apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Well, you want old, but if you can't find old, I think that Pottery Barn Teen sells new ones, in a bunch of colors, and I guess you could use some paint thinner on a rag and wipe them down lightly until some of the paint comes off, and then "chase" that with a rag wet with water to kind of make the process stop?

And/or you could spray some spray paint onto a rag and kind of wipe it onto parts of it, so it ends up looking like they had been re-painted and then that paint had been sand off or something.

http://www.anytimeproducts.com/meg/lockersindustrialtripletier.htm

These seem like crap containers to me. I like a nice long row of pegs on a wall or an old fashioned coat tree (that is flush against a wall, not free standing).

I agree that most coat racks are ugly, and in a really small apartment (mine is 450 sf and no hall or entryway, you walk right into the dining/living/kitchen) pegs with coats all over them really mess up the clean lines.

I'm still trying to decide what I want to do, but I was thinking about building a shallow coat cabinet in the spirit of lockers but with much cleaner lines. I know it would be shallow, but I wouldn't use hangers inside it but pegs, so 4-5 coats should smush in there. I live in Georgia so we don't have huge coats anyway. My mom even had the idea to finish the back as nice as the front so that in the summer I can put all the coats in there for storage, turn it around, and hang a piece of art on it.

Anna

Why turn it around. Why not design the front so you could hang a piece of art on it - or just turn the front into a piece of art.

If you go with your mom's option, I would put casters on it.

If you're not too proud to dumpster dive you might drive by the local schools/universities in your area. The University of Hawaii ROTC building has about three rows of those lockers (in various sizes) sitting by their dumpster right now.

I recommend Ebay. Obviously, although the shipping costs may be high, but then the lockers themselves will probably be selling for next to nothing, so you may wind up with a fair deal. These are in Michigan, a few hours away from you: Ebay item no. 7209501869.

I often see shiny chrome Art Deco or cast-iron Victorian coat racks on Ebay, and they look great empty. This one -- 7379539038 -- is not bad. Or what about this: 7380625269?

You could do a Shaker look and line the room with pegs. I recently saw this at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in KY. You can hang candles from the pegs as well. See one here: http://www.shakervillageky.org/. Take the virtual tour to see what I mean - nearly every wall is covered with a rail of pegs.

My last suggestion: what about those plastic, laser-cut wood, or lucite mounted deer heads I keep seeing (was it in last month's _Domino_)? They have a lot of ersatz charm, and you could do a row of three. Storage would be limited, but what a great look!

Best of luck,

Molly

Jill, these on that same site are quite cute. They do not have doors but they are a lot wider and they come in 21 colors. I could see one or two of these looking great. http://www.anytimeproducts.com/meg/stadium_lockers.htm

This is a bit off topic, but I found some great lockers a few blocks from my house this summer. They're in great condition and, with 20 small 1.5 by 1 foot lockers, are a perfect place to store our homebrew and linens. (a funny combo, beer and linens.)

However, they are an unattractive blue color. The PB Teen ones are colors, too, as Cutris points out. What is the best way to fully strip them? Curtis, does your method get all of the paint off? Do you strip them like wood? I'm looking for that brushed/scrubed metal a la Two Jakes.