Hooked

One of the neatest gifts my wife and I received for Christmas was from my in-laws in Montana.  They found a coat hook made by a local artist out of scraps of wood from around his studio.  We loved the design so much, we wanted to put it up right away but we couldn't seem to find a spot for it.  The only place we could really use a coat hook like this was in the mud room but we already had three well used hooks there.  So, instead of just one, I decided we need two more to replace the older ones.

I still had piles of scraps from the pallet chair project (see last post) and a lot in small sizes that would work perfectly for this.  I cut several small pieces in varying widths and took advantage of an old iron hook we hadn't used yet from Mint Tea.  I also had an old square nail that we found in our basement upon moving in and hadn't appropriated for something else.  For the outside border, I took some slats off of scrap lattice I had leftover from the front porch and they worked perfectly.

To finish, I sanded down the outside edges but left most of the rough-saw surfaces on the inner pieces rough to match the character of the original.  Since I was using pallet scraps that did not differ much in color, I used three different stains and a clear coat to simulate the variety of woods the original artist used and it didn't turn out too shabby.  With some counter-sunk holes and some drywall anchors, the hooks work great.

I wish I could say this was an original idea but the credit is due to Nick Mask of Six Fingers Studio who created the original piece and my wonderful in-laws who frequent Tart Gallery in Bozeman, MT.  Check out Nick's page for some more glimpses of the wonderful creations happening in the studio and check out Tart for an entire bounty of cool, local made art.  These aren't the type of things you'll find in the big box stores or, if you do, you can bet they were probably made on an assembly line somewhere with virgin materials and outsourced labor.  I strongly encourage you all to find your local Tarts and Six Finger Studios and support the local arts and crafts.