Friday, February 4, 2011

A Nice Rack Is Hard to Find

We're talking garment racks here people!  Just in case the title had you wondering :)  Finding the right garment rack was not easy, but we did succeed!

As I was searching online for garment racks and prices for our spare room (check out the plan here), I  felt a little more encouraged about my idea.  I discovered that a couple other ladies like the look of garment racks to display their lovely pieces of clothing...

Emily at Cupcakes and Cashmere keeps one in her office
Rachel Ashwell uses them to display her vintage fashions (sorry for the blurry photo)


 And I just loved this image from Marley and Lockyer (awesome blog by the way, love their style) and had to show it, how gorgeous is this antique wood rack?  I also love the steamer trunk and hat box....hmmmm more ideas!!!!
Now back to the search...

I wanted to find a vintage or used industrial looking garment rack.  Turns out, those are pretty darn hard to find. I searched for a new industrial type rack and those ran between $200-$300, and are a little too 'sturdy' for our needs.  I realized I probably didn't need a real industrial rack, I just wanted the look.  So we set out to find the right rack.

The first rack I picked up was from Ikea called 'Rigga'. I should have known better, even Alex said, 'Bet it's going to be a piece of crap'. Piece of crap indeed, I only got about 1/3 of my hangers on there and it started to collapse...
"TIMBER"

We also got a tip from our blog friends over at At Home Alterations to check out a used store fixture store here in Minneapolis called Accent Store Fixtures. But sadly no luck, they only had 2 of the REALLY big industrial racks.

Then, on a random trip to Target I was walking through the storage aisles and found.... wait for it.... a Commercial Garment Rack!!! Who knew Target sold them? I should have just checked there first since I'm always at Target.  I am SUPER impressed with the quality of the rack!  It supports the excessive amount of weight I have to put on it, and the wheels glide perfectly and even have that industrial look.

The price? Only $59.99, LOVE IT!  The one thing I didn't love so much, the chromed metal, so I'm thinking that might need a little makeover. 
During my search I came across a really cute garment rack on Etsy from Pipe Designs. I loved the look, it wasn't totally huge and bulky, but still industrial looking and somewhat antique with the black metal.

So, I'm now on a mission to ditch the chrome on the rack from Target and use spray paint to give it a darker, more antiqued look.  Alex just brought home Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic Paint, I think he picked a winner.
We're going to paint tomorrow morning, I can't wait to show you how it turns out!

***Update- If you'd like to see how the rack turned out after painting click here***
***Also- Click here if you want to see how the Dressing Room turned out!***

9 comments:

  1. Funny that it was right there at Target the whole time! Tomorrow's a good day to spray paint, nice and "warm" for MN. Can't wait to see!

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  2. I am surprised your hubby didn't build a rack like the antique wooden 1 you showed it looked pretty simple....am getting excited to see the room all done....oh and i think a steamer trunk would be perfect in that room!!

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  3. Great way to add more storage. A little spray paint with make it fab as you want.

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  4. i love the look of the rolling rack! i had no idea that target had nice metal ones like that with wheels. so excited to see how this all comes together! :)

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  5. I've used Rustoleum's ORB before - it's beautiful. I'm sure your garment rack will look great.

    Thanks for stopping by yesterday - I am from Grand Rapids too! Small world. Hope you are having a great weekend.
    Alissa

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  6. I meant to comment on one of your older posts that I also have a vintage dress form (Seba's parents just happened to have one, don't ask me why) and I think I want to use it as a coat rack.

    And all these pictures are SO similar to the inspiration folder I have for my new apartment. I'm planning on doing an exposed closet with commercial looking garment rack (and lord only knows how hard these are going to be to find in Chile if it was hard for you to find in the U.S.). Though I don't want mine to look vintage, I like the cold steel look.

    But I just wanted to tell you, great minds think alike!

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  7. Check out my vintage industrial rack https://post.craigslist.org/manage/2836590497 Rare find, I'm pretty proud;)

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  9. loving the spray painting idea! moving into a new college apt in a few weeks and this will definitely be the first thing going up! great inspiration! thanks:)

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