I don't know about you, but I tend to get pretty fed up with winter right about now each year, along with all the extra mess it brings into our home. And by mess I mean hats, coats, shoes, boots, gloves, ear muffs, scarves...I think you get the idea. Unfortunately we don't have a designated "mudroom," so all throughout winter we have to look at the mess 24/7. And it drives. me. nuts. Seriously. So it seems like each year I try to get a bit more organized in the winter mess department.
I actually did set up a mudroom of sorts, but that's something I want to share with you separately on another day. Right now I just want to share with you my transformation of an ugly, old, black wooden coat rack. It's another testimony to what a coat of white paint can do to take something from blah to beautiful.
Here's what I had to start with. Old, black and bleh. I've always hated this thing, but for practical reasons we really need to have it out during the winter, since we have so many extra (and puffier) coats that need somewhere to call home. My husband owned it before we were married, so it's seen a lot of use and been through a lot of moves throughout it's 30-plus years of life. And it showed.



Pretty bad, huh? This year I agreed to bring it in from the garage and back into the house on one condition: that it be painted white first. So I got to work. First I sanded down any rough spots, and then I just slapped on two coats of white paint I had on hand. It was a freebie paint from Valspar called Great White Way. I purposely didn't use primer because I knew I'd be distressing it and I wanted the black to show through.

I'm super happy that the old, black, ugly coat rack has seemingly been replaced with a lighter, brighter version. All for the price of a little elbow grease.









Yes, I basically slapped the paint onto it. No muss, no fuss. I mean, we never want things to look too perfect, right? At least I don't. I want things to look loved and used.


This bottom part is always the place that gets scuffed up first, so I didn't distress it too much. I figure that's gonna happen naturally anyway over time.



There are hooks for eight separate hanging items, but it holds more if you double up on each hook.




So an old stand-by was given a simple face lift and I'm very please with the results. Frankly, I'm not sure why I didn't do this sooner! It looks so nice I think I might just have to leave this baby up through the spring!