Star-studded Accordion Hanging Rack

Well, the pipe's been repaired, the floors wet-vaced, the industrial sized blowers are blowing and the carpet is drying (see yesterday's post), so now I can get back to the business of blogging about something fun!

I think just about everyone has one of these wooden accordian hangers -- they're a staple of every college dorm room!  They're really useful, but not much to look at.  If you don't have one around the house, you can always find them at garage sales.

I wanted to use mine in the booth for hanging aprons and linens, but didn't want it to look so ordinary, so I glammed it up a bit!

 I took it apart and painted it  "Depression Glass" green.  Then I bought carriage bolts that were long enough to serve as pegs.  I needed to find something to use as a spacer so the stars on the end wouldn't go down to the base.  I finally ended up buying a piece of fish filter tubing that was easily cut to size and had a ID (inner diameter) large enough to go over the bolts.

 I topped each bolt with a mirror star and a closed end push nut.  Some of the nuts and mirror stars were vintage ones that I found in my dad's old hardware organizer and some were new ones.  These run about 85 cents for 2 nuts and the mirror stars are about 80 cents each -- they're both usually in the specialty drawers at the hardware store.

This was a very easy project with a big return because it looks great!  One word of advice, though -- don't forget (like I did) to slip the hangers back over the bolts before your attach everything, or you'll have to take it apart again!