Take me to the Steps
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If you are like me, you probably hate your standard tie hanger. Each tie overlaps the one under it, so the ties at the bottom are under a giant pile of other ties. On top of that the ones in the back are already nearly impossible to see! You thus find yourself every couple months finding a tie you never realized you had, and question why you hadn’t worn it before!

I officially had my fill of this and decided to take matters into my own hands and make a rack that would mount to the back wall of my closet, and allow me to easily see all of my ties at a glance, keep them from becoming cluttered, and hopefully, not take up a lot of space. I came up with this, a board with staggering pegs. This would allow me to have many ties in a small amount of space, thus making it efficient, keep them organized, and allow me to see them easily at a glance. I took the opportunity to make it interesting as well.

I used iron spikes as pegs and I put an awesome finish on the wood. I also added a shelf, partly for appearance, and also for use. All in all, I am extremely happy with how it came out. The whole project only took me a couple hours (plus time for polyurethane to dry).

(Thanks to Jimmy DiResta for this awesome style of finishing. It’s cheap, easy, and looks absolutely beautiful and unique.)

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Project Steps

Cut the Grooves

Take your 5/4 board and using your table saw or circular saw you will cut two grooves that are equidistant from each other and the sides of the board. On a standard 5/4×4 board, this would come out to each groove being 7/8″ away from each side.

You can find this measurement by taking the width of the board (3.5), dividing it by 2 (1.75), then dividing that number by 2 (0.875, or 7/8). This is the distance the groove will be from the side.

Lots of Measuring

I don’t show it in this order in the video, but I should. Before moving forward you need to see how many nails you have, and decide how many you want to use. An average box has 15-17 nails, I used 32. To determine where your nails will go, take the length of the board (48″) and divide it by the amount of nails you wish to use (48/32=1.5). Its this number that tells you the distance between each nail, in my case it was an inch and a half.

Now make marks where your nails will go, remembering to stagger the marks between each groove. This doesn’t need to be really specific, but it is important for the next step.

Drill Shelf Pilot Holes

Now drill some pilot holes for your shelf. I used three screws to attach mine. Use the marks you made previously to make sure that wherever you put a screw wouldn’t line up with a nail. Placement of the screws doesn’t need to be specific, just so that they go in between each nail.

Don’t attach the shelf just yet, there is more to be done before that.

Burn it!

Its now time for the funnest part of the entire project. Using a torch, burn the showing sides of the wood, then brush off the charred outer layer of wood using a steel wire brush. Whats left is the beautiful, carmel like color of the burnt wood beneath it.

Try experimenting with the length of time you hold the torch to different spots of the wood. Don’t worry about messing it up, you surprisingly can’t burn it too much and it can always be burned again if needed.

Attach the Shelf

After thoroughly wiping it off, attach the shelf with some 1.5″ wood screws. This part could be done after the nails are on, but must be done before the finish. Whether or not you choose to wait is up to you, but waiting makes it a bit easier to work with when hammering the nails in. I found this out the hard way.

Add the Nails

Now is the most tedious part of the build. Mark on the grooves where each nail will go, and hammer away! I found that instead of marking the whole thing, its easier to just lock your tape measure and measure as you go.

NOTE: If the nails don’t want to stay in nicely, just yank it, add a bead of hot glue, then replace the nail. I found this with a lot of my nails since they are really made for wood. However they don’t need to take a lot of weight so this works just fine.

Finish the Finish

If not already done, attach the shelf then add a couple coats of polyurethane to finish it off.

Hang It

Find your studs, and determine where to drill on the tie rack for some mounting screws. Drill the pilot holes in the space between the two grooves. You may need to yank a nail or two in order to drill the holes, just replace them after its hung.

Load it up!

Add your ties and admire with pride, as you have just completed the tie rack. No more fussing with a hanger, or losing ties indefinitely.

NOTE: Any measurements mentioned can be easily changed according to the desired length of your tie rack.

(I saw in the video that I accidentally wrote loaded…whoops)