outages (all too frequently!) and allows work to continue. Between uses it is stored inside and previously, all the air space above it was wasted space. With the new shelving system it now is accessible, customized storage.

The space was designed to fit the specific shapes of the things David needs to store - his boxed sculptures, the generator, and supplies. Anything leftover was considered a bonus, and occupied as we rearranged the rest of the shop.

He stocks a large variety of dowels, shafts and other rods.  Using PVC, we created organized storage for all of that paraphernalia. We separated it all, estimated maximum space required for when he purchases a new batch, and purchased a variety of PVC piping for the different volumes needed. End result is very organized and congregates a variety of different storage systems that had previously been scattered through out the shop into one clean, organized area.

This back corner was upgraded several months ago and the new arrangement is a huge improvement. We then moved on to workbench moving. I'll continue with other areas of the shop in future posts, so stop back frequently.

Previous Posts of Interest

• Organizing David - Part 1
• Wood That Works
• Wood That works Photography
• Wood That Works Sign

© 2013 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

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