Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Easy DIY Mug Rack

make an urban industrial style mug rack

I am not always great at making things for myself, but today I decided I needed a mug rack at the end of my cupboards near my coffee station.



Easy DIY Mug Rack
I started with a piece of birch plywood that measured 11 1/4" x 26". At first I was going to run the board the entire length of the cupboard but decided that would be silly because there is no way we could reach mugs up as high as the cupboard goes and I am all about function. I used light colored wood because I wanted a more urban industrial feel. I plan to paint my cupboards soon, this dark, cherry wood color is too formal for me.
Easy DIY Mug Rack
I marked 3" in on each side of the wood and marked up from the bottom 5 1/2" apart. I wish I would have marked 6" apart because a few of my largest mugs are too big to hang from the pegs.
pre-drill holes to make sure holes are drilled in correct spot
I pre-drilled a hole at each mark so that the tip of my paddle bit would be in the exact right spot.
make a jig to drill holes at an angle

I made a jig to drill at an angle. It is not a perfect jig and I am sure it could be made in a better way, but it worked well for this project. I used a 2" x 2" board and cut a 45 degree angle on one end. It is hard to see the angle in this picture, but it is there. I drilled using an 11/16" bit perpendicularly to the angle.

I swore I took pictures of drilling the actual holes on the birchwood, but didn't find any. I placed the jig over the pre-drilled hole. The flat part of the jig rested on the birchboard. I then drilled the peg holes, placing the tip of the paddle bit in the pre-drilled hole.
use pegs to make an industrial style mug rack
I cute 5" 5/8 dowels, cutting a 45 degree angle on one end. I taped off the angled end and stuck the pegs in a cardboard box to spray paint the tops. I was going to paint the tops different colors, but decided I was going to be hanging colorful, eclectic  mugs so painted the ends grey instead.
Easy DIY Mug Rack
I placed the pegs in the holes. I decided to use hot glue instead of wood glue because I was impatient. 
Easy DIY Mug Rack
I hung the rack by drilling through the inside of the cupboard. It is very secure and near my coffee station (yes, we are still getting through the Christmas candy cane supply), and frees up a little cupboard space. 
Easy DIY Mug Rack
I like the casual, coffeehouse feel of the mug rack. You could change this up by using rustic barnwood, colorfully painted pallet wood, etc.

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how to make an easy DIY industrial urban style mug rack

1 comment:

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