Copper – DIY clothes rack from copper pipes

If you’re following me on Pinterest you may have predicted that this would be one of my next DIY projects.

I am doing a lot of redecorating, rearranging, re… in our appartment at the moment, especially in the bedroom and around my workspace. I guess some time soon I will be ready to show some pictures from my new desk and surrounding…

But first let’s have a glimpse into the bedroom which got – after the retro style dresser and an upholstered chair – a new piece of furniture: a clothes rack.

Of course you all know: copper is the new … whatever!

And pipes! I fell for everything made of pipes (steel or copper) from the first time I saw the first piece – especially for those minimalist industrial style clothes/coat racks.

After doing some research, I finally came to the opinion that this would be a really easy-peasy DIY project with an impressing outcome.

Perhaps it is … if you are a regular visitor to the hardware store. I am not. So I had to overcome a few obstacles, make daily visits to the hardware store until I finally could hang my first clothes on the rack.

First I learned that perhaps other hardware shop do cut the pipe into pieces for you – the two I visited didn’t. So now we’re proud owners of a metal saw. In the end the sawing wasn’t that big deal (besides a blister on my finger).

Second I had to find my way through various kinds of fittings. I never found out how the screw fittings should work. And all I could see on pictures of other copper pipe racks were normal fittings. So I bought them. I read that you only have to stick them together. I learned that this is not the case – that instead the’re meant to be fixed by brazing. Me? Brazing? – This was the point where I was so close to give up. … when I read (here) that it could indeed work what I had thought in my dilettantish way from the beginning: just glue the pieces together. Of course not with normal glue but epoxy adhesive (you get it at the hardware store as well). I was quite respectful and careful using this glue (having all those warning notices on the package) and I have to say that it smelled really horrible, but – and thats what counts in the end – the pipes hold!

The good thing: As soon as you got through it, you forget about all the trouble you’ve had. Now I just love it – the clothes rack I MADE!

Some words about dimensions: I adjusted the height of the rack to 1. the length of a regular shirt of him/my tunics and 2. to the pich of the roof of our bedroom. The final size therefore became 1 m x 1 m.

Instead of most racks I had seen I added a kind of ladder part – additionally to the simple rack that you can use with hangers.

The materials I needed

7 m copper pipe Ø 12 mm (you could also use Ø 15/18 mm)

copper fittings (6 x corner and 11 x T-shape, Ø 12 mm)

metal saw, sand paper, epoxy adhesive

To do:
Cut/Saw (or let cut) copper pipe into the following pieces:
5 x 40 cm, 2 x 60 cm, 1 x 95 cm, 2 x 5 cm, 10 x 20 cm, 2 x 31 cm [I know, that mathematically it should be 35 cm, but I found out that this is too long. It has something to to with the fittings]

[Make a test by sticking pipe pieces and fittings together without glue.]

Rough the ends of the pipe pieces with sand paper. Glue and stick pipe pieces and fittings together (Follow the istructions on the package). Let glue dry over night.

I know: You’ll say now: “That sounds easy!” – Yes, actually it is!

By the way: The checked tunic you can see on the rack is made from the Tova pattern. I sewed it quite a while ago (and two more in the meantime) and just missed the point to post it 😉 But I am wearing it so often! I really love it!