A cup of coffee at 7pm is not an entirely wise idea. You could argue though that it sometimes leads to fun things, like this DIY Coffee Cup Rack!
That was the case the other night, an evening coffee lead me to being wide awake and ready to build something at 9pm. What better item to build than a coffee cup rack? This project was very simple and I was able to use some wood that I already had on hand. No special trips to the hardware store for anything.
The one I made measures 14″ across by 30″ long. You can definitely adjust the measurements to make it larger or even smaller to fit your space.
Supplies:
- 1 – 8′ 1×4 cut into the following lengths;
- 2 – 30″ lengths ripped to 2 1/2″ wide
- 1 – 37″ length ripped down the middle and cut into 3 – 12 1/2″ lengths
- 6 – 1 1/2″ wood screws
- Wood Glue
- Kreg Jig
- Drill & 1/4″ drill bit
- Stain in color of your choice
- 6 hooks of your choice
I laid my strips out to see where I wanted to place the cross pieces. The hooks I used were a farmhouse style hook & they overlapped the cross board quite a bit, so I had to make sure there was enough clearance from the bottom of the hanging mug to the top of the hook on the next board down. I measured my first cross piece to sit 2.5″ from the top of my sideboards and 1/2″ from the back so that they weren’t flush. The space between my cross pieces ended up being roughly 8.5″ from the bottom to the top of the next board.
Using the kreg jig, I drilled pocket holes on both ends of my 3 cross pieces. I added some wood glue on either end before screwing the cross pieces to the side pieces. A quick sand with a 400 grit sanding block and it was ready for some color.
I’m a big Rae Dunn mug fan. If you’re familiar with the style, you’ll know they are oversized compared to a regular coffee cup. Rather than just screwing some hooks in wherever, I layed the hooks and cups out to make sure that they wouldn’t be bouncing off each other once they were hanging.
I used a combination of Minwax’s Gel stain in both Coffee & Ebony to get the color I wanted. The Ebony helped the grain of the wood pop a little bit more. You can use whatever color of stain or paint you want in order to match your style and décor.
A couple of D ring hooks attached to the back on either side finished this piece off perfectly! The best part is that you can adjust the measurements to accommodate the wall space you have. This one holds 6 cups, but you could easily lengthen it to hold more. I would recommend finding a stud in the wall or using wall hangars, to hang it. Once the mugs are on the hooks, it gets pretty heavy.
I gotta say, I’m a fan. I love the way the wood grain pops with the addition of the ebony stain. The whole project only took me about 2 hours from start to finish, and was pretty simple once I figured out the dimensions I wanted!
Have you built anything fun lately?