They wanted a "pole" type thing and wanted it to have as small of a footprint as possible to function well near their front door without hindering the entrance and hallway. This created a engineering problem. They had previously purchased the hangers (8 of them) from a catalog. Very nice, large brass hooks with porcelin toppings.

After our meeting I sat down with pencil and paper and sketched quite a few ideas. One continued to please me while all others were "OK" at best. With some drawings in hand we met again. They totally agreed. The one concept we setteled on was to "mimic" some of the style of the already completed buffet and mirror. The hat rack would be about twenty feet from the other pieces I made in the hall and visible while in the dining room where the buffet and mirror reside. The style of the buffet and mirror was in harmony with the book shelfs in the hall (that was the original need on that design), thus, coordinating the hat rack also was a good idea.

The design itself was to glue 4 pieces of the very beautiful kimberly pine wood together to make a pole. The feet would be four groupings of angled wood pieces with rounded edge treatment which matched the edge treatments of the buffet and mirror. I intended to make it 5 foot high for stability but the client wanted it 6 foot high so we made it 6 foot high. Worked out great. The feet with multiple depths of wood allowed for a smaller footprint area while still providing stability. I also suggested we bevel the upper edge of the pole - just a nice look and quality detail.

The construction went pretty well. No huge surprises or problems. The feet are attached to the pole by glueing them into the pole. All of the beautiful wood was meticulously sanded, stained and 4 coats of hand wiped poly satin finish were applied. Gorgeous!

Finally, it was time to add the hooks into the pole. The holes for the hooks were pre-determined and pre-drilled. Factory provided screws were discarded and I used longer brass screws for greater stability and longer life.

The piece was deliver and it was discovered how uneven the tile flooring was. Initially the clients were to purchase self adhesive pads to apply to the underside of the feet to level it. But, soon after delivery my method of adhering the feet gave out. I had used construction adhesive and it did not hold. The feet were re-done with wood glue and now solid. At that point, the client requested that I now add some leveling feet to the bottom. Good idea now that we found the floor was not level. The hardware was ordered and installed.